The Skinny September 2019 by The Skinny

.CO.UK

INDEPENDENT FREE

CULTURAL

J O U R N A L I S M

September 2019 Issue 168

The Student Guide Free inside, a 24 page introduction to life in your new city Film Joanna Hogg Lulu Wang Take One Action GYFF Music YACHT Jenny Hval Broken Chanter The Spook School Kaputt Clubs Violet AISHA Art Ashanti Harris Talk Art Doors Open Days Theatre The Panopticon Books Ra Page

SIGRID

oN BEING A CoLLEGE DRoPouT, WoRKING HARD AND STAYING GRouNDED

P.62 Talk Art

Photo: Francesca Allen Photo: Callum Bennetts

P.60 AISHA

P.32 Sigrid

Photo: Tiu Makkonen

P.11 The Farewell

September 2019

Issue 168, September 2019 ÂŠ Radge Media Ltd. Get in touch: E: hello@theskinny.co.uk T: 0131 467 4630 P: The Skinny, 1.9 1st Floor Tower, Techcube, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall Pl, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL The Skinny is Scotland's largest independent entertainment & listings magazine, and offers a wide range of advertising packages and affordable ways to promote your business. Get in touch to find out more.

E: sales@theskinny.co.uk All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the explicit permission of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the printer or the publisher.

Printed by DC Thomson & Co. Ltd, Dundee ABC verified Jan â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Dec 2018: 26,342

printed on 100% recycled paper

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

Rosamund West Adam Benmakhlouf Heather McDaid Nadia Younes Polly Glynn Nadia Younes Jamie Dunn Peter Simpson Katie Goh Tallah Brash Eliza Gearty Paul Mitchell

Production Production Manager Designer

Rachael Hood Fiona Hunter

Sales Sales Manager Sales Executives Online Digital Editor Online Journalist Web Developer Interns Bookkeeping & Accounts General Manager

Contents

Sandy Park George Sully David Hammond Peter Simpson Jamie Dunn Stuart Spencer Dylan Tuck Rachel Baker Aaron Tuveri Laurie Presswood

THE SKINNY

Contents 06 Chat & Opinion: It’s the September issue! But not in a Vogue way

08 Heads Up: August may be over, but things are still happening; find them here

FEATURES

A guide to local promoters by local promoters, and what to drink when you’re aff the booze

‘Print is dead’ so they say, but not us!

Blagging your way through a tutorial when you’ve not done the reading, and exploring Scotland’s great outdoors

With part two already shot, Joanna Hogg introduces us to her latest film, The Souvenir

We meet Lulu Wang at Sundance London to discuss her family dramedy The Farewell

Irregular gigs for irregular people; or just people who don’t want to see Kyle Falconer for the 100th time

Save the planet by shopping plastic-free, and where to grab a vintage clothing haul

Take One Action is back! We speak to opening film Push's director, Fredrik Gertten, and look at more highlights

Food waste is a worse contributor to climate change in Scotland than plastic, so here’s what you can do to reduce wastage

LA-based trio YACHT breakdown the use of AI on their latest album, Chain Tripping

50 But, fresh-faced students, you may find

Norwegian musician, writer and all round genius Jenny Hval tells us about The Practice of Love

Ashanti Harris discusses her artistic practice ahead of a new exhibition, Solo Show, at Transmission

20 Comma Press explore stories of upris-

ing in their new Resist anthology; editor Ra Page and its contributors tell us more

Debbie Hannan and the team at Platform discuss adapting Jenni Fagan’s novel The Panopticon for Eastern Promise

uni isn’t for you and our Music Editor tells you why that’s fine

REVIEW

Music: We chat to Broken Chanter, The Spook School and Kaputt. Plus, the latest album releases and some live gigs you shouldn’t miss

Clubs: The First Lady of Lisbon’s blossoming electronic scene, Violet, discusses her many projects; we meet Glasgow’s AISHA; and all your clubbing highlights for September

Books: Poetry news and book reviews, including The Art of Dying by Ambrose Parry and The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy

Art: Talk Art take a tour of the Edinburgh Art Festival with our help. Plus art reviews and news

Film & TV: Reviews of films and TV shows to watch and stream, including Night Hunter and Mindhunter. Plus GYFF’s Young Programmers guide us through this year's programme

Theatre/Art: September’s theatre highlights, plus an introduction to Doors Open Days 2019

Comedy: Planet Caramel catch up on kids TV sketch show Sorry, I've Got No Head in this month’s ICYMI

Listings! A thorough guide to September’s events

Local Heroes: Local Heroes meets five practitioners exhibiting at Design Exhibition Scotland

LIFESTYLE

Food and Drink: Our annual food survey returns, and we fill you in on some of the best venues for student foodies

Intersections: How much pressure does freelancing take on your mental health? And how not to rinse your skint pals

STUDENT GUIDE

We begin our new-look student supplement with an in-depth profile on our September cover star and pop sensation Sigrid

How to make music and not piss off your flatmates, and a list of bands who formed at Scottish unis

Where to enjoy an alternative night out in Scotland, and how not to spend a fortune on said night out

September 2019

Contents

Editorial ormal’ life resumes in September, as we leave behind heatwaves and enormous performing arts festivals while mourning the death of our veneer of democracy. Students return or arrive in Scotland’s cities, and we mark the occasion with our annual Student Guide. This year we’ve changed the format a little – after over a decade of producing a separate A5 publication to introduce students to their new homes and also our magazine, someone (it was Peter) came up with the world-changing idea of introducing new readers to our magazine with something in the same format as the magazine. It’s an idea mind-blowing in both simplicity and effectiveness, I’m sure you’ll agree. That’s why this year you will find a 24-page student supplement in our centre pages, and also available as a standalone in all good student venues. It opens with an interview with Sigrid (as seen on our cover) who is, it turns out, a self-proclaimed college dropout. This fits with a broader narrative we’d like to support within the supplement – going to university might be vital and world changing and essential to your life path, or it might not. There might be another route that suits you better, and we’d like you to be supported to follow that. Our music editor Tallah shares a little of her own career development at the conclusion of the supplement, demonstrating the breadth of options that exist beyond the university gates. In the middle we offer a wide array of essential information for actual students, ranging from first-hand advice on making music in your halls to detailed guides to shopping sustainably for food and clothing, via some thoughts on how to survive a tutorial if you haven’t done the reading. We talk to a few of the promoters running the best student nights in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and take a survey of some of the other print magazines you might be interested in reading in your new homes. Our aim, as always, is to share some expert knowledge and a warm welcome to the new arrivals. Autumn also marks an explosion of specialist film festivals in Scotland, more on

which in next month’s film special. We ease into it this month with Take One Action, the activism-led film festival returning with opener Push, an investigation into the global housing crisis. We also meet Joanna Hogg to learn about her latest, deeply personal memory piece, The Souvenir. Fans of This American Life may already be familiar with the story behind Lulu Wang’s The Farewell – we meet the filmmaker to hear more about this exploration of family and the potential power of ignorance. In Music, we talk to LA’s YACHT about using AI on their new album Chain Tripping. We also have words with Norwegian musician and writer Jenny Hval to discuss love, pop and dance music ahead of the release of her new album The Practice of Love. Kid Canaveral’s David MacGregor introduces his new folktinged solo venture Broken Chanter, whose eponymous debut is infused with the wild beauty of the Highlands where it was conceived. After eight years, the much-loved The Spook School are calling it quits with one final blowout gig, and they kindly gifted us their final interview. At the other end of the band life cycle, Glasgow’s KAPUTT mark their debut Carnage Hall with a chat about Judy Garland and Todd Rundgren. Art talks to Ashanti Harris, whose multistranded creative practice engaging with history, race and identity is rightly celebrated this month with a Transmission solo exhibition. Local Heroes mark this year’s Design Exhibition Scotland by highlighting a few of the practitioners exploring the ways in which functional objects enhance the way we live our lives. In Theatre, Jenni Fagan’s The Panopticon is being presented on stage as part of Platform’s Eastern Promise – the team there share some insight into the adaptation and programme as a whole. Finally, and all too pertinently given the current climate, we meet editor Ra Page to learn more about new anthology Resist, exploring stories of uprising through history to the present day. Essential reading for September 2019. [Rosamund West]

COVER ARTIST Katie Smith Katie Smith is an illustrator and designer based in Glasgow. She recently graduated in HND Illustration at City of Glasgow College, and starts Communication Design at Glasgow School of Art this month. Find her on Instagram: @_katiesmith_illustration_

Online Only

Days of the Bagnold Summer by Simon Bird

John Waters on his new book and Polyester re-release Ahead of the UK release of his latest book, we talk to The Pope of Trash about his filmmaking legacy, and being recognised more for the likes of Alvin and the Chipmunks than his transgressive directorial efforts “It's weird,” says Waters, “children come over to me in airports because of the Chipmunks movie and ask me to pick them up. 'I can’t pick you up, I’d look like a child molester!'”

By Jock Mooney

Read the full interview at theskinny.co.uk/film

Chat

Comedy Lives On, Online Got the post-Fringe blues and itching for your next comedy fix? Why not try… *checks notes* THE INTERNET?!? We look at the stand-up options available on the likes of Netflix and NextUp

Photo: Locarno Festival

‘N

Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival One of the UK’s most adventurous moving image festivals enters its 15th year trailing a constellation of lush cine-poetry, sensorial encounters with the natural world and a nocturnal lullaby from Lav Diaz Get all the details at theskinny.co.uk/festivals

Highlights of the 72nd Locarno Film Festival This year's edition of the Swiss festival was delivered under the leadership of new artistic director Lili Hinstin, with world premieres of new films from Pedro Costa and Simon Bird, alongside career awards for the likes of Song Kang-ho Find out more at theskinny.co.uk/film

Read more at theskinny.co.uk/comedy

Find more at theskinny.co.uk

THE SKINNY

Shot of the Month Bossy Love, Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow, 9 Aug by Paul Storr

Community Circles This month’s columnist explores how LGBTQ+ communities and spaces change during transitioning Words: Moss Pepe

bout five years ago I came across a zine called something like Dead Clubs of London. The concept was simple: a black and white A-Z of all the LGBTQ+ venues that had closed down since the early 2000s. A small picture of the venue, a little blurb about the type of place it was – a graveyard of my (lesbian) youth. Fast-forward a bit and I come out as trans. A whole host of spaces that were once available to me are suddenly closed off: can’t go here, don’t fit its demographic any more; can’t go there, that’s asking to be misgendered. Some places just became unsafe. I now had my own personal list of dead spaces to go along with my deadname. The first year of transition was the hardest, partly because this loss of physical spaces translated into a loss of community. I felt completely alienated from the life I’d led before, kicked out of the essentially separatist circles I’d grown up in. Recently, I went to a workshop with artist and performer Travis Alabanza, where they brought up the idea that sometimes a room where everyone is supposedly the same as you can make you feel the most alone. Trans-centred spaces are few and far

September 2019

between, often underfunded, infrequent, led by a handful of exceptional individuals. A lone club night, a meet-up every two months, a weekly activity that closes down as quickly as it started up. Essentially, precarious. My perception of community needed to change. I left London and its graveyard associations and moved to Edinburgh, started from scratch. I joined an intergenerational LGBT choir, a queer basketball team, started volunteering. Now, community just means people with similar goals. These bonds don’t have to come from much, it can be as small a commonality as playing the same sport for 45 minutes, living on the same street, working the same shitty job. It took being excluded for me to realise how important it is to form mixed communities, to be aware of who isn’t in the room with you, and to ask why. The most homogenous groups are frequently the most fragile, the most policing, the most anxious about respectability. At first, transition made me feel incurably isolated, but as time passes I realise it’s taught me to seek commonality, to imagine ‘community’ beyond separatism, and to feel a little bit less alone through it all.

The Skinny on Tour G’day! This month we’re travelling in both time and space, as we present an archive edition of The Skinny on Tour from the start of the year. Still, we went halfway around the world to get this photo, so we may as well get some use out of it. In terms of clues, they don’t come much bigger or more obvious than our reading companions, who only really hang around in this

part of the world. Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security; these furry critters could comfortably box your head off if they tried. Luckily, we were able to placate them with some high-quality journalism. Solved the puzzle? Hop on over to theskinny.co.uk/ competitions and let us know where we’ve been; one lucky sleuth will win a copy of The Art of Dying by Ambrose Parry, courtesy of the good eggs over at Canongate.

Chat

If you thought things were going to calm down in September, think again as there are plenty of cultural happenings this month to cure your post-Fringe blues

Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival, Turner Prize nominee James Richards brings his multisensory art installation to the City Observatory at the top of Calton Hill. Richards uses a six-channel electro-acoustic score to exploit the complex architecture of the observatory, and to explore the capacity for sound to transform spaces into experiences.

James Richards, Migratory Motor Complex, six-channel audio installation, 2017

How Not to Drown

Blooms with a View, Govanhill Baths

Doors Open Days Various venues across Scotland After rinsing your pockets during the Fringe, September welcomes Doors Open Days, a festival that celebrates Scottish heritage by making thousands of venues across the country free throughout the month. From historical sites to museums and manor houses, Doors Open Days is a fantastic opportunity to see some Scottish culture without having to spend all your pennies.

Photo: Harper Scott

Celebrating the humour and cinematic skill that goes into this underappreciated genre, Summerhall’s Kung Fu Film Festival includes screenings of classics, such as Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon and multi-award winner Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Each ticket even comes with a free martial arts lesson for full immersion in the genre.

Take One Action's annual festival comprises of a series of screenings, talks and workshops across Edinburgh and Glasgow over a week and a half. This year's festival will open with Push, Fredrik Gertten’s documentary on the global housing crisis, and close with Sorry We Missed You, the latest film from Ken Loach.

Sorry We Missed You

Solaris Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 12 Sep5 Oct, times vary

Chat

If you were one of the unfortunate individuals in the two hour online queue to bag tickets for Fleabag in person then do not fear, the magic of NT Live is here. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s one-woman feminist sensation will be screened nationwide this month and on stage, expect it to be as scathing as ever. But sadly this is (allegedly) the end of the road for the Fringeborn character.

Take One Action Various venues across Scotland, 18-29 Sep

Kung Fu Film Festival Summerhall, Edinburgh, 16-22 Sep

Alberta Whittle: How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth DCA, Dundee, until 24 Nov

Pixies

Photo: David Packard

In her first major UK solo exhibition, Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle smashes notions of patriarchy and misogyny in this interdisciplinary collection of work. Her use of film, sculpture and print aims to undercut the domination of privileged white men in the documentation of history. The exhibition will be immersive, encouraging audiences to engage with the work to incite mutual empathy and understanding.

Solaris

Photo: Zan Wimberley

Pixies Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 23 Sep, 7pm Tickets sold out for both of Pixies' Scottish shows in approximately three seconds, but if you’re one of the lucky ones to get tickets you’re in for a treat. 30 years after Doolittle and in the wake of a new album, the legendary band stop in Edinburgh and Glasgow the night before on their UK tour. Keep an eye out for resale tickets if you’re still holding out hope of going.

Alberta Whittle, between a whisper and a cry, film still 2019

THE SKINNY

Photo: Alberta Whittle

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic

NT Live: Fleabag Various venues across Scotland, 12 Sep, 7.30pm

Photo: Courtesy of the artist

Samson Young, Muted Situation #22 Muted Tchaikovsky's 5th, 2018 , Video and 12 channels sound installation, 45 mins

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Photo: Jason Hetherington

After a successful run at the Traverse during the Fringe, award-winning company ThickSkin bring their new work, How Not to Drown, to the more intimate space at Glasgow’s Tron. This touching and pertinent work tells the story of Dritan, a young boy seeking asylum after the Kosovan War. Expect stunning visuals and a heart-wrenching script from this topical new play.

Samson Young is a multi-disciplinary artist from Hong Kong, combining music with photography to produce unique installations with virtual instruments. Real Music is his first major UK exhibition, working in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh’s cutting edge Generation Sound Synthesis research group.

The Flaming Lips

How Not to Drown Tron Theatre, Glasgow, 11-14 Sep, 7.45pm

Samson Young: Real Music Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, until 5 Oct

Renowned Scottish playwright David Greig will be premiering his new play Solaris this month. Inspired by Stanisław Lem’s novel of the same name, this futuristic tale narrates the story of Kris, a psychologist newly arrived on a space station. Kris's colleagues become haunted by some unknown entity as the team descends into delusions of madness and grandeur.

To mark the 20th anniversary of their seminal album The Soft Bulletin, The Flaming Lips are embarking on a UK tour and will be bringing their upbeat and ethereal sounds to Usher Hall this month. While their image has changed a lot over their four decade career, The Flaming Lips' commitment to weird and wonderful sounds is what keeps the band’s cult following going.

Photo: Ryan Johnston

Compiled by: Rachel Baker and Nadia Younes

The Flaming Lips Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 5 Sep, 7pm

Photo: Mark Blower; Courtesy of Wales in Venice

Heads Up

James Richards: Migratory Motor Complex Collective, Edinburgh, until 13 Oct

Set against the idyllic backdrop of Portree, Skye Live is a festival that’s quaint but full of character. Headliners include ceilidh electronica fusion band Niteworks, performing on home turf, alongside DJ sets from the likes of Leon Vynehall and Auntie Flo. What better way to finish off your summer than with a boogie on one of Scotland’s most picturesque isles at this incredibly unique festival.

In light of BoJo's recent ascension, what could be better than standing up for the need for more female politicians in parliament. Scotland’s Women Stand is a movement that aims to empower more women to stand for office in the UK, and this month they take their fight straight to the Scottish Parliament for a day of discussion, talks and networking.

Clueless

In this line-up of indie, feminist cinema, the CCA present Suitable Women, a one day festival of films that explore female friendships through the ages, and pass the Bechdel Test with flying colours. The bill includes 90s classics Clueless and Muriel's Wedding, as well as the more recent Fort Tilden.

Scotland's Women Stand

Freakender The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, 13-15 Sep

Combining a series of free workshops with a programme of films selected by a panel of budding young filmmakers, Glasgow Youth Film Festival celebrates the importance of young people in the industry while enabling more to get involved. The line-up includes a Late Night screening of 80s classic Heathers and Fantastic Mr Fox in the Family Gala. Great Grog Beer Fair

Great Grog Beer Fair St Peter's Church Hall, Edinburgh, 14 Sep, 1pm Summer may be fading but the beer festivals go on. Great Grog will be hosting a Bottled Beer Bonanza where you can try 90 different bottled beers for a tenner, meet the brewers, and hold on to that summer beer garden feeling a little bit longer. Head over for a taste of some of the best hops in Scotland.

Heathers

Photo: Tom Baxter

Glasgow Youth Film Festival Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow, 13-15 Sep

With a shared passion for the live music scene in Glasgow, Freakender is the love child of Glasgow promoters El Rancho, Eyes Wide Open and Fuzzkill Records. Now in its fourth year, this eclectic festival of garage, psych, rock and pop presents an international lineup, including American indie rock quartet Acid Dad and Glasgow-based Alex Rex, plus local rising star Romeo Taylor. Romeo Taylor

Belhaven 300th Birthday Bash Belhaven Brewery, Dunbar, 21-22 Sep

Scottish Ballet: The Crucible Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 25-28 Sep, 7.30pm Never before has Arthur Miller’s classic The Crucible been interpreted through dance, and so Helen Pickett’s adaptation of the play with Scottish Ballet promises to be a unique experience. The infamous text depicts a snippet of the Salem witch trials of 1692, and was initially an allegory for the similar vilification of communism in the 50s and 60s, but the play’s social commentary still holds relevance half a century after it was written.

Fancy a gin in the mountains? Or afternoon tea with Prosecco and a view? Aviemore’s Big Mix Festival brings the finest food, drink and entertainment of the region to one jampacked weekend of indulgence and merriment. The line-up includes a variety of tastings and gourmet lunches during the day, followed by gigs and more drinking in the evening.

Niteworks

Photo: Callum Woodbridge

Aviemore Big Mix Festival Aviemore Village Green, Aviemore, 20-22 Sep

They/Them/ Their Launch Lighthouse, Edinburgh, 26 Sep, 7.30pm Edinburgh’s radical bookshop Lighthouse will be launching their in-house writer Eris Young’s debut book this month. They/Them/ Their: A Guide to Nonbinary and Genderqueer Identities explores everything from relationships to mental and physical health. At the event, there will be a talk from Young with the opportunity to ask questions and get a discussion going around the book’s themes.

Belhaven have been brewing their famous ale for 300 years now, and to celebrate they’re throwing the most Scottish birthday bash you could possibly imagine. Headliners include Scottish contemporary folk bands Breabach and Capercaillie, and busy bunch Niteworks. And, of course, there will be Belhaven in abundance. What better way to celebrate three centuries of the longest surviving brewery in Scotland.

JAMES ACASTER COLD LASAGNE HATE MYSELF 1999 O2 Academy, Glasgow, 29 Sep, 7pm One of the UK’s most significant comedians hits the road this September with new material. James Acaster is a Fringe favourite, having been nominated five times for the Best Show award, and returns to Scotland this month for one night in Glasgow. The new show will be as outrageous as ever, with less nostalgia and more regret for the most trendy decade of the moment.

Eris Young

James Acaster

Chat

Photo: Edward Moore

The Crucible

Photo: Jane Hobson

Self Esteem

Photo: Charlotte Patmore

Aviemore Big Mix Festival

Photo: Laura Shand

A showcase of Scottish music of all calibres, Aberdeen Performing Arts' True North music festival takes place over four days with workshops and shows for all ages. In the morning, attend family club Mini Manoeuvres, and in the evening catch gigs from the likes of The Twilight Sad and Self Esteem. There’s no excuse not to get involved when there’ll be a raving opportunity for your kids as well.

Photo: Ed Smith

True North Various venues, Aberdeen, 19-22 Sep

September 2019

Photo: Stephanie Gibson

Auntie Flo

Photo: Flavien Prioreau

Suitable Women: Films of Female Friendship CCA, Glasgow, 7 Sep, times vary

Credit: Moira Zahra

Scotland's Women Stand Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, 7 Sep, 9am

Skye Live Portree, Isle of Skye, 5-7 Sep

Portrait of an Artist Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir takes us back to her formative years as a student filmmaker and the Earth-shattering relationship she had with an older man. Fresh from filming The Souvenir Part II, Hogg tells us more about this deeply personal memory piece

alking to Joanna Hogg about The Souvenir is an unusual experience. For most viewers, this film will feel like a singular and perfectly crafted gem, charting a young woman’s growth through a troubled relationship with an older man, but for the director it’s only half the story. She hasn’t looked at The Souvenir since she finished it and her thoughts are currently dominated by the second instalment, the filming of which has ended just before we meet. “I was actually going to preface our meeting by saying that I feel completely emptied out after shooting the second part,” she admits. “Now there’s a little bit of confusion between part one and part two, because I’ve been completely immersed in part two and I have to try and remember what part one is and what I wanted to do with that, and how to talk about these two separate things. For me, it’s all part of one piece of work.” Hogg’s struggle to recall her film is ironic given that The Souvenir is a deeply personal memory piece. Drawn directly from experiences Hogg had as a film student in the 1980s, the film has been constructed from scenes that have the kind of specificity and precision that can only come from lived experience, but the overall shape of the film is elliptical and elusive, like snapshots of a past life. “It’s interesting, because I didn’t set out for it to be those snapshots, and I thought maybe this film would be less elliptical, because I’m aware of that with the other films. This was my attempt to tell more of a conventional narrative but I guess it’s hard for me to do that,” Hogg says. “When you talk about the precision in one sense but the fragmented nature in another, I suppose it’s just the nature of the way I work and what I’m searching for. The way I work seems very open and

allows a lot of things to come in, but that has to be very tightly controlled, so it’s a mixture of extreme control on the one hand and letting things go. The result is something between those things.” The filmmaking methods employed by Joanna Hogg have evolved over the course of her four features into something audacious and unique. After many years spent working in television, she began her debut feature Unrelated (2007) with a conventional 100-page script, which she gradually departed from as they shot, and since then she has learned to trust improvisation, instinct and spontaneity, more so with every film she has made. She no longer writes a screenplay for her films, instead compiling a document that looks more like a scrapbook with story details, descriptions and photographs, and she is careful about how much of this she shares with each member of her cast. On set, Hogg likes to create a situation and let the actors explore and discover it, capturing their immediate reactions on film with no rehearsals or even a screen test beforehand. When we see Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) meet Anthony (Tom Burke) in The Souvenir, we’re actually witnessing the first time the two leads had been face-to-face. Hogg has always liked casting non-professional actors, but in Swinton Byrne (the daughter of the director’s lifelong friend Tilda Swinton, who also plays her onscreen mother) she has taken her boldest gamble, asking this young woman who had never acted before to give a nuanced, emotionally complex performance capable of carrying two films. Swinton Byrne was thrown in at the deep end, being cast just two weeks before shooting began and given little time to prepare. “I did show her some of my diaries from the time,” Hogg

Interview: Philip Concannon

explains. “I didn’t show her so many letters but I showed her some materials so she could get an idea of who this young woman is at this point in her life. I didn’t want her to know anything about the relationship because that was going to happen during the filming, when she was going to meet him [Burke] – in fact, she didn’t even know it was a film about a relationship. She knew it was about a young film student and I just wanted her to have an idea of the projects and the impetus of a filmmaker and photographer. It was the creative and artistic side I wanted her to inhabit.” Swinton Byrne’s performance is a marvel – alert, vulnerable, authentic – and by casting her opposite a more experienced actor who was given much more time to develop his character, Hogg created a power dynamic that serves the central relationship. Burke has a distinctive and magnetic screen presence – Hogg says he reminds her a little of a young Orson Welles – and she worked closely with him for months to create a characterisation that was simultaneously precise and enigmatic. “I cast him quite early on and I gave him a lot of materials to use as foundation for the character, so he had voice recordings of the person he was playing, letters, photographs,” she says. “He’s an incredibly intelligent actor, and from these materials he was able to build a picture of someone that in the end was spookily close to the person I knew. It was a wonderful thing to meet Tom and spend that time with him in the lead-up to the shoot, because often I’ll cast quite late in the day and won’t have that opportunity, but it seemed so right with this character that he was carefully constructed. The real person was very carefully constructed, in a way, and it needed that time and energy and focus.”

While The Souvenir has been crafted with all of the rigour, elegance and intelligence that we’ve come to expect from Joanna Hogg, admirers of her films will detect some key aesthetic differences here. For one thing, she shot it primarily on 16mm, making it the first of her features to be shot on celluloid, and that had a big impact on how she worked. “It changed a lot because I can’t have such long takes,” she says. “I really liked having that discipline, actually. I liked having something telling me that a take could only be so long, the economy of it, how many rolls of film we were getting through. I found it very exciting, having those limits.” The Souvenir is also much more varied visually than her earlier work, which often relied on static frames and long takes. In this film she uses intimate close-ups and unexpected angles to potent effect. “With those three previous films, I felt there was a pattern emerging that I consciously wanted to break and confuse and destroy. I feel like I’m pushing that even more in the second part, in terms of where to put the camera and how to shoot scenes. I’m trying to move the camera around a bit more too.”

“The way I work seems very open and allows a lot of things to come in, but that has to be very tightly controlled”

Photo: Simone Falso; Courtesy of Curzon

Joanna Hogg

Feature

FILM

Although she had always envisioned The Souvenir as a two-part story, Hogg didn’t plan on making them as two separate productions. The practicalities of funding an independent production on this scale dictated the schedule, but she has a way of turning limitations and setbacks to her advantage. “I didn’t want to have a break and certainly not a break of two years, but we just weren’t able to get the commitment and raise the money for shooting two at the same time,” she says. “I think in the end it’s probably a good thing, actually, because I had much more time to construct part two. At first I thought what a shame to lose momentum, but there are certain ideas that I hadn’t come up with then that I’m really pleased I got a chance to do.” Hogg won’t be drawn on when we might see The Souvenir Part II; her editing process is a long and painstaking one. But when it does arrive we can rest assured that – like all of Joanna Hogg’s films – it will surely be something to remember. The Souvenir is out now via Curzon Artificial Eye

THE SKINNY

Keeping Mum Lulu Wang, indie rising star and director of The Farewell, talks about her personal journey behind the scenes of the film

ulu Wang is having a hell of a year. At Sundance in Utah, she debuted her sophomore film, The Farewell, to rapturous acclaim. At Sundance London, the film won the Audience Award (quite right, too). And when The Farewell opened in the US, under the prestigious A24 distribution banner, it had one of the highest opening weekend theatre averages of all time – almost $90,000 per theatre. Yet, for all the buzz surrounding this breakthrough talent, the film for which she has been anointed a bright new star in the indie world is remarkably low-key and deeply personal. A retelling of Wang’s own experiences, it stars Awkwafina as Billi, a ChineseAmerican whose family is coming together in China for a wedding. But it is actually a ruse. The matriarch of the family, Nai Nai, has terminal lung cancer and has not been informed of her diagnosis. The wedding is an excuse for the family to see her again without alerting her to her illness until it can’t be hidden anymore. At Sundance London, The Skinny met up with Wang to get deeper into the making of the movie. The Skinny: Just to begin, how much of the film is autobiographical? Lulu Wang: I think the plot is where it’s the least loyal to the facts. Where I really stand true to what happened are the emotions, the dynamics between family members, and in the experience of it. Are those family members all based on real people? Yeah, they are. Because there’s such a charming specificity to them all, was it challenging extracting those details from real life and putting them onscreen so that it works both as a film and

September 2019

Interview: Thomas Atkinson

is true to life? It was definitely challenging because you can’t ever really capture somebody in their full experience. There’s just not enough time with that many characters, so I did have to distil them down to what was essential and what was important for the movie. For example, my father was a diplomat in the Soviet Union and speaks fluent Russian. Both he and the actor who played him [Tzi Ma] really wanted to put that in the movie. But there’s just no place for it. A movie is like a web and you have to figure out where the centre is. You try as much as you can to spread that web and go as wide as you can, but there are limitations. And that’s also what makes a film beautiful: you keep it focused. I’m not doing a biopic, you know? Zhao Shuzhen is incredible, and according to IMDb, she has no previous screen credits. Where did you find her? Well, IMDb, as far as I know, is a very Western thing. She’s actually very established in China. She’s a very well-known soap opera actress, and she’s been on television a lot. I had been casting actresses to play that role for a while. We were in parks scouting non-actors all over the city, trying to talk to strangers, until I saw some of Zhao’s work. Immediately I knew she was the one. There was just a universality to her warmth and the way that she looked that I knew would be iconic. I needed somebody who felt like an iconic grandmother. I had to actually beg her. I called her and begged her to do the movie, because she gets so many offers and gets paid so much money that it’s difficult to afford her. So I almost cried into the phone and said, “I’ve been looking for months and you’re the one. You have to do this.” And she finally agreed. In real life, she’s so much sweeter than the character so I really had to direct her to let go of the sweetness. I was like, “You’re sweet enough,” but I wanted

to bring out the bossiness of the matriarch that my grandmother is. It seems like Nai Nai represents the last ties that Billi has to China. Is that a feeling you were trying to get at in the film? Absolutely, because whenever she goes back to China, it’s always her grandmother who gets everyone together. She’s the lynchpin of the family. I very much wanted to explore my own feelings of what it’s like when you lose that matriarch. Will the family still stay together?

“A movie is like a web and you have to figure out where the centre is” Lulu Wang

She’s so sweet but she also calls Billi “stupid child”, in a way that still felt aﬀectionate, somehow. I think that is a pretty essential element of her, the fact that she is this very strong-willed woman. The film is an exploration of all of these strong women, who are strong in their own ways and have conflicts with each other. But I think the fact that she’s so bossy was important to the story because it’s one of the last times Billi may see her be able to be bossy. As she gets ill, and she doesn’t know it yet, the last thing she would want to lose is her ability to be who she is, her identity as the boss. So I needed her to not be this passive grandma. There are lots of scenes that feel as though you’ve strategically placed your cameras,

FILM

then let the actors do their thing and found the sequences in the edit. Was that multi-camera or was it single-camera? None of it was multi-camera. It was pretty much all single. In fact, everything was very carefully blocked. We didn’t have a lot of coverage for a lot of scenes, which we did as a one-er [a single take]. We figured out the blocking in the frame, we would rehearse and we would just do as many takes as it took – sometimes 11, 12, 13 takes – to get everything right. We wanted to have the mise-en-scene of the family and present the way that multiple things are happening in the scene. Everything is happening within the frame and the audience gets to choose what they focus on. If you focus on something in the foreground, you may get really sad, but if you focus on something in the background you might find it funny. So the sequence with Billi’s family in the restaurant where there are three people in the frame at a time, those were all one-ers cut together? Yes. With that scene, we knew we don’t have the time to cover everyone individually, so you have to do three. But we also wanted to have overlap. So, basically, we set the table, we had everybody sit, we put the camera down, and we’d run it. Then we’d say, “Shift, go again, shift, go again,” and just went around the table. And you also had to think food continuity, because you’re always seeing the rotating table, with the food in the foreground. So, it was the most difficult scene to edit. Has Nai Nai seen the film? She has not seen the film yet. Is it all still a secret? Yes! The Farewell is released 20 Sep by Entertainment Films

Feature

THE SKINNY

Push

Rent Out of Shape This year’s Take One Action opens with timely doc Push, which takes a compelling deep dive into global housing issues. We speak to Push’s director, Fredrik Gertten, who explains that the current crisis is much more complex than rampant gentrification

he housing market is fucked, and it’s nothing to do with millennials’ predilection for avocado toast. That’s the resounding message of Fredrik Gertten’s fleet-footed documentary Push, which takes a global overview of the crisis in housing, with stops in Chile, Canada, Germany, Spain and Seoul as well as here in the UK. Speaking to us down the phone from his home in Malmö, Sweden, Gertten tells us he’s long been interested in the urban environment. “As a print journalist, when I had a column in a daily here in Malmö, I was writing about the architecture of cities from a citizen’s perspective. Then as a filmmaker, one of my previous films was called Bikes vs Cars, which was about city planning, or how the car lobby took over our cities and turned them into something less pleasant. So I see the housing crisis as another step in the same research.” Push is a bit more personal. “It’s been a story all my life,” he says of the housing market. “I still live in a city-owned rental, and I’ve been feeling like a loser a long time because all my friends, they’ve bought apartments and, on paper, are getting richer and richer all the time. There’s been a generation who’ve had an advantage when it comes to housing, and that is over now for sure.” He was very aware of the problem in

Sweden, but for Push he wanted the bigger picture. “To really understand this crisis you need to look for the global pattern,” he says, “because if you tried to talk about housing politics in the UK, for example, you’ll end up with a lot of history of social housing and the history of this and the history of that; you get a lot of details and it gets complicated. But if you go for what is happening at the same time in many other places, we can zoom out from the local political games and perhaps find a new understanding.” Gertten called on many housing experts to contribute to the film, although one Canadian lawyer, Leilani Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, quickly became central. “I found Leilani on Twitter and I followed her and her work for maybe half a year.” After meeting Farha IRL while she visited London, Gertten realised he’d found his film’s hero. “I thought she had an energy that could be good to have in the film, but once I met her I realised she was more than an expert, she’s actually somebody you can spend time with.” Farha’s journey to convince governments around the globe that housing is a human right became the backbone of the film. She also became Gertten’s sounding board and collaborator as he tried to pin down Push’s structure. “I’m not an academic, so I kinda

need to understand things step-by-step and give myself new questions.” Over Twitter and WhatsApp, the pair would share news stories and articles. “It was always the simple questions: What is this? What is happening here? How should we understand this?” What were some of those stories? “All the empty houses in London, for example, were an obvious story,” he says. Gertten is referring to the 22,481 long-term vacant properties in the UK capital, most of which are owned by Russian oligarchs and faceless investment corporations. In Push, we meet Occupy Belgravia, a group of squatters who are occupying a £25 million house. “I mean, it’s just a few blocks away from Buckingham Palace for God’s sake. It’s just a shitty house, nobody’s been living there for 20 years, it’s just this empty shell, but that’s suddenly worth a lot of money. Of course, on the surface, from our normal citizens’ perspective, it looks like it’s bad business for the investors, but it’s obviously not. I wanted to know the cause of that.” The film at times feels like a thriller. Blackstone, a shady private equity multinational based in New York but with tendrils in most major cities across North America and Europe, emerges as the film’s chief antagonist, while Farha is the plucky hero trying to uncover the corruption. “When you make a

Interview: Jamie Dunn film, your biggest challenge is to make your audience stay within the film, to actually sit and watch it, so you need to use the narrative tools that already exist,” he says. “For me, Leilani was like a private detective figure maybe. And that’s also her true dynamic. She’s actually out there investigating and trying to understand companies like Blackstone.” One thing Gertten hopes will emerge from Push is a more sophisticated way of thinking about and discussing the housing crisis. “We need to create a new language to talk about it,” he suggests. “We can’t keep talking about gentrification; we can’t just point fingers against the hipsters. It’s not only silly, it’s also creating a divided society, which is not real, it’s a fake divide because I think also the traditional landlords are suffering because of these multinationals.” He also hopes there’s a glimmer of hope. “If you’re a very pessimistic person, you’ll leave the film totally depressed. But if you still believe in change, and still believe that we can do things, then there’s hope in the end.” Push opens Take One Action on 18 Sep and runs 18-29 Sep at various venues in Edinburgh and Glasgow takeoneaction.org.uk

Youth Fight Back In this year’s Take One Action Film Festival, young people are leading the way Words: Jamie Dunn

rippling student debts, exorbitant rents, record youth unemployment, a pitiless gig economy, a right-wing government voted in by their parents, freedom of movement crushed by a looming Brexit and a global climate emergency happening before their eyes – it’s no wonder young people feel burned out. This year’s Take One Action programme, however, suggests Gen Y and Z aren’t taking these obstacles lying down. Many of this year’s films allow you to see life from the point-of-view of young people on the margins. Take Tiny Souls, from PalestinianJordanian director Dina Naser, which offers a child’s-eye-view of the refugee crisis from the

September 2019

Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan by following the lives of a trio of young refugees over four years. In Anbessa, Mo Scarpelli takes a more dream-like approach in her portrait of a ten-year-old Ethiopian boy, examining how his emotional state compares to the stark political and economic realities reshaping Ethiopia. Even younger are the protagonists of Reetta Huhtanen’s Gods of Molenbeek, which follows two six-year-old best pals from Belgium’s poverty-afflicted Molenbeek district as they muse on myriad topics, from Thor’s hammer to religious dogma to their place in the universe. Several films in Take One Action’s progra-

Tiny Souls

mme are concerned with the escalating climate crisis and highlight the role youth activism plays in pushing the climate agenda forward. In Grit, for example, a young woman finds her voice as an activist when her community is devastated by a fracking disaster. Inventing Tomorrow, meanwhile, follows passionate teenage science students from around the world who are coming up with inventive solutions to

FILM

myriad environmental threats. The powerful Scheme Birds, from Swedish duo Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin, concerns the life of young people much closer to home. Like the best of the films in Take One Action, this lyrical portrait of the turbulent life of a teenage girl from Motherwell is unflinching in its honesty and heartbreaking in its compassion. takeoneaction.org.uk

Feature

The Deep End LA-based trio YACHT talk about using machine learning technology to produce their latest album Chain Tripping, and why we still need humans in the loop

“W

e’ve always liked making work that has a deep end and a shallow end, and that’s kind of our entire band,” one third of YACHT, Claire L. Evans, tells us over the phone from her home in LA, which she shares with her partner and bandmate Jona Bechtolt. “You can dip a toe in on the shallow end and it’s just party music, then you swim all the way to the deep end and it’s just so weird... there’s 17 years of just the weirdest stuff for you to chew through, and that’s our great joy.” This statement couldn’t be more true of YACHT, a band who, over the years, have made a name for themselves for bringing together the worlds of music and technology, at times to polarising effect.

“We’re in an interesting moment right now where people and automated systems can work together to create things that are greater than the sum of their parts”

back to them to produce the album’s tracks. “We had this massive volume of data that we were working with and then we were… picking through the volume and trying to find interesting moments,” says Evans. “It’s not something where you put information in and get information out, and then use it as is. We’re not at a point in the technology where that is feasible or aesthetically interesting at all; there really have to be the humans in the loop.” Bechtolt adds: “So it’s just like getting sheet music; we got all this sheet music back and then we had to decide what music went with which instrument, so if there was a bass line or a guitar line or a vocal melody. And then we performed those and recorded all of those performances – and that’s how we got through the composition part of it.” Next they had the lyrical process to contend with. This involved a collaboration with creative technologist, hacker, data scientist and poet Ross Goodwin, who counts working at Google and as a former Obama administration ghostwriter among his many credentials. Goodwin built the band an algorithmic model trained on their back

Interview: Nadia Younes

catalogue, as well as their musical influences, in order to “replicate the stew of influence and experience that we would normally dig deeper into,” says Evans. And the collaborations didn’t stop there either, with the band bringing on numerous creatives specialising in AI to assist on other elements of the album. Artist in residence at Google Arts & Culture Mario Klingemann was brought in to produce the band’s photographs, New Zealand-based AI artist Tom White made the album’s artwork, and they worked on various other elements, such as typography and music videos, with the likes of Allison Parrish, Barney McCann and Counterpoint’s Samuel Diggins and Tero Parviainen. “Basically every component of an album that can have an interesting AI or machine learning component, we tried to identify our favourite creative practitioner in that field,” says Evans. “I think that’s kind of a really nice thing about art and technology is that it sort of requires collaboration between people… And that, for us, is also a big part of the process, and the project, and a big part of the joy of working in this way is not as much what

Claire L. Evans

Over the course of their 17-year career, the trio, completed by longtime collaborator Rob Kieswetter, have delved into the worlds of perfumes, apparel, apps and sculptures, but for their seventh album, they delve deeper into the technological world than they ever have before. In order to create Chain Tripping, the band filtered their entire back catalogue of 82 songs through machine learning software – an application of artificial intelligence – and used the midi-data that was fed

it produces but the kind of connections and conversations that we can have.” Through the band’s extensive research and multiple collaborations, they were also made aware of the NSynth – an ongoing experiment by Google’s Magenta team, whose primary research revolves around exploring how machine learning can be used as a tool in the creative process. “When we first started playing around with it, we thought it was kind of a joke,” says Evans. “And then we kind of fell in love with it because we realised that it was this sort of high-tech, lo-fi object and that is exactly who we are, and it’s exactly what we’re doing.” Bechtolt adds: “It was sold to us as this insanely complex process… under the hood it’s really impressive, but – the output at first – we were like ‘shouldn’t this sound more futuristic if so much money and time is going into it?’ But then we realised that we could bend it to our will and make it part of our arsenal.” Unlike many other musical projects that have explored the use of AI technology recently though, Chain Tripping is perhaps the least likely to be described as experimental. There’s still the same distinct YACHT sound across the record, and these are still very much pop songs despite all the various complex technological elements that went into them. “We wanted to make songs that were undeniably YACHT songs; that sounded like us, but maybe a little bit off or a little bit weird,” says Bechtolt. Evans adds: “We’re at this point in machine learning where technology is really mind-blowingly sophisticated and requires a huge amount of computing power but, at the same time, you can’t just press a button and make a song; it’s not possible yet… We’re in an interesting moment right now where people and automated systems can work together to create things that are greater than the sum of their parts.” The world of AI and machine learning technology is undeniably overwhelming, and no matter how much information you absorb, there is always so much more to learn. But with albums like Chain Tripping using AI to produce art that is accessible and palatable to an average audience, you can dive in at the deep end and still manage to swim. Chain Tripping is out now via DFA

Photo: Jaclyn Campanaro and Mario Klingemann

teamyacht.com

Feature

MUSIC

THE SKINNY

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Aberdeen International Comedy Festival Didn’t get to the Fringe? Have no fear! The Aberdeen International Comedy Festival is the place to be this October ow in its fourth year, the Aberdeen International Comedy Festival is more popular than ever, with some of the headline shows already sold out. Its line-up is truly international and features a number of comedians that stormed the Fringe this year, so comedy fans will need to act quick to get a dose of funny this October. Encompassing leading Scottish comics like Bathgate-born Fern Brady alongside Malawian in the UK and Britain’s Got Talent runner-up Daliso Chaponda, there’s a huge range of talent from well-known stars to household names in waiting.

As well as more international acts, this year the festival aims to showcase a huge number of groundbreaking comedy gals, ranging from Taskmaster-winning Lou Sanders to hugely popular Sofie Hagen. Running from 3-13 October 2019, there really is something for everyone’s comedy tastes in the Granite City. Also, as all the shows are based in the city centre, you’re never more than a 10 minute walk from the next five-star show. One of the most striking venues of the Festival, the Tivoli Theatre, will be hosting the

Sofie Hagen The Bumswing: Winner of Best Comedy Poster (Audience Award) at Edinburgh Fringe 2019

September 2019

Photo: Matt Crockett

Words: Polly Glynn likes of Scottish comedy stalwart Janey Godley, all round TV entertainer Count Arthur Strong and Radio 4 regular John Finnemore. Aberdeen is also the best place to see both award winning and Fringe fan favourites such as Irish queen of comedy Catherine Bohart, musical comedian and storyteller Vikki Stone, Hal Cruttenden’s five star show Chubster and Irish comedy rapper Abandoman. A strong Scottish line-up boasts the likes of Gary Meikle (direct from an extended USA run) and rising stars Stephen Buchanan and Christopher MacArthur-Boyd. The Aberdeen International Comedy Festival 2019 also sees landmark shows from New York-based Desiree Burch, 80s comedy legend Ben Elton (we’ll forgive you for We Will Rock You), returning to stand-up after 15 years away from the stage, and one of Paul Sinha’s first outings of Hazy Little Thing Called Love. The comedian and TV quiz master’s new show works in material about his recent diagnosis with Parkinson’s, as well as the build up to marrying his fiancé Oliver. Speaking recently to Society, Aberdeen’s online lifestyle guide, Sinha said “I can’t wallow in self-pity. I just have to move on and moving on means quizzing and performing comedy – the two things I love and want to do as much as possible.” Also new for this year, the festival is teaming up with charity Mental Health Aberdeen, helping reinforce the age-old saying that laughter truly is the best medicine. The

organisation, which was founded in 1950, is one of the oldest charities in the UK whose key mission is helping people with mental health issues. It helps provide advocacy and counselling to those that need it most. Ashley Storrie, Lou Sanders, Glasgow’s critically acclaimed Scott Gibson and local lad Wray Thomson are acts whose shows consider the lighter side of anxiety, stress, depression and mental health issues. As comedians become the rock and roll stars of culture once more, it’s an important narrative to thrust in front of the public, and will perhaps start some much needed conversation on the topic. The festival has really blossomed from humble beginnings when it started in 2016 – this year sees over 40 shows being performed in more than 20 venues across the city. The 11 day festival is something comedy fanatics UK-wide should be marking on their calendars immediately. Aberdeen International Comedy Festival, 3-13 Oct aberdeencomedyfestival.com

Feature

THE SKINNY

Best Practice Norwegian musician and writer Jenny Hval talks about love, pop and dance music ahead of the release of her new album The Practice of Love

Interview: Tony Inglis

enny Hval is probably writing, sitting on some secluded northern fjord, a place where the sun never seems to set. Jenny Hval is probably ruminating upon one of humanity’s most puzzled over concepts, and finding a pathway to understanding it. Jenny Hval is probably dousing her audience in fake blood. The Norwegian musician, writer, artist, thinker, experimentalist, has such an aura of mystique and headiness that it’s preposterous to imagine her in any mundane situation. But, Jenny Hval is actually on the other end of the phone... “in a sort of cafeteria on the posh side of London. I’m really just looking at a lot of cardboard boxes.” Hearing her voice without being in her physical presence conjures these images because Hval’s music can rarely be put down to simply chords and rhymes. Her records are treatises filled with meticulously hypothesised lines of argument, and close concentration by listeners when engaged with them facilitates immense understanding of her ideas. At the same time, her music is sonically textured and enjoyable, and never intellectually isolating or ponderous. The grand themes she has dwelled on across a string of releases – sex, gender, the body and, on her last EP, a deliberation on the delivery of art through technology and the nature of listening – may be labelled highfalutin by careless bystanders, but they are always put across with a lavish helping of humour and accessibility. “I think I’ve always been making pop music,” says Hval on perceptions of her music. “Although I’ve not always been very comfortable admitting it. I don’t understand this ‘experimental’ label, but I don’t really understand labels in general. I think that’s what it’s like for artists with their own stuff – it’s so much in our heads that it doesn’t always fit with what other people think. But I’m okay with whatever people call it.”

“When you hear music you really love, you just understand in a way. It’s not like you could have written it, but it was somehow meant for you” Jenny Hval

A fair proportion of avant-garde-leaning artists flirting with mainstream acceptance have at some point had what some may describe as their ‘pop moment’. If Hval is to have such a breakthrough, her new record The Practice of Love may be it, which is more than a little bemusing considering that opening

September 2019

Photo: Lasse Marhaug

track Lions includes a voice dauntingly intoning ‘Where is God?’ The reason is that, on this record, Hval couches her musings in breakbeats and synths, Balearic dance, trashy trance and fitfully uncool throwback flourishes like house sax. When she isn’t employing hypnotic ambience to back recorded conversations about childlessness and semantics, The Practice of Love could soundtrack a rave or Renton’s move to London in Trainspotting. It’s a commanding stylistic decision, one that has already caused critics to react with befuddled enjoyment, almost lashing out at just how easy it is to get into. For Hval, someone who has dabbled in so-called ‘low’ forms of art in order to convey her ideas previously – as she did on 2016’s Blood Bitch when talking about menstruation via inspiration from low-budget vampire flicks – it makes complete sense. “I am very fascinated by all sorts of outsider culture,” she says. “Mainstream dance music is something I grew up with seeing as a little dirty. The people who liked it the most were people who I didn’t see myself as similar to. I mean, I really loved the music too, but it shifted fast as I was growing up. I’m very fascinated with stuff that critics have called ‘low’ forms of art and that’s maybe to do with seeing myself as someone who didn’t really feel very comfortable in the stereotypes of how you were supposed to be. “But on this album, I’ve moved my focus. I’ve tried not to place myself and my artistic identity in one type of art and rather tried to broaden things, combining something I found trashy growing up... with the big themes. I find there’s something beautiful in that combination.” In the end though, the music is just a vessel for those “big themes”, and on this

record it’s the grandest of them all: love. Not romantic comedy love though. “That kind of love is something that you’re meant to achieve in a specific way and then once you’re married the credits come up,” she says, through laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of it. “You know, this very kind of reductionist and stereotypical personal narrative. Love is supposed to be a success story. And usually the heterosexual successful creation of a relationship. The rest of the complexity just doesn’t exist at all. “I’m not tackling that here. It’s much more of a broader scope of what love as an emotion or a concept can be, even as a writing practice – love as communication, as longing for other people, as belonging.” Hval expounds generously on her thesis. She admits that it took her a while to work up to tackling love in her work, even as some of her previous records have leant up against it and are as, if not more, weighty. “I realised I was getting older and had placed myself outside a lot of things. I wanted to look at what I avoided, and why, as a writer. It was like ‘how can I do this, this is something everyone else is doing, can I go there?’” Bringing her work on this to life are the voices of friends and artists Vivian Wang, Laura Jean Englert and Félicia Atkinson. They can be heard on the title track as two recordings overlap. Wang talks about the Norwegian for ‘love’, a Matryoshka doll of a word containing another, ‘honesty’, and how that affects your understanding of the original word, and a conversation with Englert about the role of women in society who don’t have children as “people who don’t do what most people do, and what that means for figuring out who you are.” Throughout the record, voices pan in and out. It immediately strikes as her most collaborative work.

MUSIC

Naturally with Hval, not everything is as it seems. “Well this album I see as quite a lonesome construct,” she says. Hval wrote and produced the album virtually by herself, intuitively on her computer and without much input from long-time collaborator Lasse Marhaug. Even the other voices were usually recorded over great distances. “People were sending stuff to me and then just allowing me to use their voices to do whatever I wanted. I was very amazed and grateful for how much trust they had in me.” That was important, she says, after writing a new novel, Girls Against God (due in November 2020), that also brings together voices, but in an angrier way. Her work with these three women, she feels, is more peaceful. “I felt an umbilical connection with them. When I listen to what they do, I feel like I’m already in conversation, already giving something back. And these invisible traces are magical because they don’t really exist. But at the same time, there’s some kind of residue of communication that doesn’t maybe go anywhere, but it’s more felt. I’m sure a lot of people can relate to that. When you hear music you really love, you just understand in a way. It’s not like you could have written it, but it was somehow meant for you.” She seems almost in a trance, before snapping out: “It’s very banal.” For the professorial artist that she can be, she seemed to almost choke on this hackneyed, emotional language. But, she returns to it: “Those things are very important for us. That’s one of the many purposes of music, to create these moments of communication.” The Practice of Love is released on 13 Sep via Sacred Bones Records jennyhval.com

Feature

Justice to Joy We meet Ashanti Harris to discuss her multi-stranded visual arts practice uncovering everyday black history ahead of her solo show in Transmission this month

he scene for our conversation with Ashanti Harris is CCA’s Sonic Seance: The Gathering, work created by a team of nine of which Harris is part. Harris simultaneously has a show on at Civic Room – we’ll touch on the resonance between the two sites of work throughout, providing a primer for Harris’s largest exhibition to date. This month she will reveal her show as 2019’s Scottish solo artist at Transmission Gallery, opening on 20 September. Active across different roles and collaborations, how does Harris begin to describe her various occupations and interests? “These days I describe myself as a sculptor – which surprises people – a sculptor, a visual artist, and I say ‘I sometimes teach dance, sometimes teach in general, sometimes facilitate things, sometimes perform, sometimes make performances.’ Generally, in all areas of all of those things, I do a lot of research.” For the CCA show, Harris led reading groups and one particular text by Audre Lorde formed the basis of the conversations therein – The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action where the phrase ‘your silence will not protect you’ originates. Harris describes the text, that it comes as Lorde finds out she has breast cancer and realises what she regrets most are the times she has silenced herself. “We’ve thought a lot about the reasons you silence yourself in the reading groups such as the idea that you will cause pain either for yourself or for other people. I love this line [Lorde] has – ‘pain either stops or changes into a different type of pain, but death is the final silence’. Ultimately you’re going to be silenced anyway so why silence yourself by worrying about the pain you might cause?” For Harris, reading Lorde with the group was a kind of séance of Lorde’s voice and all the influences that are collected into the text. For Second Site, an exhibition with performances in the Civic Room’s curatorial series Of Lovely Tyrants and Invisible Women, Harris turned to “a group of women from Guyana who were called Free Coloured Women and they or their children or their letters ended up in Scotland, so in some way have a presence here. I took these women as a starting point and built stories about them by filling in the gaps between the pieces of written evidence. For example they came to Scotland age 12; they went to school; they won an award for penmanship; they went to London; became a single mum; their daughter nursed them; they died; they have a grave in Rosemarkie. It’s just life, but when you think of it as the life of a black woman in the 19th century in the Highlands of Scotland it becomes a really different thing. The context changes it. It’s always a funny thing

when you tell people about the research, everyone asks what did they do, what did they achieve, what did they produce for us? They existed. For some people knowing of that existence is the most incredibly powerful thing given the wider circumstances.”

“Let’s also hear about all of the ways people survived, whether that be small survival or massive survival” Ashanti Harris

The Civic Room itself is an old building and charged with colonial history. Inside, Harris’s soundscape includes readings of her stories as well as To a Dead Slave by Guyanese poet Martin Carter. The ‘dead slave’ in the poem, Harris tells us, is Quamina Gladstone celebrated in The Co-operative Republic of Guyana today for his role in the slave rebellion of 1823. Quamina was a source of inspiration during the decolonial independence movement. From the back wall of the gallery a wax-print fabric cascades downward in a parabolic curve. Several flat memory foam cushions covered with a second wax-print pattern are arranged on the floor. On the

lefthand wall, cast brass plaques, with the names of the Guyanese women from Harris’s research, stand solid and indelible. There is a palpable sense that Susanne Kerr, Elizabeth Junor, Doll Thomas and Elizabeth Swain Bannister should not be forgotten. Second Site also includes a performance devised in collaboration with fellow members of Yon Afro Collective who also take on roles as performers. “We started by having conversations about our relationship to dance, movement and our bodies,” says Harris. “Through those conversations, really different relationships to occupying space, dance and movement came out – some people do it all the time, some only in clubs, and some are afraid to do it in clubs. I facilitated some sensory movement exercises which are about switching off everything you know and listening to your body. There’s a powerful thing that happens when you move with your eyes closed. You’re confidently vulnerable... The score is an open structure which is enacted in a way unique to each performer.” After the opening section when performers breathe deeply or lie on the cushions, they rise and begin to seek out the boundaries of the room. This part of the performance recalls Harris’s musings on being silent. How would a state manage to cast a spell of silence over an entire population? It would take away language, history and culture. It would deny education and healthcare. It would exhaust its population through precarious work. Yet as illustrated by the joyous outbreak of Nina Simone’s voice from the recording of a raucous live performance, no such suppression can last. Six o’clock has come and gone at the CCA. The roof blinds suddenly screech open to allow the plants in Sonic Seance: The Gathering to get some summer sun. As we

pack up to leave, Harris shares some final stories from her research into the Demerara rebellion which featured the hero Quamina. “Some slaves stole muskets and put all the plantation owners and overseers in the stocks,” she says. “These enslaved women line up, and one by one slap the owner across the face. It’s such a small thing but it’s also massive – the fact they slap and don’t kill him.” For Harris, these are significant moments in black history and are integral punctuation in narratives of suffering. “Let’s also hear about all of the ways people survived, whether that be small survival or massive survival – it doesn’t always have to be ‘What did you do, what did you contribute, what did you achieve?’ Another small resistance I loved hearing about, by some nameless women, was in Barbados. The women who worked on the shore where the boats came in carrying new overseers are recorded to have sung a song which went ‘New Buckra come, Buckra get sick, Buckra die, Buckra die’. Buckra is the name used for a white person.” Buckra comes from the word ‘mbakara’, which means European master and is derived from the West African languages Ibibio and Efik. Through slavery it traveled to the U.S.A. and the Caribbean, and is found in the word ‘buckaroo’. “Singing that song doesn’t change their position, or slavery,” explains Harris. “But when you live in a constant state of fear, that little song you sing when this new overseer is landing has power. When I tell people they laugh their heads off! It’s important not to forget the horrific stuff but it’s more important to remember all of that strength and all of those everyday resistances, and that being black history.” Solo Show opens in Transmission, Glasgow, 20 Sep

Second Site, Ashanti Harris, 2019. Group shot of performers Libby Odai, Natasha Ruwona, Adebusola Ramsay

Feature

ART

THE SKINNY

Photo: Sekai Machache

Interview: Danny Pagarani

doorsopendays.org.uk @doorsopendaysscotland @DoorsOpenDays @dodscotland

S EPT 2019 CELEBRATING

30 YEARS OF

OPENING DOORS IN

SCOTL AND

Join us through September for FREE access to events & venues across the country

September 2019

Stories of Uprising Comma Press have explored stories of protest in a number of anthologies and their newest, Resist, explores stories of uprising through history to the present day. The Skinny talks to editor Ra Page and a number of contributors about resistance

Interview: Heather McDaid

esistance is key. From anti-gun rallies in the US, to the March of Return demos in Palestine, protest fills the streets and narratives world over, fighting for accountability and change. This is core for Comma Press, who explore stories of uprising through history in their new Resist anthology. So, why resistance as a theme? “We’re all fucked, aren’t we?” says the book’s editor Ra Page. “The point of this book, in hindsight, is to look at how we got here. We’ve been systematically taught to distrust history, research, evidence, data, even science, and instead to just follow our basic instincts, our ability to connect with, or be charmed, flattered, entertained by a ‘personality’. Distrust is good. Distrust is what all research does; it asks a series of untrusting questions. Now we distrust that process, and prefer to just go with our gut. “Resistance, as a subject, is vital for understanding the present. It shows the ‘now’ as both connected to, and indistinguishable from the ‘then’. On Comma’s podcast, the crowd scientist Stephen Reicher talked recently about the role time plays in how we sympathise with acts of resistance. For instance, if a riot is sufficiently long ago, we forgive the rioters, sympathise with them even. The Brixton and Toxteth riots of the early 80s, that’s now fairly understandable. Notting Hill (‘58). Cable Street (‘36). We’re 100% on the side of the law breakers. Go all the way back to Peterloo, and the protestors are practically saints. “But if it happened more recently, like 2011, or God forbid today, then in no uncertain terms everyone is unanimous: these are criminals. But back in 1819, the protestors were just criminals and insurgents too. In a couple of decades, we’ll be allowed to view events sympathetically too. But not now, not yet. Not while the context that caused it is still effectively our context.” Resist aims to connect personal explorations with the reality of their respective situations, pairing each fiction writer with an expert or academic to present the facts to sit in its proper context. The afterwords allow the authors the freedom to concentrate on the story and their research, yet it brings together a greater understanding of the significance and surroundings of each uprising. Context is the key takeaway Page hopes readers take from the collection. This context is offered across centuries. Eley Williams’ story responds to the ‘Rebecca Riots’, a series of events in 19th century rural Wales. Rebeccaism was a movement ‘generated by the social and economic changes of the 1840s in Wales, exacerbated by dissatisfaction with a remote and neglectful political establishment’. “A visually striking element of these events centres on the fact that many protestors of all genders dressed as women and assumed the shared identity of a fictional ‘Rebecca’,” explains Williams, referring to the anonymous figurehead of the movement. “Blurring lines between identification, anonymity, assumed binaries and the use of shared iconography – the success of Rebecca and her advocates was a piece of British history I felt was underrepresented or

Feature

Credit: Dave Eckersall

commemorated in the public imagination. It was marvellous to work with historian Rhian E. Jones to address the facts and fictions of the Riots and draw upon contemporary accounts of their timeline and context.”

“We’ve been systematically taught to distrust history, research, evidence, data, even science, and instead to just follow our basic instincts” Ra Page

Another act of resistance featured from history is that of Caroline Norton. “When Ra first approached me, he sent a long list of protest movements throughout history,” begins Lucy Caldwell. “The one that caught my eye was the story of Caroline Norton and her one-woman battle to change child custody law in the mid-19th century, after her abusive husband took her own children away from her. I knew next to nothing about her, but I had that frisson of recognition – that hairs-risingon-the-back-of-the-neck moment.

“Over the summer of 2018, the news was breaking worldwide of the children of asylum seekers and refugees at the US border being taken from their parents, often forcibly. It was hard not to feel utter despair and a sick sort of helplessness at the devastating footage and personal testimony, much of it circulated on social media. Yet at the same time, there was something in the bravery of those attempting to expose and to fight and to change things that made me think of Caroline Norton, of her struggles to fight iniquity and apathy, and she, or her spirit, began to feel very live to me. “The present day political strand was essential, both in bringing her to life and in questioning what it means or might mean to successfully resist oppression and tyranny today. It can be too easy to feel insignificant, inconsequential, or helpless in the face of raging and institutionally-sanctioned injustices – and Caroline’s one-woman battle, fought purely with words, which succeeded in changing the course of history, is a salutary lesson and inspiration to us all.” Nikita Lalwani’s story begins simply: Parsley, cream, potatoes. However, it explores the protests surrounding the death of Mark Duggan, who was shot and killed by police in Tottenham, taking place at the start of what became the 2011 England Riots. Working with her academic partner and accessing transcripts from those in the riots was impactful; hearing those voices released something in her. “I allowed myself to imagine that dark tussle of opinion into a domestic space, build the ramifications for a fictional family in Tottenham at the time, one where the disagreement over the protest threatens the foundations of the home they have built together.” The breadth of the book spans centuries and shows the strength of resisting comes in

BOOKS

many forms. But what does the notion mean to contributors? “There’s something active and passive about the feel of the word,” notes Lalwani. “Both at the same time – which makes it feel very solid. You’re standing in a doorway staying firm while something or someone hurls itself against you.” “To ‘resist’ to me means to keep remembering to question, to not take for granted,” adds Caldwell. “To stay alert to the insidious daily elisions and abuses of language. To try to become aware of my own unconscious biases. It’s a wiser person than me who first said that being progressive means constantly progressing.” Williams notes: “[To me, resistance is] a refusal to accept conditions that are meted-out or assumed on your behalf. Resistance is not the same as refusal or inertia... “This volume from Comma Press revels that it can involve acts of great bravery, creativity and sacrifice.” And that’s what makes Resist such a brilliant and important book. It’s historic and new, it reflects while questioning the current day, it offers a fictional exploration and a grounded real world context. It weaves a common thread through history while giving each story its own individual focus. Page sums it up perfectly in his own definition of resistance. “True resistance these days is saying, ‘No, I’m not going to skim across the surface of this story, or let someone else do the skimming for me: I’m going to immerse myself in the context as far as I can.’ The willingness to re-contextualise ourselves out of our little bubble and into someone else’s reality is the single most radical thing any of us can do.” Resist is available from Comma Press commapress.co.uk/books/resist-stories-of-uprising/

THE SKINNY

“Fresh, Vital and Urgent” We speak to the team at Platform and director Debbie Hannan about upcoming show, The Panopticon

fter an intense summer of crowded cities, Fringe madness and painfully unpredictable weather, Scottish theatre kicks off its autumn and winter programmes. On the evenings of Friday 4 and Saturday 5 October, Platform in Easterhouse, Glasgow will host its ninth Eastern Promise festival. A multi-arts festival of live music, performance and visual art, this year’s line-up includes the preview for National Theatre of Scotland’s The Panopticon, innovative folk music from Burd Ellen, and Erased Tapes pianist Lubomyr Melnyk. It looks to be an intimate and carefully-curated weekend of possibilities. Programming cutting edge theatre and exhibitions alongside participation activities, Platform’s driving ethos is its commitment to create possibilities for communities and artists to come together. Located in The Bridge in Easterhouse, the building houses a theatre, a swimming pool, a family-friendly cafe and a library. Eastern Promise started in 2010 purely as a music festival with the aim of hosting international and Scottish artists, explains Alun Woodward, Music Programmer at Platform. That year featured “two really special sets” from Nils Frahm and Rachel Grimes. This year, Woodward enthuses about the upcoming performances from Burd Ellen – “I love their imaginative filtering of folk music; I think some people have that gift of holding onto a tradition whilst travelling forward with it” – and Erased

Tapes pianist Lubomyr Melnyk. “We had been listening to [Lubomyr] for years and finally booked him to play last year. It sold out really quickly, so when he said he was touring again it seemed perfect. I think his mesmeric virtuoso performances are the perfect way to round off the festival.” Californian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Allred also joins the Saturday night line-up. The festival was always about “the music and musicians we’re listening to and then asking them to play,” but over the past few years, the team talked about how best to incorporate all the visual art and performance they had been enjoying. “Last year was the first year of the multidiscipline format and it was such a great event with amazing energy through the building,” Woodward explains. Included in this year is a new exhibition from Duncan Marquiss, reflecting on the architecture and surroundings of Platform. Friday evening sees the preview of The Panopticon, presented by National Theatre of Scotland: it is the first stage adaptation of Jenni Fagan’s debut novel of 2012. The novel led Fagan to be included in Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2013, the only Scottish author on the list. She was recently selected as the 2019 Dr Gavin Wallace Fellow, and as part of the fellowship will be creating a ‘poetic almanac’ in response to Summerhall and its history. The production is directed by Debbie Hannan, whose previous NTS pro-

ductions include Girl Meets Boy, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour and Enquirer. After opening at Eastern Promise, The Panopticon will come to the Traverse, with the opening night on 10 October. Matt Addicott, Programme Lead for Performance at Platform, is delighted to host the first performance of the play. “It is very exciting to see how Jenni, director Debbie Hannan and the rest of the company adapt and stage this award-winning novel,” he says. “The story… feels fresh, vital and urgent.” In Fagan’s novel, we follow 15-year old Anais Hendricks – a child let down by just about every adult she has met – into the Panopticon, a vast institution for chronic young offenders. Hannan describes Fagan’s stage adaptation as keeping the “potent visual world of the novel [which] takes us through multiple locations, headspaces and realities with a bright burning energy.” The original panopticons were circular prison buildings, designed so that one guard from the high central watch tower could watch all the inmates at once, without the inmates ever being fully sure if they were being watched, explains Hannan. In Fagan’s novel, she continues, there is this sense of surveillance and institutional oppression alongside the magical realism of Anais’ imagination: set designer Max Johns has “designed a space which holds both.” Lewis den Hertog has created the video design and animation, while the sound design from

Anna Russell-Martin in The Panopticon

September 2019

THEATRE

Photo: Mihaela Boldovic

Interview: Roisin O’Brien

Mark Melville “takes us away from naturalism.” The production also promises an intensely physical performance, with fight direction from Emma-Claire Brightlyn and movement direction from dance artist Skye Reynolds. “Jenni is a force of nature – she is a dynamic and brilliant artist, who has been immensely generous at every point of the process,” asserts Hannan. “She’s an inspiring woman – her life is a counter-cultural artwork in itself, and if I was ever to start a riot to bring down the system, I’d want her at the front of the battle with me. In fact, she’d already be one step ahead!” Hannan and Fagan worked together to develop the play to its final draft, and Fagan has been integral in every other aspect, from casting to marketing. Hannan describes their relationship as “real partners in crime,” with Fagan allowing her “to respond to The Panopticon as an artist in my own right, and bring my interpretation, while also keeping me true to the core of the story.” A feature film of the novel also remains on the cards. “I know she’s been excited by the idea of The Panopticon living on through other artists and mediums, and I’m thrilled to be making the first live version of it.” Hannan adds. The opening of the play in the East End of Glasgow, alongside the eclectic music line-up, may draw audiences out who haven’t been there before. Matt Addicott speaks of the East End as vibrant and creative, contributing to the art and cultural life of the city. They hope to offer something a bit different. “Our aim is for the festival to be as accessible as possible. I’m definitely biased, but I think you’d be hard pushed to find a similar line-up anywhere in the city for the price.” While Edinburgh might still be recovering from the Fringe, the festival spirit in Eastern Promise allows a level of freedom to book things that wouldn’t be possible as a single performance, explains Woodward. “From our perspective, it’s interesting to book things that maybe have a thematic link and there’s greater scope for that with a multi-arts festival.” Keeping with Platform’s welcoming ethos, the emphasis for the team is to facilitate audiences taking a punt on acts they know a little less about, or crossing over into an art form that they may know less about. “It’s not necessarily about challenging yourself... it’s more about being curious for the night,” explains Woodward. “It’s great to hear people talking about such experiences, finding new and different things to enjoy,” Addicott adds. Hannan is proud to be previewing at Eastern Promise, praising Platform’s consistent and exciting programming throughout the year. As for what she is hoping audiences will gain from the production? “I’m hoping audiences connect with Anais as a brilliant firecracker of a lead character, really question the toxic, institutional structures that she’s thrown into again and again, and ultimately experience how imagination is a powerful form of resistance and resilience.” The Panopticon is at Platform, Glasgow, 4 Oct platform-online.co.uk

Feature

THE SKINNY

LI FE ST Y

Chews Bulletin

This month’s food events round-up features a host of beer launches and a slightly OTT cocktail extravaganza

Clever Kombucha

Photo: Clever Kombucha

Words: Peter Simpson

he month begins with Dundee Flower and Food Festival, the City of Discovery’s premier celebration of things that smell nice and are for-the-most-part edible. Chef demonstrations, competitive vegetable growing, and loads of stalls from which to acquire samples – a solid day out, we reckon. Camperdown Country Park, 6-8 Sep, £11-24, dundeeflowerandfoodfestival.com Over in Edinburgh, Stewart Brewing launch a pair of collab beers brewed with Glasgow’s Ride Brewing. The two breweries have knocked together a Double IPA and a

passionfruit sour, which will be pouring alongside a selection of Ride’s other beers. Dockside Tap, 38 Bernard St, 6 Sep, stewartbrewing.co.uk And in Glasgow on the same weekend, Clever Kombucha host an interactive workshop on the wonders of everyone’s favourite blob-powered drink. Let the experts guide you in how to make the stuff – one note we would give is ‘don’t leave your kombucha untouched for weeks at a time’. Trust us, bad idea. The Kitchen, 120 Carstairs St, 8 Sep, 12pm, £30, tickets via cleverkombucha.co.uk Next up, it’s the return of Great Grog’s Bottled Beer Fair. The set-up for this one is pleasantly straightforward – get a small church hall, and fill it with delicious beers by brewers from across Scotland and beyond. Ever wondered how much fun you can have in an afternoon armed only with a beer list and a tiny tasting cup? You’re about to find out. St Peter’s Church Hall, 14 Lutton Pl, Edinburgh, 14 Sep, 1-5pm, £8-10, tickets via greatgrog.co.uk Sticking with the beer, Grunting Growler bring four super-funky beers from Colorado’s Crooked Stave brewery to the west end of Glasgow. Crooked Stave’s beers rely on natural yeasts and bacteria to get them going, and the results are musky, interesting and extremely

Pick and Mix We want your votes once again, as our Food and Drink Survey returns

h God, this again. Yes, it’s that time of year where we get inquisitive about your culinary opinions, and we’re gearing up for our… NINTH? Really?!? That’s… wow. OK, let’s start this again. Oh God, this again. Yes, for the ninth year in a row, it’s time to ask some food-related questions, inspire a bit of friendly engagement and rivalry, and find out what’s good in the world of food. Except this year, we really only have two questions for you: name your favourite food and drink person, place, or product, then tell us why. When we started our Food and Drink Survey, it was a way to create a conversation around the Scottish food scene, talk about the places and people doing exciting things in Scottish food, and to offer something a bit different to what was around at the time. That time, by the way, was the year of our Lord, Two Thousand and Eleven. In 2011, people were talking in hushed tones about wild new concepts like ‘food festivals’ and ‘almond milk’. In 2011, Instagram had about a dozen employees, and Twitter showed you all the messages of people you followed in chronological order without recommending that you give the far-right a try. In 2011, some of us were literally children. It was, in so many ways, a different time. Nowadays, you can’t move for festivals

September 2019

moreish. The Growler will have four of their sours on offer – if you like your beer a bit on the odd side, this one’s for you. 51 Old Dumbarton Rd, 15 Sep, 2pm, £17, tickets via gruntinggrowler.com If you prefer things a bit spicier, may we nod in the direction of The Rum Festival. Returning to Edinburgh’s Summerhall at the end of the month, it offers the chance to try out dozens of rums from a host of producers. You will, as is customary at this sort of event, receive a branded glass to take home with you. Summerhall, 27-28 Sep, various times, £7.50-47.50, tickets via Eventbrite Or if you want to get a little bit ‘extra’, Glasgow Cocktail Weekend returns with a whole load of new flourishes for 2019. There’s a Cocktail World array of pop-ups in the Argyle Street Arches, with sensory experiences (fans of dry ice, we feel like you’re going to be well catered-for), a disco-inspired Ketel One pop-up, and an outlandish offer of ten free cocktail samples. After your visit to the new World, head out to 40 of the city’s best cocktail bars for bespoke £5 cocktails across the weekend. Party. 26-29 Sep, tickets from £5, glasgowcocktailweekend.co.uk theskinny.co.uk/food

Words: Peter Simpson Illustration: Kim Thompson

celebrating the nichest of food concepts (someone is putting on a sausage and cider festival that’s travelling around the UK this autumn, and that is a sentence which hurts our heads to have to write down). We’re in an algorithmically-driven world where we’re overloaded with info that’s curated by robots. Almond milk did take off, in a big way. But while many things have changed, the aim of this fair survey – to identify exciting and interesting food in Scotland and then talk about it – has not. We want to use your suggestions to dig into the food and drink stories that make the scene in Edinburgh, Glasgow and beyond so exciting. For those of you who don’t want to get too in-depth about it and just want a list of good places to go, we will also provide that, but only because we’re nice. Head to theskinny.co.uk/food and cast your vote for your foodie favourite, and let us know what makes them special. Is it the atmosphere of a bar that hasn’t been redecorated in 50 years? Is it the coffee in your favourite cafe that’s so strong it could wake a sleeping horse? Is it a brewery that is constantly dragging its own customers on social media? We’ll round up some of your favourites at the turn of the year, and hopefully find out a little bit about what makes them tick. Yep, for the ninth year in a row, it’s this again. theskinny.co.uk/food

FOOD AND DRINK

Lifestyle

Food For Thoughts As students return and the weather gets a bit shitty, we look at some of Scotland’s best shops, cafes and booze spots Words: Peter Simpson

ith the swing into autumn and the sweeping up of the last of the summer comes a fresh batch of Cool Guys eager to make the most of all of that culture that’s going down. Students, is who we’re talking about… students are coming back. To help those students acclimatise to the realities of sorting their own food (and throw some handy tips to the rest of you while we’re at it), we’ve highlighted some of our favourite foodie places in some of the key food areas for the student population. Going to the shops, grabbing Some Cans, getting a pizza, and finding a coffee that doesn’t taste like mud. SHOPS THAT ARE NICE Obviously, Lidl’s great – where else can you buy a pair of garden shears, an extra-large jar of stuffed olives and a dressing gown in the same aisle? But Lidl is both a) an enormous, allswamping corporate behemoth and b) doesn’t actually sell everything you need, presumably in order to make room for budget chainsaws and weird pairs of hillwalking shoes. Many of the student-heavy parts of Edinburgh and Glasgow are home to nice, ethical and well-stocked grocers, from The New Leaf Co-op in Marchmont to Locavore in the Southside of Glasgow. Get your fruit and veg from your local greengrocer, whether it’s the fancy but fab Roots, Fruits and Flowers in Glasgow’s West End or somewhere more utilitarian like Global Fruits in Bruntsfield in Edinburgh. If nothing else, you’ll be able to buy just the one potato you need rather than purchasing them in increments of 10kg. Head to places like SeeWoo, Maqbool’s and Matthew’s Foods for your spices, pulses and noodles – you’ll find a huge range of options, cheap prices, and plenty of advice. Impress your friends and confuse your new flatmates with all the different types of noodles you’ve found! BEER THAT TASTES OF SOMETHING If you fancy a big bag of cans, you might be tempted to just find a supermarket, head for the fridges blindfolded and grab whatever’s coldest. Don’t rush to judgement, we say; there’s so much more to beer than what’s on offer in the Tesco fridge (although those are good can tactics, you’ll go far). To fully enjoy the always-interesting Scottish beer scene, you’ll need people to guide you. These people can be found in beer shops like Valhalla’s Goat or the Grunting Growler in Glasgow, or Cork and Cask in Edinburgh. Beer experts whose shops are right around the corner from your flat, and are filled with superinteresting beers for you to get to know. Same goes for bars – put your faith in people like Inn Deep, Koelschip Yard, Salt Horse and the Hanging Bat, and they’ll be able to talk you through the myriad styles and variations that the beer world has to offer.

Lifestyle

This is valuable information that will help you when you do find yourself in an enormous Tesco before a music festival; the person who’s been paying attention will know which beers will still be palatable after two days in the back of a tent. COFFEE THAT TASTES GOOD You’re working on an essay, or trying to get your head around a big old piece of maths. One of your flatmates is playing their bugle with extreme intensity, while the other has commandeered the entire living room with a combination of notepads and extremely loud reggae (presumably to drown out the bugling). You’re going to need to go out, so you’d better head to Starbucks, right? WRONG. Chain-shop coffee is bad and usually pretty expensive, and frankly if you wanted to sit in a cold, sterile environment you’d do your studying in a toilet cubicle. But no, you’re a cool urbane adult – hit up your local indy coffee shop instead. Edinburgh students; Machina are right around the corner from Appleton Tower, Fieldwork is two minutes from the Napier flats at Fountain Park, and Williams and Johnson’s place at Custom House by the Shore will make you feel less like a student and more like a genuinely cool grown-up (it’s why we go there, anyway). In Glasgow, the uni is flanked on all sides by great coffee from Artisan Roast, Papercup, Kember & Jones and Kaf. Glasgow Caley and Strathclyde students can fight for custody of Laboratorio Espresso back in town. PIZZA THAT ISN’T DOMINOS From the military-style flyering campaigns to the weird cheese-esque aroma, chain pizza is a weirdly ubiquitous part of student life. It is, unfortunately, not good pizza. Luckily, your city is loaded with great, inexpensive and fuckin’ top-notch pizza for you to try then smugly recommend to your friends. If you’re in Edinburgh, the Civerinos guys are a good place to start – they have three spots (their original on Hunter Square, a slice place opposite Potterrow, and their High Dive pizza bar just up from the Pleasance). There’s also Dough (brilliant, cheap takeaway pizza in the Southside), Razzo (Neapolitan realness in Leith, plus it’s BYOB), and Pizzeria 1926 (brilliant pizzeria in Dalry). Over in Glasgow, Paesano do an absolutely excellent pizza at their places in town and the West End, and they’ll ask for less than half of what Pizza Hut would want for a far-inferior pizza. Just east of the city centre, Baked Pizza Al Taglio serve up rectangular wedges of Romanstyle pizza with amazingly inventive toppings, plus they’re rectangular so they stack up extremely easily. Fill your tote bag with pizza, grab some extremely challenging beers on the way home, and you’ll be cycling into the foodie life before you know it.

FOOD AND DRINK

Roots, Fruits and Flowers

Paesano

Kaf

Civerinos

THE SKINNY

Photo: Simon Forsythe

September 2019

Lifestyle

On Gig Economy and Mental Health As we move towards a future where more of us are working freelance, one writer looks at the pros and cons of the gig economy for those with mental health conditions

efore I get started, it’s important that I get this out of the way: I’ve had a mental illness for as long as I can remember. Eating disorders, anxiety, depression – you name it, I have it. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised that one of the worst things about all of this is that these are not things I can easily recover from. Mental illness can be chronic, and it’s unlikely I’m ever going to have a consistently ‘normal’ relationship with myself, my body or the world around me. Mental health awareness in society is definitely increasing, generally for the better, but there’s still a long way to go. As the conversation has focused on reducing prejudice, more often than not people have a sanitised impression of what living with a mental illness is like – and often they can’t support anything that goes beyond that. It’s all ‘break the stigma’ when you say you’ve been down for a few days but when you explain that you’re struggling to tell whether anything around you is real (what my counsellor would call ‘derealisation’) you lose your audience pretty quickly. For many people – even those in treatment – it’s not a week or two of feeling under the weather. Rather, it’s sustained difficulty in your day-today life, alongside the kinds of thoughts or reactions that many people would find hard to empathise with, or even understand.

“As someone who experiences changeable moods, my work patterns are defined by the state of my mental health” The fact that I’m in this for the long-haul means that I have to think practically by which I mean I have to think about how I’m going to make a living even when life doesn’t feel worth living. Working when you’re mentally ill – which, realistically, we’re going to have to do until we reach the post-work utopia – is extra hard. The difficulties aren’t even just psychological: there are days when the physical symptoms of mental illness (ranging from exhaustion to panic attacks to insomnia) get the better of you. Because of this, and because morning commutes and unsympathetic colleagues aren’t exactly great when you’re going through a mental health crisis, freelancing can be invaluable for the mentally ill. Yet don’t fall into the trap of believing freelancing is somehow easier than working an office job – far from it. However, as a freelancer you enjoy considerably more room to manage your mental health. Not only are you able to control your workload and environment, you’re also able to fit in the doctors’ appointments

Lifestyle

and counselling sessions which can be hard to reconcile with a nine to five. Freelancing can also be a considerable boost if you’re struggling with the self-esteem issues or feelings of purposelessness that tend to go hand-in-hand with depression. This, at least, is the experience of freelance writer and The Skinny contributor Liv McMahon. “When I left uni I was still struggling with meeting deadlines and depression in general, but working this independently since then has really helped build my confidence back up,” she says. Elaborating, she explains that the do-it-yourself ethos of freelancing has not just helped her pay her rent, but even allowed her to hone positive coping mechanisms. “I’ve discovered the best ways of working for myself and how to pull myself out of hard moments when my depression flares up.” However, not everyone has such a positive experience. The overwhelming isolation attached to freelancing, plus the lack of financial security, can be immensely triggering, making it easy to fall back on negative habits that could endanger your mental health. This has been the case for Isabel Webb, a freelance journalist and creative director. “When you’re freelance, especially when you work from home, it can be really easy to slip into negative patterns that damage your mental health. There will be days where you don’t see anyone face to face and might not even leave the house.” It can also be immensely hard to ‘switch off ’ from work – something that can be profoundly difficult for anyone suffering for anxiety. As Isabel puts it: “because time literally equates to money as a freelancer, feeling unproductive is a double blow. I often end up overcompensating and working late nights to make up for it, which means I don’t get enough down time and end up anxious and overworked.” My experience of freelancing lands somewhere between Liv and Isabel’s perspectives. As someone who experiences changeable moods, my work patterns are defined by the state of my mental health. When my mental health is not under control, my freelance activity is marked by instability. I’ll flit between periods of high energy where I rack up commissions and crushing lows where I struggle to get out of bed. When this happens, I often find myself overwhelmed with a workload I have no capacity to deliver on and an inbox of irate editors playing havoc with my anxiety. Furthermore, given the lack of safety nets in place and the fact I have no recourse to sick pay, whenever I find myself in this situation I end up taking a significant financial hit – up to £950 at a time – which understandably provokes my anxiety even further. But when my mental health is under control it’s a whole other story. If I’m in therapy, actually taking my medication and feeling well enough to take care of myself, flexible working feels like a gift. Doing everything at my own pace, I’m able to maintain the kind of mindful work atmosphere that isn’t easily found in a corporate environment and that’s fundamental for my wellbeing. Yet even then, I can’t help but wish there was more support out there for when I am feeling down – networks for freelancers to discuss their mental health, or any kind of stable financial income. Undoubtedly,

the fear about my next mental illness downturn and what that could do to me financially and professionally haunts me even on my best days. As we move towards a future where more and more of us are going freelance due to work

INTERSECTIONS

Interview: Megan Wallace

becoming more precarious and companies slashing their permanent staff, we need to come to terms with what that future of freelance will hold for those of us who struggle with mental health – for better or worse.

THE SKINNY

The Cost of Friendship Interview: Rhiannon Walsh Illustration: Tom Saffill

Sparked by a controversial tweet, one writer reflects on whether friendship has to come at a – very literal – cost

hile scrolling through Twitter, I saw a (since deleted) tweet with thousands of retweets and likes that read, “Having ‘no money’ is not an excuse not to be able to make plans with your friends, something as simple as going

September 2019

for coffee, £3. I’ve realised that some people only actually have money when it suits them.” While some responses condemned and challenged the statement, the vast majority of replies were littered with stories of “stingy pals.”

The tweet echoed in my mind for hours after I read it. Not just because it’s a selfish and lazy viewpoint that places the blame of a strained friendship on the person with no money, but because I have been that friend. There have been many times I’ve not had £3 to spend on a coffee because £3 is all I have until the end of the week. Last year I had to stop working due to my health and was placed on the standard Job Seeker’s Allowance for under 25s: £57.90. Less than £60 per week to cover rent, heating, food and council tax. The many months of receiving this payment as my sole income and attending weekly meetings on how I could ‘get back to work’ when I could hardly get myself out of bed affected me in ways I had somewhat mentally prepared myself for, including my quality of life, self-worth and motivation. One thing I hadn’t predicted was its impact on my friendships. On the dole, the thought of being asked to catch up with friends or see a film quickly turned from one of excitement to one of dread. The prospect of socialising left me feeling anxious and frantically calculating how much I would have left for the week if I decided to venture further than the free confines of their flat or mine. More often than not I would raincheck until after payday… for the third month in a row. We live in a time where working poverty is a problem that affects nearly one-fifth of households in the UK and where people are often having to work two or three jobs simply to make ends meet. It is no surprise that after worrying about housing, bills and food, socialising is the category that can fall to the wayside. That is certainly true for Bethany*, a 22-year-old full-time student and barista. The little money she has leftover from her £7 an hour wage goes towards attending gigs and networking events within the music industry, where she is pursuing a full-time career. For Bethany, the trade-off in making a name for herself is having little money and no time to socialise with friends. “I feel isolated a lot of the time because I feel like I can’t reach out to friends because it might involve money that I can’t afford,” she tells me. While she feels like she can use the excuse of being broke once or twice, it’s an excuse that holds more prejudice due to its unpredictable nature and invisible end-date. “You can’t foretell how long it is going to last and it discourages people from inviting you again.” While many of our friends can understand the odd postponing of plans due to money woes, what happens if they get sick of excuses? A recent study showed that one in three people would “cut out a friend due to incompatible lifestyles.” Rebecca*, a part-time customer service worker knows this feeling all too well. When her financial status differed to that of her friends’ they stopped asking if she was even able to make it anymore. “It just felt more like my lack of money was used against me or as an excuse to not hang out with me,” she says. “It caused a great deal of stress in regards to my mental health state. I was constantly stressing over my drifting friendships and feeling a strong sense of FOMO.” Feelings of isolation, anger and shame

INTERSECTIONS

are common emotions felt when our earnings impact the relationships with the people around us. When Louise*, a full-time student from a working-class background moved to an elite university she quickly realised that most students were supported entirely by their parents. This, in turn, had a huge effect on her mental health. “My anxiety disorder deteriorated massively. It’s exhausting having to maintain the façade that you’re just like anyone else there.” The truth is that regardless of our financial state we should not have to create a façade to be treated equally by those who are meant to have our back. We all deserve to connect, socialise, chat, vent, laugh, eat and share with our friends, whether we are in a high-paying job or relying on benefits to make it through the month. Friendship wage gaps have various causes, but failing to empathise and compromise is the root of many. Check-in with yourself to ensure you’re not the person who demands to split the bill equally when your freelance mate has just had soup and water. Or the friend who insists on visiting the nightclub with £15 entry every time you go out.

“There have been many times I’ve not had £3 to spend on a coffee because £3 is all I have until the end of the week” People should be at the heart of our socialising, not money. By suggesting cheap and cheerful activities from karaoke flat parties to repeats of Friends, we can keep the cost down while connecting and allowing everyone to feel included, seen and relaxed. As hanging out with friends is an activity that should be stress-relieving not inducing. And if you’re sick of Netflix and pot-lucks, Eventbrite offers a Free tab which showcases the plethora of complimentary happenings in your city, from cooking classes to exhibition openings. While community hubs like Kinning Park Complex in Glasgow host weekly pay-what-you-can dinners offering a safe space to socialise, eat good food and not be judged by what is in your purse. We should all be able to afford friendship as the basic human necessity that it is. With unlivable Living Wages and looming political chaos it is crucial that we look after our friends, communities and ourselves. Friendship is something that makes us human and should be cherished and protected at all costs. Let’s not make money the cause of its demise. * Names have been changed.

Lifestyle

THE SKINNY

STUDENT GUIDE

FREE • 2019

Dundee — Edinburgh — Glasgow

SIGRID

“I’m a college dropout!” MAKING MUSIC IN HALLS • BANDS WHO FORMED AT UNI • PROMOTER GUIDE ALTERNATIVE NIGHTS OUT • GOING ALCOHOL-FREE • MAGAZINE CULTURE ZERO WASTE SCOTLAND • PLASTIC-FREE SHOPPING • GET INTO NATURE VINTAGE SHOPPING • WHAT TO DO IF UNI ISN'T FOR YOU

Feature

THE SKINNY

September 2019

Feature

Work-Life Balance Ahead of her biggest UK tour in November, we talk to Sigrid about dropping out of college, working hard and staying grounded

Interview: Megan Wallace

“I

Photo: Francesca Allen

“I wanted to be so many things, but I figured out that music is the only thing that I really want to do” Sigrid

Feature

STUDENT GUIDE

’m a college dropout!” Sigrid Solbakk Raabe (known mononymously as indie-pop singer Sigrid) exclaims, somewhat bemused that she’s been chosen as the cover star for The Skinny’s student guide. However, while she’s not been through the multi-year slog of coursework and last minute library sessions – it was only a few weeks into a Comparative Politics degree that she decided to devote herself to music – she’s certainly someone that any fresher, or any young person for that matter, could learn a thing or two from. A fresh-faced 22-year-old, music journalists have been keen to stress her youth, painting her as some kind of Nordic ingénue plucked from obscurity. Yet, even over the course of our conversation, it’s clear that this narrative misses the mark. Yes, she’s remarkably young for what she’s achieved – she already has a debut album, a slew of charting singles and the BBC Music Sound of 2018 title under her belt – but there’s nothing wide-eyed about her. Perfectly courteous, with each statement from her mouth seeming so carefully considered and unabashedly serious, she’s professional to a fault – even when peppering her sentences with stateside slang or declaring her unbridled enthusiasm for Tame Impala. Initially it’s easy to think she has her guard up, that no 20-something is this together, but she assures us her personality has always been marked by precocity. “I’ve always been one of those kids who try to be a bit more grown up than they are,” she admits, with a laugh. However, she’s not shy to admit that music, and the various skills she was forced to develop as a DIY artist, was a crash course in the dark arts of “adulting”. “I was still in high school – I was only 16 – when I started to talk to labels,” she says. “I was sort of running my own music career. That was my introduction to email!” Her journey, from first gaining attention in her native Norway to blowing up internationally with the slow-burn hit Don’t Kill My Vibe – a slice of zeitgeisty, empowered pop released at just the right time – to now embarking on her biggest ever tour across Europe and the US, it started in her teens and has taken her into her 20s. The emotional intensity of these years, when it can feel like your life is brimming with potential one minute and careening towards disaster the next, is tough for everyone, so it’s hard to imagine managing that while simultaneously forging a career in the limelight. Yet Sigrid, in her own words, is “doing pretty well” – though she admits it’s not always plain sailing. “I’m 22 and you’re still figuring out stuff [at that age] so it’s strange that everything [I do] is on display if anyone wants to know. But maybe that’s what makes it really exciting too.” Her concerns, however, don’t seem too different from your average Gen Zer reared in a digital age where, thanks to social media, each life moment is searchable at the click of a button. She seems relatively unfazed at being in the business of playing festival main stages (at the time of our conversation,

THE SKINNY

“Any experience will change you in some way, and I think that’s cool and exciting”

SIGRID’S TOP TIPS On being taken seriously as a young person: “I can’t say that it’s always been easy being the youngest one but usually I feel very respected and it always goes back to the fact that I’m the artist. I’m the one that’s on the poster for everything – I’m the boss of my own career so I need to love everything I do because I’m going to promote it.”

On working in music, even if you’re not musically inclined: “Maybe you don’t play an instrument but you want to work in the music industry. I had no idea the music industry existed before I was in it, I didn’t even know what a label was. When you start figuring out all these things [that make up the industry] it’s incredible how many things you can do.”

On giving things your all: “My luxury problem in school was that I didn’t know what I should be most focused on – it was kind of halfway school, halfway music. I was supposed to play some really cool gigs in Norway in my last year of school but I cancelled them. I wanted to go to these shows and really kill it if I was going to do it, so I took a year off music to focus on my grades.”

On doing what you love: “There are so many opportunities our generation has now. I think it’s important to work for something you have a passion for – it’s a real privilege.”

September 2019

Sigrid

ing things out, and Sigrid, the pop star on the rise, seem to coexist so peacefully. She shrugs it off, saying: “I just try and suck in all the incredible moments I get to see or do. It’s a good mix of incredible things that happen with my job and normal things that I still like to do.” It’s amazing to think that someone like Sigrid, whose down-to-earth demeanour makes her seem like anyone you could have been friends with in high school, had the vision and the tenacity to pursue her ambitions – particularly when so many of us shy away from doing the same in our own lives. While she acknowledges her success caught her off guard, she does believe in the power of working out what you’re passionate about and following it through. “Eurgh this is going to be cheesy,” she says, audibly wincing down the phone, “but my perspective on life has dramatically changed. I never thought I was going to do anything as crazy as to actually work full-time as a musician. “When I started writing [music] I heard there was some international potential in the songs… but to go from ‘potential’ to the actual reality of touring the world, well, I didn’t think that was going to happen.” It was after a move from her hometown of Alesund to Bergen, where she became invested in promoting herself on the local scene, that things really fell into place. It’s then that she stopped thinking about who she wanted to be in the future and really took stock of what mattered to her in the present. “I wanted to be so many things, but I figured out that music is the only thing that I really want to do.” However, with alarming candour, she explains that she doesn’t necessarily buy into the idea that “if you work at something you love, you never work a day in your life.” She might be doing what she loves but she doesn’t

Photo: Francesca Allen

she’s fresh from a top-billed gig at Oslo’s Øya Festival) or touring globally. “In some ways you get used to the thought of people listening to your music from across the world,” she says, though there are some moments when things do still feel a bit surreal; “in other ways it still kind of blows my mind.” What, then, has she learned from what’s admittedly quite a unique experience (even if she seems keen to downplay its significance)? “I think I’ve just grown more and more secure with who I am and what I want,” she says, after taking a moment to consider our question. “Obviously I still have doubts sometimes of what to do and how to do things but I still come back to my gut feeling.” We’re struck at the easy confidence Sigrid has in her abilities and the faith she has in her own intuition. For most people, this self-assuredness only comes much later in life, after years of looking to others to work out who we should be. It seems that she’s not found success to be a distraction from remaining in touch with her “authentic” self – quite the opposite, in fact. However she’s not overly attached to the person she once was and, rather, is keen to embrace the change and growth that comes with growing up, regardless of what your chosen career is. “Obviously I’m going to change a little bit because that’s what happens when you grow older: whether it’s studying or working, any experience will change you in some way, and I think that’s cool and exciting.” Yet, on the other hand, it does seem like she’s managed to remain remarkably grounded. She tells us she still has the same hobbies she did as a teenager and that she still loves “going back [home] to see my family and hang out with my friends.” It’s by keeping such strong ties with who she was in her pre-fame years that Sigrid, the 20-something still figur-

for a minute suggest that it feels like she isn’t working. “Sometimes my job is meetings and emails and budgets and contracts. It’s not just going onstage, playing a song and going to a party afterwards. That’s just not how it works at all – there’s a lot more than that.” In a world where side hustles have not only become the norm, but where a state of “never-not-working” has become something of a skewed status symbol, it’s oddly refreshing to hear Sigrid being so open about the more mundane side of her working life. Perhaps that’s why she’s never allowed her personality, or her values, to be eaten up by her appetite for success. At the end of the day, she knows that she’s so much more than what she does for a living and refuses to be defined by her career. “Even if you go for something you love, everything is a job sometimes,” she says – a simple lesson that we should all take to heart.

Credits Editors: Tallah Brash & Rosamund West Designer: Fiona Hunter Production Manager & Picture Editor: Rachael Hood Illustrator: Katie Smith Contributors: Becca Inglis, Fraser MacIntyre, Dylan Tuck & Megan Wallace

Sigrid plays Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 26 Nov thisissigrid.com

STUDENT GUIDE

Feature

Turn It Down It’s pretty easy to be unintentionally loud living in student halls, but it’s important not to let the close-knit culture of halls limit your enjoyment of music

n halls, the walls are paper-thin, and moving about without being as noisy as smashing two frying pans together can often be a challenge. With that can come an all-too-tempting feeling that you need to silence yourself to avoid being overly loud, especially during the timid, early days just after you’ve moved in. But the fact is, that mindset just starts you off in completely the wrong way, and develops an unhealthy way of living during your time in accommodation, which can be particularly detrimental to those who enjoy playing or writing music. While it can be difficult to settle in and make music in your new home, it’s important to remember that your space is your space, and you should feel free to do whatever music you want to in halls. What to do From the get-go, play your instrument, sing,

listen to music, or do whatever it is you normally do with freedom. It’s easy to succumb to the idea that being heard playing your instrument, singing, or even just having your music tastes known can be embarrassing when others can listen in, but in reality, it really isn’t. You’re in halls for a long time, and it’s important to start on the right foot and allow yourself to do what you enjoy. Another thing: if you make music, try and meet other people who do the same. If you’re lucky enough to have people like that in your flat, then you’ve hit the jackpot. If not, ask around your friends, join some societies and meet other people. Scottish cities are full of creatives looking to meet other like-minded allies and being at university offers a great chance to do just that. If you’re looking to start a band, then sites like JoinMyBand and BandMix are great, and from there, you can

Words: Dylan Tuck good, it’s important not to feel silenced in your halls. That’s why setting precedent from the start by doing your thing soon after you’ve moved in is a good habit to form. It’s okay to be a bit timid at first – who wouldn’t be? – but by playing music right from the start, it becomes something to find comfort in when starting somewhere new and even lets your flatmates know that this is what you do, and what you’ll continue to do. Finally, be careful not to go too far the other way. If you’re loudly singing along to ABBA at 4am before your roommate next door’s exam, then you’re going to get told to shut up. Do music your way, but just be courteous and aware of the others you live with – there’s no point pissing people off, so be careful that you’re not being mega loud or playing at bad times.

hire band practice spaces across most Scottish cities for fairly small prices – so it’s not like you’d have to bring the whole group back to your tiny bedroom. What to avoid If you play an instrument, then stopping playing altogether is the absolute worst thing you can do. It’s like any skill – playing an instrument needs practice to get better, and if you don’t, you can quickly lose touch of the talent you have. If you find practising in your boxed-in bedroom difficult, then perhaps looking outside of halls for alternative places may be better. Around universities, there are bound to be music rooms that can be pre-booked out, and often provide certain equipment themselves. That way you’ve got a designated space just for being loud. That said, while alternative spaces are

Stay In School, Kids There’s a number of bands that made their fame starting from paying student fees and getting degrees in Scotland, and here are a few of the best studious, scholarly examples Belle and Sebastian Despite having a name that sounds like it could be a Disney film about the adventures of a brunette princess and a talking lobster, Belle and Sebastian are undoubtedly one of Scotland’s most recognised groups. While their members didn’t technically attend a university, the group met and formed the band at Stow College – now Glasgow Kelvin College – where the two Stuarts, Murdoch and David, enrolled on a Beatbox programme for unemployed musicians, which, quite frankly, sounds fantastic. The band began as a college project, with Murdoch even using the band’s first record, Tigermilk, as his finished assignment. Wonder what it was graded.

Django Django This is one that seems to be quite well-known to most Edinburgh music-lovers. All four members of Django Django studied at Edinburgh College of Art in the early 2000s, where the quartet became friends and later formed the band. They may have headed south to continue their project in London, but the foundations of Django Django’s psychedelic groove-licks were born in the Scottish capital. Snow Patrol Ahh, Snow Patrol. Scotland’s answer to Coldplay, only with a bit more likability, better tunes, and no Chris Martin. While the days of Chasing Cars, Chocolate and Run topping the

Words: Dylan Tuck

indie charts are long gone, the band’s university days stray even further behind. The group first formed when Gary Lightbody, Michael Morrison and Mark McClelland met at the University of Dundee, where they played venues around the uni and city together. Fun fact: they were first called Shrug, before changing to Polar Bear after another band had that name, only for another band to have that same name too, forcing them to switch again, finally to Snow Patrol.

musical friendship when Cook produced some tracks for Doherty’s then-band Julia Thirteen and also worked together on a few alt-rock projects over the years after. Lauren Mayberry also attended Strathy afterwards, graduating with an MA in Journalism in 2010, before CHVRCHES later formed in 2011 when Cook and Doherty made the switch to electronic music and enlisted Mayberry’s talents. It’s fair to say, they haven’t looked back since. Franz Ferdinand A few members of FF entered the world of academia, but not altogether. Alex Kapranos, frontman of indie-heroes Franz Ferdinand attended the University of Aberdeen, before dropping out and heading over to Strathclyde to complete a degree in Theology. Bob Hardy went to art school, while former guitarist Nick McCarthy studied jazz bass (cool, right?) in Munich. Kapranos also met drummer Paul Thomson at a party, which is about as student-y a formation we can think of.

CHVRCHES Iain Cook and Martin Doherty actually met at the University of Strathclyde all the way back in 2003. The pair formed a long-standing

Franz Ferdinand

Feature

STUDENT GUIDE

Photo: David Edwards

C Duncan Unsurprisingly, the charming composer is highly trained in multiple instruments, receiving his education at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, where he fittingly studied composition. His exposure to playing in bands, having also learned bass, guitar and drums, led him to write music with a classical-meetsmodern twist that has earned him generous praise over his past three albums. That’s what we call putting your studies to good use. Honeyblood Before the group made the switch to a soloproject earlier this year, the founding members, Stina Tweeddale and Shona McVicar, both met while studying at the University of Glasgow. Yet, after forming as an indie duo, the pair realised that they had more musical matters on their minds than simply doing their degrees. As it turned out, pursuing their creative career is proving to be a pretty fruitful decision.

THE SKINNY

September 2019

STUDENT GUIDE

Feature

STUDENT GUIDE

THE SKINNY

An Alternative Night Out on the Town Fancy dancing the night away without enduring all the shite tunes? Well, our guide to alternative clubs has you and your night out fully covered

Words: Dylan Tuck

SPARE A PENNY How to scrimp on a night out and still have a brilliant time

Firewater

f you’ve ever been dragged along to a club that wasn’t your preferred destination and forced to endure a night of tragically mediocre pop songs, then this one’s for you. The next time your flatmates ask “So, where we heading tonight?” before tanning pre-drinks and scrambling for a taxi, make sure you’re heading to one of these alternative destinations. Cathouse 15 Union Street, Glasgow Say the words ‘alternative club’ and Cathouse is the first that springs to mind – mainly because it deals exclusively in alternative music. With two floors of punk, metal and everything rocky (not Balboa) in between, this a scene-teen haven and will surely release any inner emo to singalong and get moshing. They also host a shed-load of after-parties for shows and festivals, with various band members gracing their steps for a taste of Glasgow nightlife, if fanning over famous people while slurping some cheap drinks is yer thing.

Banshee Lab is now one of the capital’s most iconic night-time venues. Beware haunted spectres and spooky underground vaults, Banshees is a free alternative ‘entertainment centre’ like no other – boasting a pool room, multiple bars over several floors, and a 50-seater cinema (naturally, of course). If you like your night out to consist of rock music, ex-torture chambers and creepy dungeon gear, Banshees is the place to be. The Flying Duck 142 Renfield Street, Glasgow A deliciously-good vegan basement restaurant by day and a buzzing nightclub by nightfall, The Flying Duck is a thriving centre of activity right at the heart of Glasgow’s city centre. Hosting a huge variety of events, from gigs, club nights, DJ sets and film screenings, as well as regularly playing a whole ton of eclectic music, it seems there’s always something good going on in this hipster labyrinth. Oh, and they also have board games and a free toast policy too.

Firewater 341 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow Located on the ever-buzzing Sauchiehall Street, Firewater is an absolute student hotspot, and not without good reason. Thursdays see this place positively heaving, largely thanks to the significantly discounted entry price and, dear god, the cheaply priced drinks, starting from just 90p(!!) for a single. Music-wise, expect a bit of everything, which nicely caters for even the fussiest of musical tastebuds. It’s a please-all kind of place and an absolutely cracking night out – you can trust us on that.

Opium 71 Cowgate, Edinburgh Alexa, define ‘alternative club’. Located in the Cowgate, Opium is not one to be missed for any alt-music fans knocking around the ‘burgh. Often hosting gigs, but more often than not providing brutally loud classic rock and metal tunes, guest DJ appearances and, you guessed it, ‘rockeoke’. It’s one of those places you’ll end up in as the night reaches its end, as this place seems to be open all night (it’s not by the way, just 'til 3am) but it’s certainly never a bad way to wrap up your evening.

The Banshee Labyrinth 29-35 Niddry Street, Edinburgh A place drenched in pretty dismally dark history as a former prison for the poor,

Cabaret Voltaire 36-38 Blair Street, Edinburgh Another venue built in Edinburgh’s underground vaults and decked out in extremely

September 2019

Photo: Will McGregor

Pres are key Drinks are expensive. For a night out, that poses a rather obvious problem, so your best option is to think ahead. Get yourself down to your local supermarket, stock up on stupidly cheap value lager or some discount brand spirit and get yourself started before the word ‘taxi’ has even been suggested.

trendy decor. A hugely hip destination, it’s more on this list for its intensity as a clubbing experience than anything else. Musically, they host a lot of live music, often with guests on the decks, and a tendency to play booming dance music, a night in Cab Vol is a serious night out. But if that’s too much, the side room plays all sorts of singalongs, so, y’know, enjoy that instead. The Garage 490 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow Most notably recognisable for the garishly large truck-front that bulges out above the entrance to this iconic Glasgow institution, The Garage is famed for having something on every day of the week, 365 days a year. While it’s not exclusively an indie/rock club, it hosts many alternative bands and ensures there’s at least one room playing your favourite rock tunes on the regular, with Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays ramping up the distortion. So if your pals drag you to the chart remix room, live safe in the knowledge that some gainheavy singalong escapes are lying just around the corner. Flat 0/1 162 Bath Street, Glasgow Okay, sure, Flat 0/1 doesn’t play alternative music, but you try finding a more hipster place than this. It’s literally a flat, decked out with fully functioning audio equipment and a bar slap bang in Glesga city centre! There are always DJs doing some madness on the decks, decor time-travelled straight from the 70s, and, thanks to a generous free entry policy, always feels like the ultimate flat party experience that you’re welcome to gatecrash every week. What’s more, this is a party that won’t be getting shut down either – unless the roof caves in (again).

STUDENT GUIDE

Just keep strolling, strolling, strolling… On that note, don’t get a taxi – walk to the club, even if it’s in Mordor. If you do have to cab it, try blagging a cheeky “I don’t have any cash on me, I’ll buy you a drink when we’re there instead” to your mates and that should suffice. Just don’t forget (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) to buy that drink later. Free, not fee An entrance fee? To a club? Nah. Go somewhere where they don’t charge for the privilege of gracing their dancefloor with your sick moves. If you have to pay, continue with the “but I’ve got no money” line you blagged in the taxi and hope your pals (again) have you covered. Not today, cloakroom Honestly, £2 just to hang up your rank, old ASOS jacket is far too much. Instead, wear it like a fashion statement. Tie it around your waist and give zero fucks. Even if it’s a puffer jacket, other partygoers will definitely appreciate your serious sense of style (promise). Get away from the bar (tell your boyfriend hold your jar) Seriously, stay away from the bar, it’s nothing but trouble. If you’d have done pres right, there’d be no need for it anyway. That is, unless, you’ve got some generously drunk mates who are willing to flash the notes to pay for your drinks. These are good people. Ensure they hang around for the long haul. Let’s talk about chips, baby Scran after a night out go together like bread and butter. It’s a staple tradition of British nightlife, but £3.50 for large chips at a takeaway?! Yeah, no. Instead, make sure you’ve got some good yums stacked in your freezer for when you get back home. Sure, waiting for your mates to scoff their oil-slathered grub may be a tough experience, but focus on that generous plate of frozen fries, chicken nuggets or pizza that’s waiting for you back at your gaff. Plus, it’ll taste better because it’s technically free (N.B. it’s not, you just bought it earlier).

Feature

The Promoters’ Promoter Russ McMahon, Frogbeats “Anything involving North Fire Sound. Ben Parkinson, who runs that, has been at the centre of the festival scene ever since I met him some years ago. He’s just moved up to Edinburgh where he’s putting on Dub & Grub days at The Pitt. He does a lot with Maxiroots, Samson Sounds, Mungo’s Hi Fi and Mighty Oak Soundsystem, and he’s creating a big hub for dub, reggae and soundsystem culture based in Edinburgh. In terms of his style it’s a positive, upbeat, warming music very much related to reggae, afrobeat and funk.” About Frogbeats: Frogbeats started out in 2011 to fill a gap in jungle and drum ’n’ bass culture in Glasgow. After doing events at Sub Club for a couple of years, they evolved into an open house for creative ideas, involving a multifaceted team of artists, designers, musicians and writers, and revolving everything that they do around underground music and culture. frogbeatscollective.co.uk Chris Astrojazz, Samedia Shebeen “For me, a good promoter is someone who transforms the context of the music and in the process spreads the message and gives a great experience, not just presenting particularly ‘hot’ artists in a bog-standard club environment that could be in any city. Old hands Optimo still lead the game in Glasgow, I think, with their one-off curated nights, and are probably the guys I respect most for setting the scene. In Edinburgh, Nightvision have done an amazing job in building a huge following for electronic music, and their Terminal V events are totally off the scale, up there with anything else on the planet in terms of vision and bookings.” About Samedia Shebeen: Samedia Shebeen is a travelling venue that mixes immersive stage and décor design with modern global club music, with a focus on Africa, Latin

America and the Middle East – think kuduro, tropical bass, baile funk, GQOM, dancehall, as well as classic afrobeat, salsa and cumbia sounds. Their second Fiesta Do Samedia is this October, which features live acts including Nihiloxica from Uganda’s Nyege Nyege Tapes. facebook.com/samediashebeen Hannah Currie & Aileen Lynn, MILK “We love what Push It (Stereo, Glasgow) and Pretty Ugly (The Admiral Bar, Glasgow) do – just all-out fun, run by legends, and we’ve been lucky enough to DJ both. Memories are hazy, vibes are great.” About MILK: MILK began in Bath Street at Flat 0/1, where crowds would cram in on a Wednesday night for free cookies and complete chaos as bands bent all the rules in the book. Playing host to everything from hip hop to heavy metal, the early years of MILK passed by in a blur of White Russians, Mad Dog and a whole lot of fun. Its 90s/00s Never Been Kissed nights at The Rum Shack and Pop Punk Karaoke nights at Cathouse have become sold out staples of the Glasgow club scene. facebook.com/milkglasgow01

Matt Belcher, Lionoil “My favourite club night right now is Heaters, every Wednesday at Sneaky Pete’s. It has a super broad music policy with an ethos to platform up-and-coming DJs as well as really big names (guests this year include Leon Vynehall, Avalon Emerson and Project Pablo). Sneaky Pete’s is a very special place. It’s a tiny wee box where everyone’s on the same level as some of the world’s best DJs and local legends. It’s the jewel in the crown of Edinburgh’s vibrant and all-too-often undersung music scene. So many long lasting friendships have been forged there and countless careers inspired – it’s the place for music lovers in this city for sure.” About Lionoil: Lionoil Industries started back in 2014 to put out the music of a group of DJ and producer pals who were making great tunes centred mainly around Sneaky Pete’s. Since then, they’ve put out eight records from local artists and thrown regular parties, mostly in Sneaks but also in The Bongo Club, The Mash House and elsewhere, always putting the local acts on the same level as any touring guests and playing long sets, usually B2B. lionoilindustries.co.uk

Interview: Becca Inglis SKOOP collective “Our notable mentions go to nights like RAREWAVE in Edinburgh – who do ridiculous parties with full-on fast-paced skelpers and some of the finest in hardcore, donk, jungle and gabber – and to Skillis, who runs Headset and SSL. He’s definitely one of Edinburgh’s hardest working promoters and booking some great acts. Shout out to the Glasgow cats too – HNDPCKD are a sick collective who do some real smooth classic jazzy hip-hop sessions with live producers.” About SKOOP: SKOOP is an Edinburghbased label championing experimental hip-hop and lo-fi culture. Their regular haunts include The Mash House, Henry’s Cellar Bar and Wee Red Bar, where they play a range of electronic and rap music including grime, trap, dubstep, drum ’n’ bass, hip-hop and dancehall. Since their arrival on the scene two years ago, they’ve put out a host of genrespanning releases and hosted events further afield in Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, London and Amsterdam. skoop.bandcamp.com

MILK Karaoke

Photo: Greig Gallagher

Tips on the top nights that Glasgow and Edinburgh’s club scenes have to offer from the ones who know best

Make Mine Alco-Free With the non-alcoholic market blowing up, now is a better time than ever to get drinking without getting drunk

“W

hy would anyone want to drink an alcoholic drink without any alcohol?” I hear some cheeky shit at the back yell. The answer is: because after two half pints of Coke on a night out, you’ve had your sugar intake for about a week, and may fancy ingesting something other than fizzy liquid glucose. For those who thirst for alcoholic drinks without the alcohol, here are some of the best alcohol-free options out there for those wanting something a little bit different. Beer Alco-free beer is currently at the top of the non-drinker’s food chain, with plenty of guzzelable goodness available in most mainstream supermarchés. Probably the most recognisable beer is Heineken’s 0.0% lager, which, unsurprisingly considering its zeroalcohol content, is pretty bland, reflected in its cheap price. Brewdog are pretty good at coming up

Feature

Words: Dylan Tuck

with batshit beer titles (see Albino Squid Assassin and Dead Pony Club for example), and the aptly-named Nanny State is up there with the best of them, and with a great story behind the beer too. After alcohol regulators criticised the company’s tendency to release hella high ABV drinks, Brewdog responded by bringing out Nanny State, a 0.5% IPA, as a piece of high level shithousery. What’s better is that it’s actually a bangin’ IPA alternative, and is available almost everywhere now too. Another slurp of Brewdog goodness is Punk AF, a non-alcoholic version of the standard Punk IPA, and a 0.5% Raspberry Blitz, a sour beer that’s… well, just that. If you can get hold of it, Big Drop Brewing Co.’s stout is almost as good as the real thing – with chocolatey, coffee-ish hits of smoothness, like a creamy, boozy milkshake with neither the booze nor the milk. Others to note are the 0.5% version of Adnams’ Ghost Ship – made by simply filtering the alcohol out of

the regular batch – and Erdinger’s Alkoholfrei, a go-to for those craving a wheat beer. Wine Alcohol-free wine may not be as commercially big as beer, but there are still some brands worth having a glass of. Eisberg Wine has a decent range, with a crisp Sauvignon, bittersweet Chardonnay, floral Rosé, ruby rich Cabernet Sauvignon and a couple of sparkling bottles too. A warning to all veggies though, these guys aren’t for you – they contain traces of fish (authentically replicating the filtering process of many regular wines by the way), which is a bit of a bummer. On the note of fizzy piss though, Nosecco – about as subtle as a fire alarm with that name – is capable of filling the gap for whatever inkling you may have for a tall, ice cold glass of Prosecco. Cider The most popular cider brand in the alco-free

STUDENT GUIDE

world is Kopparberg mixed fruit cider, and it has now hit most supermarket shelves. Think full-fat sugary fruit abomination minus the quality of getting you slightly tipsy, and you’ve hit the nail on the head. With students and Strongbow Dark Fruits being a fairly common stereotype, this is the closest alco-avoiders can get to that level of purple sickly sweetness. Spirits The prices ramp up as we move onto spirits, but at least that’s reflective of regular, alcohol-included drinks, right? The high-hailed big daddy of the spirit market currently is Seedlip, most notably their Grove 42, a floral gin alternative that combines citrus and spice into something nice. But at either £12.99 or (*gulp*) £26.99 a bottle, you may wish to stock up on M&S low-alcohol gin and tonic can combos, or Teetotal’s G+T instead if you fancy the gin taste without the bitter aftertaste of Seedlip’s price.

THE SKINNY

September 2019

STUDENT GUIDE

Feature

THE SKINNY

Print Is Dead, Long Live Print We speak to Edinburgh’s magazine makers about the rise of print culture and the radical act of switching off

f you’re reading this offline then you’ll know that we still have faith in paper, but there have been many over the years who have predicted print’s demise. How could magazines compete with the instant gratification of the internet, they said? Physical pages are passe and swiping is the future, they said. More fool them. About one in ten of you are now using magazines as your main source of news, and last year Ofcom reported that magazines are people’s most trusted type of media, charging ahead of newspapers, TV and radio. Print culture, we never doubted you. “A few years back, there was a number of people who left the industry, and it felt like maybe magazines had had their big moment,” says Laura Dunlop, who heads up the publishers’ association PPA Scotland. “The really interesting thing that’s happening now is that many of those people are coming back.” Dunlop is one of the brains behind the Edinburgh International Magazine Festival, which happens for the first time in the capital this month. It builds on the already existing party for all things paper, MagFest, extending from one day to a week-long series of talks, workshops and gigs in venues across the city. “It is an incredibly vibrant event,” Dunlop says of MagFest, now in its eighth year and due to make up part of the new festival. “Everyone leaves it buzzing with excitement and love of magazines, but the thing is it’s always been primarily people from within the industry. I really wanted to make sure that we spread that love for a much wider range of people.” London may be traditionally viewed as the UK’s media centre, but Scotland has a strong claim to be the nexus for magazine makers in the North. The world’s oldest publication still in print is The Scots Magazine – which resides in Dundee with creators of The Beano, DC Thomson – and there’s a strong creative buzz across the industry that means new magazines are being born all the time. “After London,

September 2019

Interviews: Becca Inglis

Edinburgh’s probably the best place in the country to try and set up an indie magazine,” says Sam Bradley, who edits the narrative journalism publication Counterpoint and indie music mag Dive. “There’s a community of publishers, designers, editors and journalists ready to work with you, a small but growing indie bookshop scene with a modern sensibility in the form of Typewronger, Golden Hare and Lighthouse. The fact that plenty of Edinburghers can afford to shell out a tenner on a fancy magazine probably helps, too.” Bradley was drawn to making magazines for the very reason they were supposed to die out – time. Compared to the internet, with its short-form nuggets of content you can breeze through in between work or studying, magazines take longer to consume. You sit, you read, and you digest. You mull over the stories (or pictures) that draw you in the most. “I just think it’s one of the best ways of getting through to people,” says Bradley. “Readers take more time with print, make it part of their day, and they take what they read with them after they’ve closed the back page. Obviously, good writing works anywhere, but there’s something about print – the alchemy of design and writing and editing – that transforms it into a whole new thing.” It turns out that the old cliché is true – what doesn’t kill you does make you stronger. Rather than fade out under the internet’s dominion, magazines are filling in the gaps that online content misses, namely through its ability to add context to a fast news cycle. “The news magazines are having an absolute moment right now, and that’s because of their ability to really deal with complex issues that are going on in the world,” says Dunlop. “They’re perfectly placed, because of the long-form writing, because of their slightly longer-term view, to take on topics like the rise of the right, or climate change, or changes in global politics.”

There’s also the reassurance that with editorial control comes some accountability. While trust in social media platforms like Facebook has eroded, it appears to be growing in magazines that offer a safeguard against fake or poorly reported news. “There’s something to be said for using print as a form of protection against the fakery and falsehood of discourse online,” says Bradley. “Magazines made properly – with fact-checking and good editing and thoughtful writing – can rise above all that.”

“In a world turned increasingly digital, reading and creating print magazines can feel a little like staging your own personal rebellion” But more than an adjunct to online content, magazines can offer a respite from the digital world altogether. Where once the dream was that everything would be digitised and we could live in a Back to the Future-esque utopia, now our tech lives are supersaturated and it feels more radical to try and unplug. “People are connected all the time and are now looking for an escape from the screen and to get a little lost in long-form articles as opposed to the clickbait scrolls we’ve all been

STUDENT GUIDE

exposed to for so long,” says Hannah Taylor, editor of the young women’s magazine The Delicate Rébellion. “I think the digital era has reinforced my love for print. Laying out articles on paper adds a dimension that you just can’t achieve with digital. It’s an art form in itself,” she concludes. “In a world turned increasingly digital, reading and creating print magazines can feel a little like staging your own personal rebellion,” says Imogen Stirling, who managed this summer’s relaunch of 404 Ink’s literary magazine. “They exist to unite readers and to be shared. You finish your copy and you pass it on or leave it in a public place. You go to a cafe, or a library, or the dentist, or a train, and you expect to find a magazine to leaf through.” It’s their tangibility that still gives magazines their charm. The pictures, the typography, even the smell of the paper – it’s not uncommon to see a couple of editors by the stacks at MagFest opening a new magazine and taking a satisfied sniff. 404 Ink – and lit mag newbie Extra Teeth – have taken that love of paper, and what you can present on it, to reimagine what a literary magazine might look like. No longer made up of black and white text encased in a beautiful cover, both publications are shot through with colour, brought to life with illustrations by Letty Wilson and Maria Stoian respectively. “I for one have never seen a literary magazine like the one we’re set to publish,” says Stirling. “I hope the revamped style will heighten the magazine’s accessibility and widen the 404 Ink community.” “The niche magazines, especially some magazines that are very much for one audience group, really make a big play on the beauty and the design of them and the sense of the tactile pleasure of a magazine,” says Dunlop. “It’s very much analogous to the rise of vinyl and that sense of something that is precious in a way that a series of ones and zeros doesn’t get to be.”

Feature

Getting Out in Scotland’s Great Outdoors B

e it stunning mountains, beautiful beaches or breathtaking views, Scotland boasts some of the most gorgeous locations in the UK (not that we’re biased at all). Yet, sometimes, getting about can prove a stumbling block in itself, with cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow being heavily pedestrianised, meaning many students lack access to a car and limiting direct access to the great outdoors. But fear not, for good transport links mean that you can see the best of Scotland’s nature, either by train, bus, bike or on foot.

On Foot Thankfully for those who live around the Central Belt of Scotland, there are a number of pleasant places outside city-life that can be explored by pedestrians. In Glasgow, a three-hour stroll down the Kelvin Walkway leads from the city centre to the small town of Milngavie, where there’s a lovely river walk at the start of the West Highland Way. Although maybe don’t try and add that into your route, what with that infamous hike being just, ooh y’know, 96 miles long. In Edinburgh, the trek along the Union Canal out to Ratho is achievable in a little under three hours, with a great deal of picturesque scenery throughout the journey too. Or, for some nature plonked firmly within the city, you can climb the iconic Arthur’s Seat if you fancy something a bit steeper. By Bike It’s a blessing that Scotland’s major cities are so well-endowed with fantastic cycle paths and bike lanes to help cyclists get around easier. Edinburgh is so well-linked, that you can get from one end of the city to the other by bike in no time at all, with the paths being largely off-road too. One of the best places to head to is Cramond. After getting off the main cycle path to Cramond, you’ll find yourself biking in parallel with the sea before reaching the small village of Cramond and having access to one of Edinburgh’s not-so-hidden treasures: Cramond Island. The pathway to the Island is cut off upon the tide rising, so make sure you’re well prepared – surprisingly, you can’t cycle your way through a full tide. While there are no beaches in Glasgow (sad face), there are similar cycle-safe pathways to help cyclists out of the city. The route from the city centre to Uddingston is a particularly recommendable choice for both novice and avid bikers, being majorly off-road

and thoroughly littered with greenery – which seems quite apt considering that the route begins at Glasgow Green. By Bus Lying just outside of Edinburgh are the easily-spotted Pentland Hills that dominate much of the city’s skyline. There’s a plethora of different routes and walks to be explored over the hills and luckily, getting to them is made simple. Catch either the no. 4 bus to Hillend or the 10 towards Bonaly, both of which land within walking distance of the big, bad hills. For another coastal escape that’s a bit further afield, head to Gullane beach, which is accessible by getting a bus from Edinburgh’s city centre out to the wonderfully-named Goose Green. From there, a short walk along

Feature

By Train ScotRail might not be everyone’s favourite all year round, but they do offer great routes to many of Scotland’s scenic places. Edinburgh has direct lines to the east coast, with North Berwick a greatly recommended destination for those after a bit of peace and quiet while also not being stuck for things to do. With stunning sea views, a boat trip to the Bass Rock that is, quite literally, the shit – the lump of rock made white by vast amounts of inhabiting birds’ poo – a walk up Berwick Law, or even just some fish and chips on the beach. If you feel like going further afield, you can even catch a bus across St. Abbs, the town now known for appearing as

‘New Asgard’ in Avengers: End Game, although don’t expect to see Thor necking pints while you’re there. Where Edinburgh goes east, Glasgow offers western access – and a lot of it too. One of the best trips that are both affordable and rewarding in beautiful settings, is the short trip over to Balloch, right at the bottom of Loch Lomond. Here, you’ll find Balloch Country Park and a series of trails around the Loch that are widely accessible and not too demanding. If the sun is shining down, this lovely little spot becomes even better. Add to that the fact that it’s also super close to Glasgow with only a 50-minute train ride separating you from the Trossachs, and there are no excuses for missing out on some Balloch bliss.

Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh

Have You Done The Reading? Oh god, you haven’t, have you? Okay, don’t panic, we’ve got you covered – here’s an unfortunately quite experienced guide to getting through a seminar when you’ve *gulp* forgotten to do the reading material Read around the subject, quickly! This can vary depending on the degree, but there is usually a quick-fire way to consume an awful lot of written waffle. If it’s a novel, poem or any other form of literature you’re reading, then SparkNotes and Shmoop are your best friends. If it’s an essay or paper, the abstract summary is yours. If you do any other course that requires you to actually read the entirety of the paper – I’m looking at you, sciences – then your best bet is to skippity-skip on down to the conclusion and hope the author has summed up their work conveniently enough for your brain to process it in a couple of reads. Too late for that? Ask a pal what’s up Having mates on your course is good for a number of reasons. Missed a class? Borrow their notes. Want company in a boring lecture? You got it. But most importantly, you have someone else to depend on if you inevitably make a mistake like, oh I don’t know, not doing your seminar reading. Find comfort in asking them if they’ve done the reading, which (of course) they will have done, and will proceed to tell you everything you’d missed. Unless they’re as neglectful as you, in which case they too

the coast takes you to a beautiful beach with sandy cliffs aplenty.

Words: Becca Inglis and Dylan Tuck

Photo: Rachael Hood

We all need a change of scenery every once in a while, and escaping the city can be a great way to shake up your mental health and take a break from studying

haven’t done the reading, you pair of bad apples. Your friend hasn’t done it either? Panic stations – we’re going in You’re out of time. Now you enter the intellectual warzone. This is where tactical thinking comes into play. As you walk into the room to seal your fate, think about the best spot to avoid direct eye contact with your tutor. Sit somewhere, either near the back, or, if you’re all dotted around one big ol’ table, head towards the far end on either side, just enough to be mostly out of sight. Next, get that pen in hand and make sure you’re constantly, consistently and without stopping, writing. Write the date, the title, your name, your age if you have to, just make sure that you are always noting down what others – the good eggs who have completed the reading prior to this horrendous experience – are saying. Like, all of the time. What? They’re not saying anything either? In the most unlikely of scenarios, nobody in the entire room knows what they’re supposed to be saying. This is the absolute worst it can get, as one too many awkward silences can

STUDENT GUIDE

Words: Dylan Tuck only lead to one thing… The tutor directly asks you a question? Oh god, improvise! Oh shit. Of all the days, of all the silent people here, your tutor had to ask you. Of course. Any tutor that does this is purely evil, and this is the baddest of bad moves in seminar etiquette – but there’s no time to be pissed now. Okay, think, whatever measly slithers of information you have sliding around your brain, now’s the time to use it. Here, you have to make a choice – confidence or guess-work. Confidence is best used in arts-based subjects, where a ‘what do you think this means?’ can be answered with any opinion as long as it’s backed with ballsiness. Guess-work is uncertain and better for fact-formed subjects, as you’re unsure of your answer: “I’m not sure, but I think…” is your golden ticket off this messy hell ride. Ding ding! Time’s up You made it! Oh, thank Christ. That was a long hour. Now, get out and promise yourself you’ll absolutely, totally, 100% not forget about the reading for next week. No way. Nope…

THE SKINNY

September 2019

STUDENT GUIDE

THE SKINNY

Off the Beaten Track

Martha Ffion

lorence Welch enchanted Princes Street Gardens and The National transformed a dreich Glasgow evening into a poncho-clad triumph at Summer Sessions, while Doune The Rabbit Hole found John Cooper Clarke sharing a line-up with Sister Sledge, John Grant and Blanck Mass. There’s been no shortage of gigs and festivals to intrigue this summer. Fortunately, while our nights will soon be drawing in, they still have much to offer. Did you know that Scotland’s most distinguished of duos – Aidan Moﬀat & RM Hubbert – are about to embark on a farewell tour, packing it all in after two records? While this parting of the ways will likely result in more solo gold from each former recipient of The SAY Award, and doesn’t appear to have come about after a Gallagher-esque dressing room bust-up, their collaboration is one many will miss. Aberdeen’s True North Festival boasts one of their final appearances, as they support The Twilight Sad (21 Sep), who have also invited recent touring companion Michael Timmons to perform in a more intimate setting earlier the same evening. Bill Ryder-Jones headlines the Granite City’s Tivoli Theatre on 20 September, while Vic Galloway curates Rip It Up Live! at the Music Hall on 22 September. Following on from last year’s Rip It Up! exhibition and Galloway’s subsequent book of the same title – both of which joyously celebrated the history of Scottish pop – he’ll welcome the likes of Emma Pollock, Richard Jobson (The Skids) and King Creosote to the stage for one-off performances exclusive to the festival. While Dunfermline’s Outwith Festival will introduce William McCarthy (Augustines) and Goodnight Louisa to the Auld Grey Toon in early September, James Yorkston will be keeping Fife on the map well into the winter months with his monthly Tae Sup wi’ a Fifer night, which the songwriter and author describes as “an inviting little folk club. We put on all sorts of oddities, from surround sound electronica to spoken word to Tony Conrad drone fiddle. There’s soul singers, Sufi singers… Maybe it’s more a social club for people willing to take chances with their evening out. It’s mostly held on Saturday nights, but is very different to its televisual competition, Britain’s Got Talent. Maybe it’s Britain’s Got Talent (on acid).”

September 2019

Questioned on the most rewarding aspects of putting on Tae Sup, which has found a “great wee home” in Kirkcaldy’s Adam Smith Theatre, Yorkston expresses his delight upon hearing that audience members have made a discovery. “A lot of people turn up not having heard a note or word of the performers, but they trust me now as a programmer. Seeing a reasonably obscure and experimental musician from somewhere far away doing well on the merchandise table after the show is always good,” he says. Ian Rankin (14 Sep), Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite (25 Oct) and poet Hollie Mcnish (16 Nov) have all found their way onto Yorkston’s upcoming line-ups, as rewardingly eclectic as locals and visitors to the Adam Smith have come to expect. “This December’s show has a man called Özgür Baba playing,” Yorkston begins. “He’s coming over from rural Turkey with his saz [a traditional Turkish folk instrument]. There’s a YouTube video of him playing while chickens cheuk about around him. Distant explosions are also heard, somewhat mysteriously. It’s very alluring. He’ll be with comedian Josie Long and harpist Rachel Newton [on 14 Dec].”

celebrating their ever-expanding roster with an all-dayer at Glasgow’s Òran Mór on 3 November. Fife psych-masters Domiciles will share the stage with the likes of Lemon Drink (set to release their debut single a fortnight beforehand) and Martha Ffion. A couple of months prior in Glasgow, Freakender will return for its fourth year (13-14 Sep). Organisers Ross Keppie, Holly Calder and Ian Crawford aim to “push to the front interesting, and mostly relatively unknown psych, garage, post-punk and weird pop music from all over the world” at their festival. “We only feature bands we really love and strongly believe in,” they say. This year, the three have reeled in, among others, Glasgow’s Romeo Taylor and Nashville’s Faux Ferocious to perform at The Old Hairdressers, which they describe as “the perfect space for a DIY event like Freakender.” “It’s intimate, but being spread across three floors never feels too small, and it gets wild when it’s packed. The staff are so supportive of what we do,” Keppie says, “and the sound is great. It’s home. I love that within the space you can easily get around and never miss a band. “We’re really excited to have the debut Scottish show from Modern Nature at the festival; the new project from members of Ultimate Painting, Beak> and Woods – it’s going to be very special.” He continues: “Aside from the festival, we’re passionate about all the bands we have coming up [throughout the rest of the year]. The Black Lips will always be special to us. They were top of our wish list of bands we could work with one day, so it’s humbling to have achieved that goal.” The Black Lips play Glasgow’s Stereo on 28 November, one show among a host of others on the Freakender

Interview: Fraser MacIntyre calendar, following their annual festival. A little further away, Paisley Youth Arts Festival (3-15 Sep), open to young people under the age of 25, features Man of Moon. Organisers say they are “keen to welcome music lovers from Glasgow and further afield,” and also have a host of theatre, gaming and visual arts events lined up. Later the same month, Belhaven Brewery celebrate their 300th birthday in Dunbar (21-22 Sep), with folk outfits Breabach and Niteworks set to play, and activities catering to all ages, from storytelling to beer tasting over its two days. In October, the team behind Lost Map Records – the Eigg-based label run by Johnny Lynch, aka Pictish Trail, and one that Callum Easter and Kid Canaveral, among others, call home – will embark on a Lost Weekend, featuring events in Glasgow, Portobello and Paisley on 11, 12 and 13 October respectively. Are they mad? Probably. Later in the month, Cryptic will present Sonica in Glasgow (31 Oct-10 Nov), a series of exquisite installations and performances celebrating “world-class visual sonic arts” from local and international talent. As the cold sets in, Make-That-A-Take Records bring Book Yer Ane Fest XIII back to Dundee’s Conroy’s Basement (29 Nov-1 Dec), which they promise will be “three days of DIY punk/hardcore/ ecossemo goodness to raise funds, consciousness and awareness in solidarity with a plethora of local charities and community groups.” While heavyweight gig promoters like DF Concerts, 432 Presents, PCL and Regular Music are welcoming the likes of Björk to Glasgow and Bill Callahan to Edinburgh, a host of other weird and wonderful events will be taking place across Scotland throughout the rest of the year. Seek them out.

“We only feature bands we really love and strongly believe in” Ross Keppie, Freakender

Elsewhere, Broken Chanter, the new solo project of Kid Canaveral’s David MacGregor, is booked to perform in Aviemore, Fort William and Tobermory in the coming months. For those enticed by the idea of tying in a gig with a visit to somewhere far removed from the major cities, catching MacGregor, or indeed any artist of his calibre, in locations such as these will likely be a memorable venture. Last Night from Glasgow – who are releasing Broken Chanter’s debut record alongside Olive Grove Records on 6 September – will be

STUDENT GUIDE

Aidan Moffat

Feature

Photo: Kat Gollock

Photo: Laura Meek

We speak to the organisers of Kirkcaldy's Tae Sup wi' a Fifer and Glasgow's Freakender, and shine a light on the cavalcade of events still to come this year in venues across Scotland

Ditch Fast Fashion, Go Vintage Baggy sports jumpers, retro denim jeans and polka dot dresses for days – vintage fairs are a great place to switch up the wardrobe

ne thing you’ll always see popping up at university is the ever-travelling circus of vintage fairs that drop by month after month. With the dangers of fast fashion now more widely-known than ever, making the switch to buying second-hand is a great way to top up your wardrobe while equally being environmentally conscious. That said, here are some of the best vintage fairs and shops around Scotland to snatch a bargain or two. Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fair Good old Judy. Her travelling vintage fair is always gallivanting up and down the land with buckets of retro clothes and trinkets perfect for anyone with an eye for old school fashion. If you’ve got room in your flat (and can carry it), the fair also stocks plenty of stylish furniture and household goods too, as well as a range of street food, so your haul won’t be affected by a rumbling belly. University of Edinburgh, 12 Sep; Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 28 Sep; The Briggait, Glasgow, 29 Sep Preloved Kilo The clue’s in the name. Preloved kilo is the UK’s largest kilo sale vintage fair, which basically means you grab a bag, fill it up and pay by how much it weighs. If you’re after some light bits then Preloved offer fresh looks for a pretty cheap price, although it’ll cost a fair bit more for heavy materials like denim, jackets or shoes. The trick is being savvy – watch what goes in the bag to go easy on the pursestrings. No dates announced in Scotland yet Lou Lou’s Vintage Fair The self-proclaimed ‘Purveyors of Nostalgia’, Lou Lou’s is a reputable vintage fair that rocks up in town several times a year. Bringing together a range of traders and selling everything from fashion to collectables, crafty things and other handpicked goods. Like most vintage fairs, Lou Lou’s is pretty dependable if you’re after some cool snags, and was even voted Best Vintage Fair back in 2013. Caird Hall, Dundee, 12 Oct West Vintage Calling all Glaswegian hipsters: we’ve got a

shop for you. Fancy rocking baggy sports brand jumpers, chunky dungarees, oversized tees or funky colourful 70s style shirts? West Vintage can fix y’all up. With a store in the city centre’s Saltmarket and one conveniently around the corner from Glasgow University, their retro must-haves are almost dangerously close. 649 Great Western Rd; 10 Kings Court, 95 King Street, Glasgow Super Market Vintage Super Market by name, but you can’t buy frozen pizzas or value lager here. Super Market is a female-led, independent events company who organise the vintage fairs held at student hotspot Hillhead Bookclub on the regular. With a range of nostalgic looks alongside being able to sink a beer while browsing, bar-meets-vintage is clearly a win-win. Hillhead Bookclub, Glasgow, 22 Sep; 20 Oct; 17 Nov Headlock Vintage One for the uber cool kids on campus, Headlock often makes Glasgow’s QMU a destination, while also appearing at festivals like Glastonbury and Parklife. Stocking retro football shirts, rails upon rails of denim and a wide range of funky fleeces: think designer label clothes kept safe since the 90s; that’s Headlock’s deal. And, if you can’t make their fairs, they sell via ASOS Marketplace and regularly update their stock. Super trendy. QMU, Glasgow, 16 Sep; Teviot Ros House, Edinburgh, 17 Sep The Vintage Clothing Kilo Sale Commonly found carting truck-loads of old school clothes up and down the UK, The Vintage Clothing Kilo Sale, as the name suggests, is a vintage clothing sale where you pay by the kilo. It does what it says on the tin, right? Celebrating their ten year anniversary since their inception, items are priced at £15 per kilo, meaning that if you come along to this fair, it’ll be bloody hard to leave without snagging a few absolute bargains. The Briggait, Glasgow, 14 Sep; The Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Edinburgh, 15 Sep; Ironworks, Inverness, 21 Sep, Aberdeen Arts Centre, Aberdeen, 22 Sep

Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair

Feature

Locavore

Photo: Courtesy of Locavore

Words: Dylan Tuck

Vive La Plastic-Free Revolution Single-use plastics are officially out, and refill stores are springing up everywhere to help us reduce our waste – here’s where to pop for your package-free shop Words: Becca Inglis and Dylan Tuck The Eco Larder 200 Morrison Street, Edinburgh The trailblazers who started it all, ethical business owners Matt and Stephanie Foulds became more acutely aware of our plastic problem after watching that episode of Blue Planet 2. Edinburgh’s first ever dedicated plastic-free grocery store threw open its doors to the West End last November. The Refillery 39 Newington Road, Edinburgh On top of reusing and refilling, The Refillery emphasises the necessity of reorganising for the plastic-free revolution – if your run-of-themill groceries take some forward planning, then making sure you have all your reusable containers and eating utensils to hand definitely does. Weigh To Go 7 Crighton Place, Edinburgh Leithers are now catered for by this sustainable shopping outlet, which opened on Leith Walk earlier this year. They aim to resurrect old shopping habits including the milkround 2.0, where you can fill up on a locally-sourced dairy fix by bringing a refillable glass bottle into the store.

can choose from package-free, locally sourced and seasonally grown produce. Greenway’s Refill Market TBC, Dundee On its way to Dundee this autumn is the brand new social enterprise which will come complete with a community hub, where makers’ groups can meet to create goodies for the store while giving people space to share skills and connect. Hearty Squirrel Coop Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre, University of Edinburgh Streamline your plastic-free shopping experience with EUSA’s volunteer-run food coop. Place your order on their website by Monday, then collect on Thursday on your way to (or from) the library. For a £3 membership you can also buy in bulk online from their supplier, Greencity Wholefoods. Locavore 349 Victoria Road, Glasgow This Southside shop has become renowned within Glasgow. Locavore offers a wide range of groceries, cheeses, grains, pulses, meats and more, with the main focus being on both sustainable and local food.

The New Leaf Co-op 23 Argyle Place, Edinburgh This worker-run food cooperative took over the old wholefoods store of the same name in 2012 and has since focused on supplying ethical, sustainable and locally-sourced organic ingredients to the people of Marchmont.

Zero Waste Market 17 Hillfoot Street, Glasgow The Dennistoun-based shop offers a different approach – rather than simply selling the groceries, they instead supply a selection of plastic-free materials, using metals and bamboo to craft utensils for all your refilling needs.

Birchwood Emporium 28–32 Commercial Street, Dundee This is Heart Space Whole Foods 2.0. Ian Alexander closed the doors to his health food store earlier this year to re-open and re-brand as Dundee’s latest refill hub, where customers

Demijohn 382 Byres Road, Glasgow What’s better than food? That’s right, drink! The folks at Demijohn have a unique selling point, in that they specifically sell liquids – labelling themselves as ‘the liquid deli’.

STUDENT GUIDE

THE SKINNY

September 2019

STUDENT GUIDE

Feature

STUDENT GUIDE

THE SKINNY

Clear Your Plate Scraping leftovers into the bin is doing more damage to the environment than we realise, but there are ways we can put food waste to better use

he war on plastic is on. Judging from the past year, it looks like we’ve finally gauged the amount that we’re clogging up our oceans and are now galvanised to do something before we end up living on a literal plastic beach. Paper straws are advancing across our cities’ bars and cafes. Takeaway cups are being dropped with joyful abandon in favour of bamboo keep cups. Single use plastics will be banned in the UK from next April. There’s still work to be done, but things are looking positive. So you can imagine our surprise when Zero Waste Scotland announced this year that food waste, not plastic, is a worse contributor to climate change in Scotland. The goal posts, it turns out, have moved, and your fridge is the next frontier to fight for a greener future. Looking at Scotland’s waste that was collected in 2016, about 988,000 tonnes of it was just food – and 600,000 tonnes of that came out of our houses. That’s compared to the 224,000 tonnes of plastic that was collected that same year. “Food waste is actually a bigger contributor to climate change than plastics because there is so much more food waste than plastic waste,” says Iain Gulland, Zero Waste Scotland’s Chief Executive. “When we waste food, we also waste all the resources that went into growing, preparing and transporting the food that ends up on our plate. The situation gets even worse if food waste is then left to rot in landfill, where it emits methane, a damaging greenhouse gas.” We’re all pretty well-versed in our carbon footprint by now, and know to cut down on things like flying and heating to offset our personal mark on the environment. But what about methane, the ‘other’ greenhouse gas, second only to carbon dioxide in terms of its role in humanity’s impact on the climate? Around 40% of methane is released into the air from natural sources, and 60% comes from us via cattle farming, biomass burning and food waste. “In the short term, this is many times worse for the planet than carbon dioxide,” says Gulland. “If it were a country, food waste would be the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter behind China and the United States.” That doesn’t mean that we can let up on plastic, but rather that we should reimagine how we think about waste. The argument has been made before that we need a little plastic packaging in our lives to help our food last longer in the fridge – no prizes for guessing that many supermarkets have tended to take that line. That was shown to be, pardon the pun, trash last year by Zero Waste Europe, who concluded that Europe’s annual food waste has actually increased alongside our growing use of plastic. Plastic wrapping our food may even be making the issue worse. Single people, you’ll know the pain of being forced to buy a multipack of fruit that you know you’ll never manage to eat on your own. There’s also the small format packaging problem. One report found that French beans exported from Kenya were being top-and-tailed to fit supermarkets’ length specifications, wasting about 30-40% of the produce grown in the process. Convincing Tesco to change their sizing rules is expected to save 135 tonnes of edible crop a year. Kelly Wright, who left her career in food

September 2019

manufacturing to open the plastic-free store The Refillery in Edinburgh, argues that while packaging is sometimes appropriate, supermarkets are often overzealous with its use. “In certain food groups, you need to protect that produce. Things like meat and fish, that’s quite important from a contamination point of view,” she says. “But my own view is that we do not need plastic on fruit and vegetables. If you buy bananas in a plastic bag, you have to buy what’s in that bag, so that encourages more food waste. Everything that we sell is loose, so the customer can buy exactly what they need for that day or that week.” Most of what The Refillery sells is dry goods, which has a longer shelf life and can be weighed out to help customers buy what they know they can finish. There is also a simple solution for food approaching its use-by date – put it in a free food bin, where customers can help themselves to last-minute scran on the cheap. “We don’t throw anything away unless it’s moldy or would present a risk to somebody,” says Wright. “If people want to take it and make something wonderful with it, they can. It encourages people to be more creative with their food, doesn’t it?” Confusion over use-by dates and bestbefore dates is responsible for a huge amount of food waste in the UK, with the SHRUB Coop estimating that 54,000 edible meals are thrown out every week in Edinburgh alone. Because of this, several ‘rescued food’ initiatives have sprung up around the country, which intercept food from supermarkets before they go to landfill. SHRUB Coop’s Food Sharing Hub launched the city’s first rescued food supermarket in January this year, which encourages volunteer members to repurpose food donated by local businesses that would have otherwise gone in the bin. The cost of membership is pay-as-youcan, which organiser Sydney Chandler hopes will encourage people to reflect on the worth of what they are eating. “The idea of keeping food in the system, not discarding it, making people aware of the value of food, is hopefully creating a different relationship to food,” she says. The goal is to keep food from landfill for as long as possible, which goes as much for the packaging it is donated in as the biodegradable waste. “There’s no point saying we’re not going to take any food in plastic, because then the food gets wasted and that’s counterintuitive to me,” says Chandler. “We have Tupperware offered for free for anything loose, but that has been donated to the shop or by individuals to the community pantry. So again, it’s not creating waste. It’s trying to give things a second life.” SHRUB’s Food Sharing Hub already organises workshops with the university to help students plan key recipes for their rescued edible goods, and they hope in the future to bring those into the wider Edinburgh community. “Not only to take very basic ingredients and make nice meals with them,” says Chandler, “but also to take items that might go in the bin if you don’t know how to keep them properly and look into techniques like fermenting, pickling and things like that. If you’ve got a whole load of milk that you’re not going to get through, you can turn it into yoghurt or into

The Refillery

cheese rather than throwing it out.” There are all sorts of creative uses you can put aging ingredients to, as demonstrated by The Real Junk Food Project’s branch in Glasgow, which previously teamed up with the Williams Bros. brewery and Freedom Bakery to create 50 cans of beer from old bread. Their intercepted food has turned up at events as varied as weddings, a free Boxing Day dinner, and an initiative by Glasgow City Council to supply meals to children over the summer holidays. “The environment is at the core of what we do but there is often an overlap in to food poverty,” says Laura Wells. “Some of the events that we put on are pay-as-you-feel, so people can pay with their money, skills or time. We welcome help from everyone.” If we’re going to tackle food waste, then the change has to come first from our own cupboards. There’s plenty of advice available, but how willing are consumers to make the

STUDENT GUIDE

Photo: Stewart Attwood

Interview: Becca Inglis

necessary adjustments to their cooking habits? “I think people are becoming more mindful of how and what they consume – buying local, opting for produce not in plastic, planning meals and only buying what you need – but I think the logistics of it is what still needs to be tackled,” says Wells. For Wright, these logistics are less about thinking things anew and more updating tried and tested ways of getting your groceries. “A lot of our mature customers that come in say ‘we used to do it like this, this is not new’,” she says. “But what we’re trying to do here is make it a little bit slicker, a little more accessible for people that have grown up in the convenience era. It’s a big step for people that are used to buying things in packets and are a bit detached from food. Iain Gulland, Zero Waste Scotland’s Chief Executive, calls it “back to the future.” zerowastescotland.org.uk

Feature

A Breath of Fresh Air Our Music Editor talks us through the highs and lows of University, dropping out and why you don’t need to have a degree to achieve success

n early 2000, poised before the difficult decision of what course to study at University, I got myself in a pickle. Well and truly confused, I found myself applying for six completely different courses: Computer Arts at Dundee’s Abertay University (I never went to the interview), Interdisciplinary Design at Edinburgh Napier University, two different courses at the Edinburgh College of Art and two at the University of Edinburgh – Music (I didn’t go to the audition) and Architecture (I accepted a place and quit less than two years into the course). What a total shitshow it all was. I was 17 years old – how the fuck was I suppose to know what I wanted to do with the rest of my life? I have to admit up front, I didn’t have the most relatable of high school experiences. I was once a highly competitive archer, which found me travelling a lot in my teens with the Junior British Archery Team, and Scottish Junior and Senior teams. An abnormal amount of pressure had, therefore, already been placed on me from an early age – I sat two of my Standard Grade exams in a hotel room in Italy for fuck’s sake – and then I had to figure out what to do after school. With archery, I was working towards hopefully one day competing in the Olympics, and The University of Edinburgh had the best Archery Club of everywhere I’d applied for, so I guess that’s why I ended up there? Either that or I was just drawn to subjects beginning with the word ‘arch’. In an ideal world I’d have taken a year out, but no one from my family had ever gone to uni before (hello extra pressure) I’d grown up in council housing with my parents constantly struggling to give me the best life, and at the end of the day they just wanted what was best for me, which they thought was higher education, so convinced me otherwise. I’m

now 37, I haven’t done archery for at least 16 years, I didn’t go to the Olympics and I don’t have a degree. But, and this is a big but, that doesn’t make me a failure. In 2002 I dropped out of uni. While I was managing to hold down a part-time job and doing reasonably well on the course, I was so deeply unhappy to a point where it was downright unhealthy. I was staying up late to finish coursework and then sleeping in and missing classes – it was a vicious cycle. Then, one night when I was drunk, on my way home from a club, I went into the studio and coloured in all of my technical drawings (24 hour access was both a blessing and a curse) the night before I had to give a presentation! It was not a good look. I somehow got away with it, but immediately booked an appointment with my Director of Studies as I realised I’d gotten myself into a mess and didn’t particularly want to continue on the course. He immediately pointed out the glaringly obvious – I was depressed. After trying to convince me to stay – “but you bring something different to the course” – he helped me try to transfer onto a different course (Primary School Teaching for some reason) which led to rejection. He did everything he could to help me and then I just stopped going into uni altogether, and I stopped archery. I was miserable. I felt like a failure, like I’d let everyone down, but my mum made everything seem OK. It turns out she just wanted me to be happy all along (of course she did) and the degree didn’t matter. I told my mum I’d taken on full-time hours in the cinema where I worked until I figured things out. Her response: “As long as you’re happy.” As long as you’re happy. Five such simple words that have stuck with me since that day. I

Words: Tallah Brash

went from the Odeon to working in a bank (hated it), from the bank to Monsoon/ Accessorize and from there to a whole big world of music. As a non-student I became a member of Fresh Air, Edinburgh Uni’s student radio station, and that was my turning point. I started a show with my friend and found myself applying for a Creative Industries HND in Radio at Edinburgh’s Telford College, which I fucking well completed. Self high five! Fresh Air changed everything for me and it was like setting off an elaborate sequence of falling dominoes. Quitting uni was the best thing I ever did. While it’s impossible to list everything here that I’ve done since I quit uni, I’m now the Music Editor for The Skinny and can without hesitation say I made the right call back in 2002; I have no regrets. I was employed at The Skinny based on my knowledge and experience, not on whether or not I had a degree. I’ve worked my way through various areas of the music industry over the years, offered my services for free, learning as much as I could along the way and fortunately it has led me here. It has been hard, but so is getting a degree. I’m now doing something I feel passionate about and I’m privileged to do what I do for a living. So if you’ve just started uni, it is absolutely, unequivocally, more than OK if you’re not sure you’ve made the right decision yet. Seriously. Anything you’re doing is helping shape your future, and if you’re anything like my boyfriend you might end up with a degree in Marine Biology but could become an award-winning baker. Stay true to you, and make sure what you’re doing feels right, and if it doesn’t, you feel stuck in a rut or not like yourself, talk to someone.

WORDS OF WISDOM “Please, please go with your gut. I left school three months before I was due to take my A Level exams. My mental and physical health was a mess. I knew that I was at a crossroad with all signs pointing straight but my heart just wasn’t in it. There is no better time to be selfish [...] Don’t waste time pondering your future, go and start building it!” Daisy Maskell, Breakfast Presenter, Kiss FM “I am in no way claiming to have ‘made it’ but I am super proud of what I’ve done. At school I was offered four unconditionals which I rejected to do a three-day-aweek HND at Edinburgh College. Studying Music Business I got the whole ‘where is that going to take you?’ chat or ‘so when do you go to uni?’ I’m 20 and I get hired on my experience and drive, not a piece of paper I hold, or in this case lack of.” Jo Dargie, Co-Manager/ Director, Discovery Music Scotland “Get a job, work hard. Four or five years of experience and ladder-climbing will serve you better than four or five years of study. Sure certain professions demand a university degree but I know that a degree would have done nothing to enhance my career [and] it meant I could enjoy my early 20s. I learned an awful lot in those formative years.” Ian Smith, Founder, Last Night from Glasgow “I stumbled through school, crippled by what I now know is dyslexia. I started in the Civil Service straight from school but from my first glimpses of glam rock on Top of the Pops and seeing my first live band, music was in my blood. After playing guitar badly for years, running community music groups and a festival on a voluntary basis, I now run Mac Arts and I still can’t believe that this is called a job.” Chris Wemyss, Venue Manager, Mac Arts, Galashiels

DON’T SUFFER IN SILENCE If you’re feeling overwhelmed, like you’re struggling, or in desperate need of advice or help, talk to someone – that could be your Director of Studies, a tutor, your University’s Student Council Service, your GP, a family member or a friend. Alternatively, here are some helpful websites to consider: Nightline: nightline.ac.uk National Union of Students: nus.org.uk Student Minds: studentminds.org.uk Scottish Association for Mental Health: samh.org.uk Samaritans: samaritans.org Tiny Changes: maketinychanges.co.uk Mind: mind.org.uk

Feature

STUDENT GUIDE

THE SKINNY

September 2019

STUDENT GUIDE

Feature

THE SKINNY

RE V

Celtic Connections

IE W

With Kid Canaveral on a well-earned hiatus, David MacGregor explores his Gaelic roots with a stunning, stately debut as Broken Chanter

“I

’ve not gone full Runrig or anything.” The very fact that David MacGregor feels the need to reference the Celtic rock band tells you something about the direction he’s headed in with his first solo album – namely, one a long way from his work with Kid Canaveral. After a gruelling touring schedule followed the release of the Edinburgh five-piece’s third record, 2016’s Faulty Inner Dialogue, MacGregor’s songwriting partner Kate Lazda signalled a desire for a break – and left him with a blank slate, one both invigorating and intimidating. Out of it was born Broken Chanter, an LP titled after his new solo moniker – the photo that inspired the name is on the inside sleeve of the record, of a two-year-old MacGregor enthusiastically blowing into the detached chanter of a set of bagpipes, to the deafened dismay of his family (“who used to hide it away in a drawer”). The album is a long way removed from Kid Canaveral, swapping out the fizzing pace of their melodic indie-rock for something much more understated, more stately, and more reflective. Broken Chanter is a sonic reflection of the environment in which it was conceived; defined by the stunning vistas and wild weather of the

Scottish Highlands, where it was written, and an Atlantic peninsula in County Donegal, where it was recorded. “I locked myself away in various wee bits of the Highlands and Islands,” says MacGregor over the phone. “I wanted to try to get away from the temptations of the city, and the possibility of procrastination. I went up to my in-laws’ village in the off-season – so last November and December – sitting in their closed gift shop by myself, trying to put demos down. By January, I was on Skye to visit my sister-in-law for her birthday, and I was putting down anything I could on my wee recorder. I just wanted to collect every single idea that I could, so I had plenty to choose from when I got to Ireland to record.” He headed there with producer and engineer Gal, whose parents had left behind an empty house for two weeks, with drummer Audrey Tait joining them, too. Together, they hammered together Broken Chanter in 12 days, turning the ground floor of the house into a makeshift studio. What emerged from the sessions was a record that reflected the profound beauty of the surroundings in which MacGregor had written and recorded it. “That was definitely an influence,” he says. “At pretty much any given point in this whole process, I

Interview: Joe Goggins

could turn my head and see another spectacular view. “When we were in Ireland, we would record the basic tracks in the morning, and then head out for a walk – and there were three or four beaches within ten minutes of us. It was the start of February, so the weather was wild; you would have piles of hailstones outside the window one minute, and then glorious sunshine an hour later, and then snow, and then torrential rain. We were on that cycle for the whole fortnight. It crept into the recording, for sure – there’s a slightly chaotic energy to some parts of it.” For the most part, though, MacGregor had wanted to steer clear of the restlessness that had come to be Kid Canaveral’s calling card, especially in terms of his own contributions. That was especially true of his work on Faulty Inner Dialogue. “The band can be pretty breakneck at times, and I didn’t feel the need to go down that route this time,” he explains. “I wasn’t worried about typical songwriting structures, or how energetic the songs might need to be on tour. I wanted to approach everything from the opposite starting point as I would with Kid Canaveral, as well as make something a lot less claustrophobic than that last album. That was written when I was dealing with severely poor mental health personally, and was maybe quite an uncomfortable listen. It’s definitely not the cheeriest of records. I wanted to be a bit more abstract in places, but also more hopeful. A renewed sense of positivity was what I was aiming for.”

“I wanted to try to get away from the temptations of the city, and the possibility of procrastination” David MacGregor

Broken Chanter is released on 6 Sep via Last Night from Glasgow and Olive Grove Records Broken Chanter plays CCA, Glasgow, 6 Sep; Beat Generator Live!, Dundee, 7 Sep; Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, 17 Oct; The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 18 Oct; MacArts, Galashiels, 2 Nov brokenchanter.com

Photo: Stephanie Gibson

If Broken Chanter was conjured up in the north of Scotland and made real in the north-west of Ireland, the finishing touches weren’t applied until MacGregor took it to Glenwood Studio in Glasgow, where a host of collaborators were able to lend their talents to it. Most of them were friends that he already knew – he co-wrote some tracks with Gav Prentice of ULTRAS, and had cello provided by Hannah Shepherd of eagleowl and Withered

Hand. Both old tourmate Emma Kupa of Mammoth Penguins and Standard Fare and Jill O’Sullivan of Sparrow and the Workshop and Bdy_Prts also feature. One crucial contribution, though, comes from somebody MacGregor had to cold email – Kim Carnie, who sings in Gaelic on the gorgeous Mionagadanan. “I’d seen her in the final of the BBC’s Young Traditional Musician competition a couple of years ago,” he recalls, “and I thought she’d be perfect, so I sent her this big demented essay of an email telling her who I was, what I’d done, and what I knew about this kind of music – that it wasn’t going to be a gimmicky novelty thing. She came into the studio, and when Gal asked her what made her want to work with us, she said, ‘Well, David sent me a long email, and I just wanted to see what was wrong with him!’ I’m very glad she did, though.” Mionagadanan is an old Gaelic word with no English equivalent pertaining to the specks of dust you see swirling in a beam of light as it enters a room, “or if you’re feeling less romantic about it, those bits of skin that float about,” laughs MacGregor. He’s been trying, on and off, to learn the language for a number of years, having postponed his studies at the Sabhal Mòr Ostaig college on Skye for the time being as Broken Chanter begins to command all of his attention. “My sister-in-law’s fluent, so I had her check what I’d written to make sure it wasn’t stupid or offensive! I thought that it would encourage me to kick on and learn properly if I sat down to write a song in [Gaelic]. It just seemed as if that title would fit with droning guitars and atmospheric synths we had for that instrumental. It’s just another way in which there’s a sense of place to the record.” He’s open to returning to Kid Canaveral as soon as Lazda is ready to pick up a guitar again, but before that, he’ll take Broken Chanter on the road around the UK later this year, with Prentice, Tait and O’Sullivan joining him in the live band. As the record’s release approaches, he’s satisfied that, despite kicking against most of what he’s known his whole musical life, he’s made an album that is, as he puts it, “as worthy as it could possibly be of being pressed onto two sides of vinyl. “I said to Gal that if we ended up with anything that sounded anything like Kid Canaveral, we’d get rid of it. And we did – we dropped two songs. I had the freedom just to follow anything that felt right, and see what happened – and I’m glad that I did. I like it, anyway!”

September 2019

MUSIC

Review

Thank You and Goodnight Ahead of their final show at Glasgow’s Art School on 7 September, we catch up with one of Scotland’s most important bands of the last decade, The Spook School

Interview: Adam Turner-Heffer

ll great things must come to an end. After eight years and three fantastic albums, sadly, The Spook School have decided to call it quits. “We had two choices: to fizzle out slowly over the next two years, or hold one hell of a blowout party to say goodbye to our friends and fans properly, so we all agreed this seemed like the most appropriate way to do it,” drummer Niall McCamley explains. The quartet became much-loved on home soil for 2013’s Dress Up and 2015’s Try to Be Hopeful, which was followed by success on both sides of the Atlantic through their 2018 Alcopop! Records release Could It Be Different? Their inclusion on the 2018 Scottish Album of the Year longlist, for what will now be their final album, was a testament to the band’s ever-growing ability as musicians and ever-expanding fanbase.

So why quit while you’re ahead? Unfortunately, the answer is rather boring: life. Life gets in the way of hopes and dreams constantly, and while it is sad to an extent, all this door closing means is the opening of many others. For instance, bassist and vocalist AC has already started playing in other projects, including one where they have a recorder solo,

much to the jealousy of their soon to be ex-bandmates – “there’s still time!” AC retorts. Meanwhile, McCamley (the band’s “loudest” member – his words) has also initiated Squiggles, a solo project inspired by his struggles with mental health. McCamley tells us his invitation to work with the Mental Health Foundation and The Scottish Association for Mental Health helped shape the project. Visually, Squiggles involves McCamley playing a mental health-assisting superhero (complete with fluorescent orange spandex and cape) and says that had it not been for The Spook School, he never would’ve had the opportunity or courage to take on this project. “Being in The Spook School has allowed and encouraged me to talk about this sort of stuff openly, so this is the first time I knew in advance what the subject matter would be. While it’s not easy, especially without my three best friends on stage with me, which is why I’m singing about it instead of talking, at times it certainly feels very cathartic and rewarding. I hope it will help some people in the same way The Spook School has.”

Do Not Miss

Lust for Youth

Review

Photo: Halfdan Venlov

Lust for Youth @ Broadcast, Glasgow, 11 Sep Having released their ace eponymous record back in June, the Copenhagen-based duo of Hannes Norrvide and Malthe Fischer, better known as Lust for Youth, are preparing for a shed-load of shows across Europe and the UK – and you just know Glasgow’s date will be the best of the run. A night that’s sure to feature more fuzzy synths than you can shake an 808 at, these dance-pop gurus don’t hang about when it comes to getting down. Groovin’ on over to Broadcast is a must.

Mi Mye

OK PAL Afternoon Gig @ Leith Depot, Edinburgh, 14 Sep Imagine a gig all laid out for you on a Saturday afternoon as the summer reaches its final moments and the crispness of autumn grows ever-near. No, we’re not on about a festival – we’re talking about OK PAL’s Afternoon Gig! From 2:30-5:30pm, Leith Depot will provide shelter from the (let’s be honest, highly likely) rain, and a tasty bill of bands. West Yorkshire quintet Mi Mye will bring heartfelt, lo-fi melodies, Edinburgh’s Burnt Paw have got the finger-picking folk covered and, judging by the emphatic name, Girl Jesus sounds a wee bit special too.

In addition, The Spookies have been an important band for the discussion on queer and trans issues – a central part of their identities both as individuals and as a collective navigating through society. Songs such as Body and Binary specifically sing about issues regarding gender transitions and fluidity in such an honest and occasionally even comedic way, something few other artists have managed to do to any similar level of success. “People who have messaged us, queer or otherwise, saying that we mean a lot to them and that we have helped them has been the most amazing thing we’ve achieved,” guitarist and vocalist Nye Todd, who is planning on taking a break after their final tour, says. “Being in this band has helped us grow as people and overcome a lot of shit, so it’s awesome that other people have felt that too.” The band, however, are reluctant to say they set out with any intention of being “the queer band” in any particular scene or community. “I wasn’t even out as queer when we first started,” Nye clarifies. Arguably, this slight awkwardness surrounding this question may well be down to miscommunication

EIMF presents Your New Favourite Band @ Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, 17 Sep From 16-22 September, the Edinburgh International Magazine Festival are running a series of events including talks, workshops, podcast recordings and more. As part of the week-long programme, The Skinny are delighted to have teamed up with our good pals at GoldFlakePaint to bring a night of live music to Sneaky Pete’s. With live sets from Maranta, Edwin Organ and newcomers DRIFT, come along to see bands introduced live onstage by our Music Editor Tallah Brash, GFP Editor Tom Johnson and EIMF Director Laura Dunlop, and discover your new favourite band!

MUSIC

Maranta

The Spook School play The Art School, Glasgow, 7 Sep thespookschool.com

Camp Cope

Photo: Svatá Luciá

Nye Todd

The Spook School

Photo: Jamie Lockhart

“Being in this band has helped us grow as people and overcome a lot of shit, so it’s awesome that other people have felt that too”

between different perspectives on the world; coming from a straight, cis-gender, introverted, male journalist asking clumsily formulated questions about a topic the interviewees have been endlessly bombarded with by the press. Importantly, the band’s influence and representation of the human experience extends way beyond their queer and trans identities – they create music that touches universally. Either way, Nye and AC agree that it’s incredible they’ve met so many people – fans and fellow musicians – who share their joys and frustrations. As they prepare for their final tour, they’re excited but trepidatious. “[There is] the pressure of not getting a second chance at this,” says guitarist and vocalist Adam Todd, although the mood is generally high, “but we have some fun surprises planned for it.” “We’re reforming immediately after!” jokes McCamley in response. AC explains how “it won’t feel real until it’s really happening,” however, McCamley, the self-professed “biggest fan of The Spook School”, explains how at their recent performance at Indietracks festival, the unofficial kick-off to their farewell tour, he was “in bits” before, during and after the show, “and now we have to do it nine or ten more times!”. The band agrees, however, that the whole point of this tour is to get to say a proper goodbye to their fans and friends across the UK: “We’ll still be around, even if not as The Spook School, besides, I will keep checking the emails afterwards!” The band’s optimism doesn’t wane and they’re keen to praise other local acts such as KAPUTT, Happy Spendy and “anything Chrissy Barnacle is involved in.” Ultimately, the four best friends are extremely proud of their accomplishments as The Spook School, as they bloody well should be, and this final tour is to be a celebration and thank you as opposed to a lamentation. So, with that in mind, let’s make sure to give The Spookies the send-off they so thoroughly deserve.

Camp Cope @ Slay, Glasgow, 20 Sep Melbourne’s Camp Cope are firmly standing tall in a music scene full of bullshit. Their sophomore effort How to Socialise and Make Friends was shaped by rage and unfeigned emotion, twinning jagged, raw indie-rock with direct lyrics that expose harsh truths of bollocks behaviour – and they’re bringing their uncompromising whirlwind to Glasgow this month. The Aussie trio are as enigmatic live as their music suggests, with Joy Division-like bass grooves guiding Georgia Maq’s rough, super-charged vocals through a world of chaos. Miss them at you peril.

THE SKINNY

Photo: Naomi Lee Beveridge

Over the Rainbow KAPUTT’s Cal Donnelly talks Judy Garland, Todd Rundgren and slowthai in anticipation of the Glasgow sextet’s debut album, Carnage Hall

September 2019

album [Nothing Great About Britain] is ‘Bottle of Bucky’, and no one asks him about it.” Each amorphous track on Carnage Hall houses divergent micro suites, musical twists and turns that give the album a frustrated flow, muddied and moss-laden in parts, with pools of crystal clarity elsewhere. “Pastoral” is the word Donnelly uses. On the subject of his own wiry guitar playing, he says: “I’m not particularly good... It’s more interesting to write that way than to write some kind of Todd Rundgren ballad – it’s easier to sound like a slinky falling down the stairs than consistently hitting the high notes and telling girls that you love them.” Your move, Rundgren. This pretty-ugly sleight of hand extends to KAPUTT’s lyrical content. Suspectette concerns itself with societal mistrust of women via an oft-told story about Mary Weiss of The Shangri-La’s, who once gained attention from the FBI for allegedly carrying a gun across state lines. You Are Buried With My Nose refers to Donnelly’s family history via a dominant genetic feature – “the Niven nose” – and the fraught link to his estranged grandfather: “he owns something that I have on my face. I couldn’t settle that, so I wrote a stupid song about it.” Drinking Problems Continue Pt II was

written in part to eulogise his other grandad, a shipyard worker who died from asbestos-related illnesses. “All the workers were exposed to all these chemicals that the higher-ups knew were dangerous,” Donnelly tells us. “In the end, it’s what killed him.” His memory is also refracted through lyrical retellings of childhood trips to Ullapool: “a postcard view of Scotland. But there’s still a guy pissing on the street, guys fighting on the beach. It’s where my parents got engaged.”

“It’s easier to sound like a slinky falling down the stairs than consistently hitting the high notes” Cal Donnelly

KAPUTT

Gaelynn Lea @ Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, 25 Sep A fabulous violinist, musician, songwriter and activist, Gaelynn Lea heads back across the Atlantic to grace Scotland’s capital once more. Her delightful manipulation of folk and classical is an ample reflection of her wonderfully talented musicianship, while her experiences as a disabled musician have led her to campaign for more inclusivity for others in her position. The show is brought to you by our friends over at Braw Gigs, with support coming from Glasgow’s gifted avant pop multiinstrumentalist Kapil Seshasayee. They both also play Glasgow’s Glad Cafe the night before.

Gaelynn Lea

Heavy Rapids

Photo: Alice Smoth

Among the curses of fame, systemic violence, familial strife and the tainted nature of memory, it seems the central thesis of Carnage Hall is this: what if things had been different? Is the place over the rainbow, where, as Garland once sang, ‘the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true’, a place of alternative history? If so, what good would it hold – and what fresh hells? KAPUTT don’t claim to have the answers, but they offer a balm. “Something about dancey, janky music, shared with minor traumas is,” Donnelly pauses, then laughs, “good for the soul.”

Heavy Rapids @ Stereo, Glasgow, 27 Sep Glasgow’s alt-punks are rolling in the punches for a hometown show at Stereo tonight. It’s easy to forget these dudes only formed in 2017, having already slotted sets at TRNSMT and the Tenement Trail under their belts, while simultaneously amassing a generous following thanks to their energy-rich live shows that are as explosive as a lit match dropped into a barrel of petrol. For those who can’t make this one, there’s other chances to get yer elbows swinging in the pit as they play Tunnels, Aberdeen, 20 Sep and Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, 26 Sep.

MUSIC

Carnage Hall is released on 27 Sep via Upset the Rhythm KAPUTT play Freakender, The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, 13-15 Sep facebook.com/KaputtinGlasgow

Savage Mansion @ The Blue Arrow, Glasgow, 28 Sep Fancy seeing out the final days of September by treating your ears to some raggedy-fun indie-rock? Well then, say hello to a hometown gig from Savage Mansion. The five-piece are set to bring their charismatic, easy-going guitar-rock to Glasgow’s Blue Arrow tonight, with support from Codist and Good Dog. If that’s not enough, the show’s followed by an after-party – also in the Arrow, how convenient! – that’ll go long into the night, with the fabulous Happy Spendy rocking up at midnight before DJ BRB keeps the tunes a’flowin’ until 3am. [Dylan Tuck]

Savage Mansion

Review

Photo: Beth Chalmers

Self Esteem @ The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 21 Sep 2019 has been a big one for Self Esteem. Straight from dropping her debut release and supporting Florence and the Machine in Edinburgh, Rebecca Taylor’s first steps into the world of experimental pop could hardly have gone much better. With a selection of glossy, gospel-laced pop that’s oozing personality, catching Taylor’s solo rise in small venues like this is a must. Add to that support from incredible electro duo Free Love, alongside this show being a late one, and you’ve got what they call in the business: one helluva night out.

happens!’ [Carnage Hall] is like this alternative hellscape we’re in. That’s why we named the album after it.” Before recording the album, the project’s beginnings were shaped by practical limitations, with Donnelly and Chrissy Barnacle both working at the same cafe, convening over a drum machine to record demos. “I wanted to do a band with a sax. From being a teenager to my early 20s, I’d been fucking screaming and hammering out three chords,” he says. “I wanted to do something with a different textural quality.” This mentality bled into the creative process, long before Tobias Carmichael joined on bass, with members intermittently jumping on different instruments for a fresh perspective. “It’s like, you’ve written this song and you spend all this time building it up, then you play it for a-year-and-a-half, then deconstruct it,” Donnelly says. With percussionist Emma Smith yet to join, the group took to using an empty bottle of Buckfast as a makeshift cowbell, still in use to this day in performances and on record. Was he worried that music writers might indulge in stereotyping? “We started using it because Chrissy had it in her saxophone case,” Donnelly explains. “People drink it up and down the country. [One of] the first lines of slowthai’s

Photo: Daniel Blake

Self Esteem

Photo: Euan Robertson

n 1961, Judy Garland walks on stage to an overture medley of her best-loved show tunes and the roaring cheers of a packed Carnegie Hall. She gasps, overwhelmed by the response, composing herself before breaking into When You’re Smiling. Scrutinised in the preceding years for drug problems and yo-yoing body weight, this performance would later help secure her stature as “the world’s greatest entertainer”. Yet the subsequent years leading up to her death by accidental overdose in 1969 would prove difficult, dogged by divorce and financial ruin. It’s a heartbreaking bungee from rise to fall and back again, and one that holds significance to Glasgow sextet KAPUTT’s singerguitarist Cal Donnelly, who first heard recordings from Judy at Carnegie Hall in a tour van, on a taped radio show presented by Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne. “I honestly can’t remember the song,” he says, “but I went back and I listened to the record and thought it was just,” his eyes brighten, “amazing!” Garland’s career-defining moment is at the core of KAPUTT’s debut LP, Carnage Hall. But the album’s title track takes a branching path: “What if her performance was a complete failure? No one comes, she loses her voice. It’s game over, the end of her career. Maybe she would’ve lived on, who knows.” Following a knotted guitar break by Donnelly and Simone Wilson, seasoned with Chrissy Barnacle’s scattershot sax and the combined erratic rhythms of drummer Rikki Will and percussionist Emma Smith, Carnage Hall breaks down midway like a crashing economy, as a desolate landscape takes precedence – one that, if you squint hard enough, reads as an ill omen of the UK’s sociopolitical uncertainty, as Brexit looms and the far-right takes hold over Europe. The lyrical imagery reflects a worst-casescenario: ‘Builders are not working / Ticket sales low / Revolving doors broken / The dancefloor must go’. “You can sell the idea of an event,” Donnelly says, “but things happen slowly. You can pinpoint event A, B or C but it’s all a slow burn, no one ever warns you, then you get here and you’re like ‘fuck, this is how it

Photo: EvrGlo Media

Interview: Dafydd Jenkins

Album of the Month Charli XCX

Charli [Asylum Records, 13 Sep]

rrrrr

rrrrr Shite rrrrr Boring rrrrr Solid

As Charli XCX, Charlotte Aitchison has had an interesting career. From her almost gothic debut True Romance, through to the more recent, explosive bubblegum pop mixtapes, she’s consolidated her sound to great critical acclaim and adoration from her fans, while rarely breaking through to mainstream heights; highest accolades afforded to Boom Clap and a feature on Icona Pop’s I Love It. Though perhaps it’s this lack of consistently focused media attention that allows her music to flourish – PC music, after all, transcends pop. It exists as a genre that is as distinctive as it is outlandish, and in the case of Charli, as explosive as it is introspective. Nurtured over a three-month span in an intimate studio with producer A.G. Cook, Charli is a more refined, polished project than what we’ve previously seen from Aitchison. With her third studio album, she’s finally found the edge she’s been working toward as Charli explores highs and lows, echoed in a soundscape of robust synths and slow-moving ballads, funky claps and explosive rap

Chastity Belt

rrrrr

While Baltimore, Maryland’s Lower Dens has always been the project of lead singer-songwriter Jana Hunter, their former accompanying band has now been shed for their fourth album. The Competition is entirely the work of Hunter, who proudly takes centre stage on the record’s 80s-influenced artwork. Indeed, Lower Dens as a project has always owed a lot to 80s synthesisers and drum machines, but none more so than here. The Competition lays out a retrograded yet futuristic world to comment on modern society, dealing in political and gender identities at a time where these discussions have never been more prominent. On Young Republicans, Hunter lays out a snarkily satirical anthem dealing with this exact discourse, with a cheeky nod to David Bowie’s similarly titled 70s-romp. Musically, Hunter creates something that borders on what one would imagine a collaboration between Beach House and Robyn would sound like. It’s an odd combination on the face of it, such as on Real Thing, but yet strangely somehow works. Essentially, while Hunter is fiercely conveying an important message, one’s enjoyment will depend on the unsubtle nature of the message or the slightly formulaic nature of the music – but with openers as soaring as Galapagos, it sure is hard to resist. [Adam Turner-Heffer] Listen to: Young Republicans, Real Thing, Galapagos

Review

sequences. What’s more, it’s a record that thrives in an energy that begs an incessant urgency to dance. Familiar names resurface in Tommy Cash, Brooke Candy and Pabllo Vittar with new names like Sky Ferreira, Haim and Christine and the Queens welcomed. The latter’s luscious collaboration on Gone is indisputably the record’s highest point with its synthy depths, revealing lyricism and alluring feature from Héloïse Letissier, the perfect introduction for PC music newcomers. In its exploration of feeling, dissection of relationships and insecurities, Charli grows to be embellished in a fresh honesty new for Charli XCX. If Cross You Out is a brooding, sultry slow dance, Shake It is a wilding celebration and an exceptional example of Aitchison’s reputation to produce collaboratively – CupcakKe begins in whispers, Brooke Candy mixed in metal to resemble an almost robotic edge. The real beauty, though, is how it is simultaneously playful, with complementary tongue-in-cheek verses from CupcakKe

Lower Dens

The Competition [Ribbon Music, 6 Sep]

rrrrr Brilliant rrrrr Life-changing

Charli XCX

and Tommy Cash. Charli is an expansive record, flooded with joy and heartache, consolidated in its array of features. Alongside indulgently unadorned ruminations on fear and love, the record is boundlessly liberating, decadently

Bat for Lashes

Chastity Belt [Hardly Art, 20 Sep]

rrrrr

There was a satisfying arc to the first three Chastity Belt records. The deliberately misspelt title of their debut, No Regerts, set the tone for it; they were playful, painting a carefree picture of college life in Seattle. I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone is one of the great treatises on post-collegiate malaise, a beautifully bleak reflection on mid-20s aimlessness. It sounds like an existential crisis and, by the sounds of it, might have triggered one; last year, they cancelled a slew of tour dates as singer Julia Shapiro was hit by a crippling double whammy of a serious health scare and a depression-inducing breakup. That Shapiro has overcome both to produce two of this year’s finest albums suggests that she may, in fact, be Superwoman. The stormy atmosphere that defined their last, one that occasionally threatened to suffocate, has been lifted; instead, the guitars are woozy, the melodies are airy, and the songs are all given room to breathe. Chastity Belt is proof positive that bands don’t need to simply spin the wheels when they’re going through periods of transition; instead, they can find sanctuary in their work. That’s precisely what Chastity Belt have done – they’ve produced a gorgeous ode to the power of self-care. [Joe Goggins] Listen to: Elena, It Takes Time, Rav-4

Lost Girls [AWAL Recordings, 6 Sep]

For her first record since the conceptually rich but occasionally overwrought The Bride, Bat for Lashes’ Natasha Khan returns with the sumptuous, synth-splashed Lost Girls, the soundtrack to misspent LA evenings. Lost Girls opens with lead single Kids in the Dark, an instant statement of intent power ballad which finds Khan both loving and reflective over slick, chest-beating synth-pop, with lashings of 80s reverb and a touch of Portishead in the airy, spacious vocal. Inspired by 80s

Kindness

Something Like a War [Female Energy, 6 Sep]

rrrrr

‘There will be people who will say / You don’t mix this with that / And you will say: watch me’. This bold, spoken word introduction on Sibambaneni then opens out into strident orchestral manoeuvres before flowing straight into the classic house pulse of Raise Up. It’s a passage that helps to sum up the personal journey that Adam Bainbridge, better known as Kindness, has undergone over the last couple of years. Recorded mostly at the beginning of 2017, their third album Something Like a War reflects new-found confidence,

RECORDS

indulgent and irresistibly danceable. Aitchison has delivered her greatest work yet. [Bethany Davison] Listen to: Gone, Shake It, Cross You Out

sci-fi, coming-of-age movies and her work developing a vampire girl gang project of her own, Lost Girls will be a hit with anyone who found themselves seduced by Chromatics and the other artists who found fame in the wake of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive. The album’s accompanying notes talk about driving through the mountainous LA deserts at night-time, and hints (or is it a warning?) that if you stare into the desert too long, you might start to see things emerging from the mist. Whatever Khan has seen out there, Lost Girls makes you glad she brought a little slice of it back for the rest of us. [Max Sefton] Listen to: Kids in the Dark, Feel for You

interweaving a range of emotions with a similar breadth of styles. Something Like a War is at its best when it embraces its flexibility with musical styles in an uninhibited melange of sound. Sometimes the clash of sounds can feel slightly diluted by some slightly hazy production, including on The Warning, where Robyn’s emotionallywrought vocals and the melancholy orchestration are dulled by the washed-out beats. Yet, even in these moments, there’s an air of self-assuredness. ‘Won’t try to hide it / I’m gonna be myself this time’ Bainbridge sings alongside Robyn on the propulsive Cry Everything. On Something Like a War, it often sounds like they’re doing just that. [Eugenie Johnson] Listen to: Raise Up

THE SKINNY

The Practice of Love [Sacred Bones Records, 13 Sep]

rrrrr

The same restless desire to inquire, debate and understand that frequently propelled forward Blood Bitch – Jenny Hval’s intoxicating and, at times, Pharmakon-esque 2016 release – can be felt throughout The Practice of Love. On her third solo album, the Norwegian musician and author has parted with a compellingly self-assured record that is more euphoric than claustrophobic. Songs that tackle existential queries are often filled to the brim with bitterness, anger, frustration and helplessness, rarely making peace with the lack of resolution most who ask the big questions are left with. Hval either didn’t get the memo or, more likely, scribbled

(Sandy) Alex G

House of Sugar [Domino, 13 Sep]

rrrrr

On the opening track to his masterpiece Benji, a generous and thoughtful work that seems so far away now, Mark Kozelek wondered about his second cousin Carissa’s death: ‘I didn’t know her well at all / But it don’t mean I wasn’t meant to find some

a more constructive idea on top of it. Thumbsucker boasts impeccable hooks, Accident is a banger and lead single Ashes To Ashes soars, thanks to exquisite production and Hval’s most intoxicating and elevating chorus to date. ‘I had this dream about a song’, she begins, halfway through a record that often feels like a warm invitation to converse. At one point she does, with collaborator Laura Jean in the title track: ‘I’m part of this human ecosystem / But I’m not the main character / Because I feel that the main characters are the people that have kids… / I’m a supporting character / And that’s a hard thing for my ego to take’. The obligation to have children, to contribute to the survival of the human race is on Hval’s mind, along with other expectations society thrusts upon us. The Practice of Love is a powerful and joyous offering from one of the last artists anyone could ever accuse of playing it safe. Her unorthodox observations (‘She found

stretch mark cream / In an Airbnb bathroom’) are, more so than ever before, full of wit, bite and beauty. [Fraser McIntyre]

Listen to: Ashes To Ashes, Accident, Lions (feat. Vivian Wang)

poetry / To make some sense of this / To find a deeper meaning in this senseless tragedy’. On Hope, taken from House of Sugar, the third Domino release from Alex Giannascoli, otherwise known as (Sandy) Alex G, a similar feeling is hit upon: ‘He was a good friend of mine / He died, why write about it now? / Gotta honour him somehow’. Neither artist’s body of work is particularly comparable, but what it says from Giannascoli’s perspective is his willingness to finally be open and personal (Kozelek is famously both, to a fault) when he has created a universe of

vagabonds and misfits to tell stories with. House of Sugar continues where Rocket left off, creating music that can be at once lustrous and baffling, leaning into all his idiosyncrasies, and still creating melodies and hooks as sweet as the record’s title. SugarHouse, the casino the album takes its name from, is a live cut amongst its studio recording sisters, joining a not populous, but also not unheard of, family of records that employ a similar fake-out. Becoming a kind of Philly Springsteen, complete with a Clarence Clemons-inspired sax line, he peels away the

artifice: ‘We could still be players together / Let SugarHouse pick up the tab… / When our children go digging for answers / I hope they can put me together again’. No matter how badly we, or the inhabitants of the House of Sugar, fuck up, we’ll be remembered in stories like these. [Tony Inglis]

Jenny Hval

Molly Sarlé

Chelsea Wolfe

rrrrr

Free [Loma Vista / Caroline International, 6 Sep]

While Chelsea Wolfe has often shapeshifted in terms of how she presents her music, one thing remains constant: her big mood. Wolfe’s atmospherics regardless of whether she’s in doom metal or folkrock mode (found here) has always been a key element to her music. On her sixth album, Birth of Violence, Wolfe returns to the acoustic guitar she started out with in her earliest material. While on the face of it, it may seem at odds with 2017’s crushingly heavy Hiss Spun, the two albums actually share a surprising amount in terms of songwriting and mood. Rather like Bruce Springsteen’s lo-fi masterpiece Nebraska, Wolfe recreates a sparseness (albeit with modern production methods) that shows off her best assets, doing more with less. [Adam Turner-Heffer]

At just ten tracks long, you’d expect the new record from the former Stooges frontman to be as fatfree as the 72-year-old himself. Unfortunately, those expecting the fire and fury of his still superlative live shows may find themselves disappointed. He seems to be casting for similar terrain here, with more fuzzed-up sax and a lugubrious pace, as if the septuagenarian star is happy playing about with whatever ideas pop into his head on a Miami evening. Before Free’s release, he said “this album just kind of happened to me, and I let it happen”. Sometimes, it feels like a steadier hand on the tiller is needed. Unfortunately, for all but the hardcore, Free seems to baffle as much as it bewitches. [Max Sefton]

Karaoke Angel [Partisan, 20 Sep] In Karaoke Angel’s press notes, the work of Joan Didion is directly mentioned. It’s a bold evocation ahead of her debut solo work. Didion is widely considered the voice of a generation, but the ambition to reach for the best can often outweigh work that even falls wide of the mark. Karaoke Angel is Sarlé’s attempt at finally telling her own story. This Close comes early in the record, but it’s where Sarlé’s intentions seem to all lock in place, bringing together elements that have varied successes individually across the album’s ten songs into something that can happily hark back to the era she has an obvious fondness for, and do more than simply get away with it. [Tony Inglis] Listen to: This Close, Almost Free, Dreams

September 2019

Birth of Violence [Sargent House, 13 Sep]

Listen to: The Mother Road, Deranged for Rock & Roll, The Storm

Iggy Pop

rrrrr

Listen to: James Bond

RECORDS

Photo: Lasse Marhaug

Jenny Hval

Listen to: Southern Sky, In My Arms, SugarHouse (Live)

Gruff Rhys

Girl Band

rrrrr

Pang! [Rough Trade, 13 Sep] One of the meanings of the word “pang” is to have a sudden feeling of longing. Luckily, if you were yearning for a new album by Gruff Rhys, you haven’t had to endure a long drought. With Pang!, Rhys has eschewed some of the defining sonic characteristics of his previous album, employing a cornucopia of sounds that dance around his deft guitar picking and Welsh vocals. Perhaps reflective of the unexpected development of the album, there is something of an air of spontaneity to some of the tracks here, but this same spontaneity can make the album feel slightly ephemeral in places. Pang! can sometimes leave you hungering for more, but it’s still often an engaging listen. [Eugenie Johnson] Listen to: Niwl O Anwiredd

The Talkies [Rough Trade, 27 Sep] With a brilliant debut album, 2015’s Holding Hands With Jamie, under their belts, glowing reviews which saw Girl Band seemingly at the point of breaking through, but health problems took them off the road for a good few years. There’s enormous expectation on this return – and thankfully, it doesn’t disappoint. Sonically, they’re fundamentally still working with pre-existing techniques, yet The Talkies points to a far looser record, less indebted to the tautness of punk, and closer to a latter-day Scott Walker record in the way Dara Kiely’s vocals are allowed to roam the instrumental space. It’s a superb return, building upon what they know they can do but not resting on their laurels, still experimenting, still funny, still brilliant. [Joe Creely] Listen to: Laggard, Shoulderblades, Couch Combover

Review

Fiercely Independent The First Lady of Lisbon’s blossoming electronic scene, Violet is using her platform to push back against dance music’s ever-increasing homogeneity

“I

we try and create a door policy at our mina parties where we prioritise the entrance of queer people and women who can then go and express themselves without having the party saturated with the same old techno bros who could go to any old club in Lisbon and not have the slightest problem,” she explains.

“I believe that grassroots community building should be at the forefront of what we do” Inês Coutinho

“It’s not a matter of not liking them, it’s a matter of not prioritising them because they can go anywhere. I feel like there was a new generation that were super ready for this and they just needed a group of people with a bit more experience to do the damn thing. We hit the ground running in that respect.” Even in her DJ sets, Coutinho is keen to communicate the far-reaching sounds of her

hometown scene. Her recent addition to the Dekmantel Selectors podcast series, for instance, featured kuduro from the city’s Afro-Portuguese community, synth workouts from Photonz, and heavier, acid-tinged techno from Fungo affiliate Citizen:Kane over the course of a one hour mix. “It’s nothing to do with nationalism or anything like that,” she laughs, “but I love promoting Portuguese music as the scene is definitely still on the fringes. There are so many artists who, if they’d been born in London or New York or Berlin, would have a lot more opportunities, so I’m trying to promote them in the name of the decolonisation of dance music.” Aside from running three boundary-pushing creative platforms and becoming one of the most sought-after DJs on the underground circuit, Coutinho has somehow found the time to write and record her debut album Bed of Roses. Using a Bon Jovi track as the title of your first album isn’t exactly common practice in dance music circles, but she justifies it as the perfect illustration of life’s implicit duality. “There‘s the smooth sailing (roses) and the rough patches (thorns),” she explains. “I used to love that Bon Jovi ballad as a nine-year-old before going on to deem it uncool, but nowadays I think that reabsorbing all my music influences, even such early ones, is an interesting way of accepting the entirety of myself.” Out on Dark Entries – “a label that represents a lot of what I want to see in the world” – this month, the ten-track release

trades in the club-ready cuts that characterise her previous EPs for honest introspection and emotive retro synths. While she agrees that the album is best-suited to home listening, the prospect of presenting it in live format at this year’s Berlin Atonal is one that excites Coutinho. Elsewhere, a performance in London alongside 2019 breakout stars Eris Drew and Octo Octa and an all-new Rádio Quântica festival – focused on the “avantgarde electronic scene through a queer and community perspective” – are next on the agenda for one of the hardest working artists in the underground. Nevertheless, Coutinho displays a refreshing sense of levelheadedness as the conversation shifts to what the future holds. “I’m taking things as they come and drawing inspiration mostly from other people. I’ll definitely keep working on these little families that I helped create, but I’m always very open to change. With so many projects on my hands right now, the biggest challenge is maintaining my activities as a musician, which definitely mean the most to me,” she explains. “I don’t really have a masterplan. I think the beauty of life is winging it a little – not in the sense that you don’t care, more in a way that you’re adapting to whatever comes and making the best of it.” Bed of Roses is released on 20 Sep via Dark Entries soundcloud.com/violet

Photo: João Viegas

don’t think it should be held up as one of the main ways to sustain the underground. We should be using it in our own terms and not becoming dependent on it,” argues Inês Coutinho, better known as Lisbon-based DJ and producer Violet. It’s a balmy midsummer’s evening and the conversation has turned to corporate sponsorship in electronic music. Coutinho is largely unconvinced by the phenomenon. “It’s not black and white; there are some instances of companies doing really positive things, but we shouldn’t rely on corporations to fund our art.” An artist at the forefront of the city’s cultural resurgence, she has spent the last few years cultivating an alternative to creativitycompromising brand partnerships. “I believe that grassroots community building should be at the forefront of what we do,” she insists – an approach she has adopted across the three platforms she runs out of the Portuguese capital. There’s naive, a record label showcasing music from across the electronic spectrum, mina, a queer and trans-focused club night, and Rádio Quântica, an independent, freeform station that rivals the best in Europe. Coutinho had previously left Lisbon for London in 2013, frustrated at the staleness setting into the city’s music scene and the gatekeepers’ refusal to pass the baton on to the younger generation. “I couldn’t even really play local gigs at this time which was obviously frustrating,” she laments. “I tried. Like, I went to bars and asked them to listen to my mixes, but I really wanted to mix it up and be imaginative and there didn’t really seem to be a place for that at the time.” Returning in 2016 with a renewed energy and fresh ideas on how to shake things up, Coutinho found that the profit-driven, homogenised scene she had left behind was gradually being replaced by something more exciting. When the opportunity then arose for her and her partner – fellow DJ and producer Photonz – to occupy a state-funded studio, she knew it was one she had to take with open arms. Relying on a combination of state funding and capital raised from parties and touring, the platforms sought to bring underrepresented groups – “queer people, people of colour and women mostly” – to the forefront. “We’re constantly asking ourselves, ‘What voices are we trying to elevate?’ For instance,

Interview: Michael Lawson

Review

CLUBS

THE SKINNY

September 2019

CLUBS

Vinyl Fantasy S

cotland’s dance music community may be small, but it’s certainly supportive, and the scene’s tight-knit, close community feel is often credited for allowing those within it to blossom. “People forget how small a scene it actually is, but at least it’s thriving… and a lot of it thriving is from independent, small, even one person labels or event companies,” says Rosie Shannon, aka Glasgow-based DJ and producer AISHA. Shannon currently juggles a full-time position as Production and Distribution Manager at Soma Records with DJing and producing her own tracks in her spare time. Since joining the Soma family in 2015 as an intern, Shannon quickly rose up the ranks and became a full-time employee at the Glasgow-based label, run by DJ duo Slam, just a few months later. In 2018, she took charge of reviving the label’s Soma Skool event after spotting a poster for one of the previous events next to her desk and hopes to build upon its continuing success, eventually expanding it into an ADE-style music conference and festival. “I feel like I can really just let my brain run wild and get the best people that I am inspired by from all over the world to come together for [Soma Skool],” she says. “I’m just going to make it more diverse and more open year on year, because that is what the scene is all

about really, and giving a platform to people that deserve to be heard where they might not usually have a platform like that.” Shannon first learned to produce music at Soma Skool’s Shoogle Studios production courses, so the event is particularly close to her heart. “I had come out of a really shitty relationship and I just felt a bit lost, and I didn’t have any confidence at all,” she says. “Then once I first bought my decks and I started going to this Soma Skool thing I felt like I was figuring out who I was… I think producing was a really good way to build up my confidence again, same with DJing.” Soon after she started putting her own tracks up on SoundCloud, several Scottish labels including Huntleys + Palmers, Hilltown Disco and of course Soma picked up and released Shannon’s tracks, with further releases due out this year on London-based label Rodeo and new Glasgow imprint Avoidance. But when it came to DJing, Shannon went about things the hard way. “I actually could only play vinyl for the first few months when I started DJing,” she says. The reason being that her DJ career began at Glasgow club night Lunacy, who, at the time, only supplied vinyl decks and where she remains a resident. “It’s basically all my best friends and my cousin who run the Lunacy nights, so I think it was a natural

Interview: Nadia Younes

AISHA

progression,” she says. “Doing vinyl first I think makes you want to find out more about what your sound is and what your favourite tunes are… I think playing on vinyl kind of helped me figure out exactly what sound it was that I wanted to be playing,” she adds. Having such a solid grounding as a DJ and producer doesn’t mean she’s completely devoid of any pre-set nerves though. “I still freak out every time before I go out

Photo: Tiu Makkonen

With a string of gigs lined up this month, Glasgow-based DJ and producer Rosie Shannon, aka AISHA, tells us about her role at Soma Records and her musical career so far

and do a set,” says Shannon, her passion still clearly very much ignited and showing no signs of fading any time soon. “If you didn’t have those kind of nerves, it would just get boring.” AISHA plays QMU Freshers Week w/ Sam Divine, QMU, Glasgow, 16 Sep; White Rabbit presents AISHA, Ajay C & Error E, Rost, Glasgow, 27 Sep; InterChange presents Nur Jaber, Club 69, Paisley, 28 Sep soundcloud.com/roseaisha

Club, Actually As the dust starts to settle on a busy, and unpredictable, Scottish summer, the parties still go on across Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee

Words: Nadia Younes Illustration: Ben Boothman

techno. Joining him on the night is fellow German Stephanie Sykes, who made a name for herself in Manchester’s club scene during a period spent living in the city.

9000 Dreams with Avalon Emerson & JASSS Room 2, Glasgow, 6 Sep Returning for the third part of her 2019 La Cheetah residency, Avalon Emerson takes to the club’s sister venue and larger surrounds of Room 2, inviting Spanish-born JASSS to join her. Silvia Jiménez Alvarez took her first musical steps playing in hardcore bands before eventually moving to the electronic side and garnering praise for a string of releases on the likes of Mannequin Records and Dekmantel. Her debut album, Weightless, was released in 2017 and embraced a more

Review

On Loop with Moxie & CC:DISCO! Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, 20 Sep A firm Sneaky’s favourite, Moxie rolls back into the Edinburgh clubbing institution for another round of her On Loop series. The last time Moxie played in the club she brought Canadian Nathan Micay along with her, and she’s continuing the globetrotting guest bookings again with Aussie CC:DISCO! The CC stands for Courtney Clarke and the DISCO! for what you can expect from her sets, which are all about dancing and having a good time, so put your phones away and live in the moment. atmospheric sound, further demonstrating her immense talent. Return to Mono with SNTS (Live) & Stephanie Sykes Sub Club, Glasgow, 13 Sep Little is known about the frequently-masked German DJ and producer SNTS, other than the guarantee that his live sets provide plenty of slamming techno. Dubbed the ‘sith techno lord’ as a result of his usual stage attire of a black mask, black hooded jacket and coloured contact lenses, SNTS sets are known to lean towards the darker and grittier realms of

Shoot Your Shot with Rex the Dog (Live) The Berkeley Suite, Glasgow, 21 Sep Forget CDJs and turntables, Jake Williams, aka Rex the Dog, prefers analogue electronics and his self-built Modular Synthesizer. Shoot Your Shot welcome the Londoner along to their latest party, with all his gear in tow for a DJ set like no other. In addition to DJing, Williams has also released numerous tracks and EPs on Cologne-based label Kompakt, as well as Kitsuné and Southern Fried Records, and has remixed tracks by everyone from Robyn to Depeche Mode.

CLUBS

FLY Open Air Festival Ross Band Stand, Edinburgh, 21 & 22 Sep Edinburgh Council may be trying to shut it down, but Scottish dance music fans are fighting back. Earlier this year, thousands signed a petition to save FLY Open Air after the festival’s organisers launched the bid to show support for it following stricter restrictions being imposed by park bosses and councillors. The annual event returns to Princes Street Gardens’ Ross Band Stand this month, with sets from Denis Sulta, Jayda G, HAAi and more, so turn out in your droves and show the council exactly why the party must go on. All Good All Day Mono & The Terrace, Dundee, 29 Sep Since the sad and unfortunate closure of The Reading Rooms a few months ago, Dundee’s promoters have been trying to fill the hole that the loss of the legendary venue has left in the city’s club scene. This month, former Rooms regulars All Good have put together an all-dayer at Mono and The Terrace, which will take place across two stages – one indoor and one outdoor – over eight hours. London-based DJ Mella Dee will headline the event, playing a three hour set, alongside Glasgow’s Nightwave, with more acts still to be announced. theskinny.co.uk/clubs

THE SKINNY

The Man Who Saw Everything By Deborah Levy

rrrrr It’s 1988 and Saul Adler, a young historian, is hit by a car while crossing Abbey Road. So begins Deborah Levy’s seventh novel, a book that is delicate in its craft and colossal in its themes. Unscathed from the collision, Saul

stumbles to his girlfriend’s flat, where she breaks up with him. Licking his wounds, he heads to East Germany on a research trip where he’ll fall in love with his translator Walter Müller, while also having an affair with Walter’s sister. The next time we see Saul, it’s 2016 and he has just been hit by a car while crossing Abbey Road. This second accident is more serious and Saul is hospitalised, slipping in and out of consciousness, his memories and fantasies overlapping. Something – could it be a spectre? – is haunting Saul. History – both the collective and the individual – is at the heart as Levy deconstructs what we perceive as stable narratives, asking what happens when these narratives can no longer hold. There’s almost a cruelty to this process as Saul’s world crumbles around him, everything and nothing revealed to our bewildered protagonist. Levy has built a rich, textured world where narratives wrap around each other like an onion’s layers and recurring motifs wink to the reader. It’s only at the end when the puzzle pieces finally slip into place that we suddenly see everything clearly. Or so we think. [Katie Goh] Hamish Hamilton, out now, £14.99

Rhyme Watch Ease into early autumn with Wigtown, Lighthouse Books and One Weekend in Stirling

t’s another September and another Wigtown Book Festival – Scotland’s second largest literary festival in the calendar. Celebrating its 21st birthday, the Wigtown Book Festival has an astonishing programme of multimedia arts lined up, including film, theatre, literary talks and, of course, poetry readings. The festival runs from 27 Sep-6 Oct, but let’s just have a brief look at some of the poetry highlights from week one. Aileen Ballantyne, a former Wigtown Poetry prize-winner, will be launching her first full collection, Taking Flight, on Saturday 28 September. The debut, coming out with Luath, includes a sequence of poems centred on the Lockerbie bombing, exploring conversations with local residents and others affected by the attack. With Ballantyne on at the early time of 12pm, there’s still plenty of afternoon left for more poetry. And you’re in luck, as at 1.30pm Scotland’s current star-poet is scheduled to wow audiences with her words. Nadine Aisha Jassat, who’s continuing a whirlwind tour of the UK’s finest literary events, will be reading from and discussing her debut collection, Let Me Tell You This. And for something a little different, join Spring Fling and Wigtown Book Festival’s artist in residence Ken Cockburn for his event with The Bookshop Band on Sunday 29 September, 7.30pm. Cockburn has been thinking and writing about birds throughout his residency; what space do they occupy in our modern lives? How do they inhabit the landscape, where are they to be found in the 21st century world? Alongside the presentation of his thoughts and poetry, The Bookshop Band will intersperse the evening with their own selection of bird and other wildlife-inspired music. In the same weekend, in Edinburgh, Lighthouse Books will be hosting the double

September 2019

rrrrr

Charlie went missing 14 years ago. This incident inspired DI Birch to join the police, with hopes of finding her little brother and seeking justice where her family had been denied. After all this time, he’s presumed dead. But he’s not. Intertwining Charlie’s story as he falls into the seedy world of crime, and Birch’s role in taking down Solomon and his gang – one of the country’s most feared criminal organisations – What You Pay For is an exploration of how one wrong turn can take you down a dark and spiralling road, and the consequences when all sides of your life collide at once. The strength of Askew’s crime series has been that it doesn’t focus on the crime itself. Like her debut, we know who they’re after and why, and that’s what sets it apart. She probes at the more interesting questions: Why? How did they end up here? What impact can split second decisions have across years? It’s in this liminal space she thrives, between the facts of the crime and the return of Charlie, the uncertainty and grey areas, and really hooks in the reader. It’s a story that steps behind the case facts – you won’t agree with every decision, but you’ll certainly feel every ounce of the character’s journey. Intriguing and brilliant. [Heather McDaid]

My Name is Why By Lemn Sissay

rrrrr

Norman Greenwood spent his childhood in the British care system – first in a foster family, followed by six years in various care homes. When he was finally given his birth certificate, at the age of 17, he learned that his real name was not Norman Greenwood: it was Lemn Sissay. He also learned that his mother, who is Ethiopian, had been pleading for his return since he was taken from her at birth. Sissay finally received his care records in 2015, after a 34-year-long campaign. By setting his own experiences alongside what is written in his care records, My Name is Why tells the real story of his childhood and life in the institutional care system. What is most striking is that readers constantly need to remind themselves that this is not, in fact, fiction. For those lucky enough not to have been in contact with the British care system, My Name is Why draws a condemning picture throughout, in many ways more like a prison system that has built its foundations on disregard and distaste for the children it ought to protect. As his story sits intertwined with that presented in his care records, Sissay’s prose is sharp and meaningful, and all the more powerful in its honesty. [Mika Cook] Canongate, out now, £16.99

Hodder, out now, £16.99

Words: Beth Cochrane

What You Pay For By Claire Askew

poetry launch of Jennifer Lee Tsai and Jay G Ying, joined by the soon-to-be published by BOAAT Press, Alycia Piromohamed. Tsai, who has previously been featured in Bloodaxe’s Ten: Poets of the New Generation, will be launching Kismet (published by Oxford Brookes University). The collection is said to be a work of hope and renewal, transcending the suffering of the individual through reclaiming personal experience. Accompanying Tsai’s reading will be Ying, whose pamphlet Wedding Beasts is also launching. As not only a poet but also fiction writer, critic and translator, his work has been published in an incredible array of journals such as The White Review, Ambit and The Poetry Review. This isn’t an event to be missed, with all three poets on the rise to becoming firm favourites in the Scottish poetry landscape. No prizes for guessing where this next festival takes place, but One Weekend in Stirling will be happening once again from 19-22 September. Last year the festival hosted 18 events across the weekend, not only including spoken word but also music, art, drama and storytelling. This year, on Friday 20 September, contributing event Wham, Slam, Thank you Ma’am! will take place in The Settle In. Entry is free and you can simply drop organisers The Write Angle a message on Facebook should you wish to compete. Slightly different from announcing the usual launches and events, but a short reminder that Gutter magazine will be accepting poetry submissions for Issue 21. Submissions close on 16 September, giving you a few weeks to brush up on some old poems or possibly write some new material. With a maximum of five poems of 120 lines or less, there’s plenty of scope to get creative and try something a bit different with your work.

The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing By Mary Paulson-Ellis

The Art of Dying By Ambrose Parry

rrrrr

A dual-narrative story, The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing follows both a group of soldiers in the final days of the Great War in an abandoned French farmyard, and a modernday Scottish heir hunter, Solomon Farthing, seeking the rightful heir of £50,000 found sewn into the lining of recently deceased Thomas Methaven’s funeral suit. This is a story portraying the trials and tribulations of a group of soldiers counting down the days until they can return home, and how the effects of unpaid debt between friends can ripple through generations with life-changing consequences. Paulson-Ellis has created an action-packed story that hooks from the first chapter. Her superb characterisation pulls the reader in and allows you to both identify and empathise with their individual hardships. Full of clever twists and turns, she ultimately reveals how, despite the generations between them, the histories of Solomon Farthing and Thomas Methaven’s are inextricably linked. Moving between the past and present comes with its own moments of confusion, however the narrator is always on hand to clarify the most important facts and keep the reader on the edge of their seat. At once contemporary and historical, The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing is a beautifully told mystery showing the legacy of war. [Kerri Logan]

In The Art of Dying, we return to Victorian Edinburgh, where, seemingly, no one is safe. Will Raven has returned from studying medicine in Europe and is eager to establish himself as a respected doctor, but is shocked to find someone is trying to ruin the reputation of his employer and mentor, Dr James Young. United with the brilliant Sarah Fisher, the doctor’s former housemaid and current assistant, they are determined to clear their employer’s name – which means diving back into a world Raven would rather leave behind. Will Raven and Sarah Fisher are fantastic protagonists, their relationship often one of challenge, banter and confrontation even as they support each other. Raven fights against his own desires and decides what kind of man he wants to be, as Sarah chafes under the restrictions placed upon her as a woman in the medical world. While the first in the series, The Way of All Flesh, tackled the ways in which women were limited in Victorian Edinburgh, The Art of Dying explores how they break free of the roles assigned to them. Fast paced, confident and entertaining, this is a gripping and twisty murder mystery through Edinburgh’s Old Town – fans of the writing duo Chris Brookmyre and Dr Marisa Haetzman’s debut novel as Ambrose Parry won’t be disappointed. [Sim Bajwa]

Mantle Books, 5 Sep, £16.99

Canongate, out now, £14.99

BOOKS

Review

Stirring It Up Last month we helped Talk Art podcast take a tour of Edinburgh’s galleries as a celebration of Edinburgh Art Festival

discovered what her works looked like, and from that point on I was completely obsessed with art; it led me into loads of other estuaries such as Tracy Emin and Louise Bourgeois, lots of other female artists.” In his late 20s he retrained (at the instigation of Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys, according to the podcast) doing a masters in History of Art before taking a job at Carl Freedman Gallery. Around ten years ago he met Russell Tovey at the National Galleries of Scotland, at the opening of Tracy Emin’s major retrospective, an event which is informally marked by the podcast’s return to Edinburgh. “We spoke for about an hour and a half about different drawings that we were obsessed with,” remembers Diament. “Like me, he had been on a journey of self education and quite obsessive, kind of geeky interest in art. He had some similar references to me but also some very different ones.” Both collectors at this stage, they occupied an unusual position. “We weren’t the typical kind of wealthy philanthropist or supporter of art, basically,” he explains. “At that time neither of us were making loads of money or anything, we used to save up each month and put it towards buying artworks.”

Russell Tovey and Robert Diament at Joana Vasconcelos' Gateway, Jupiter Artland

Review

Credit: @bourhillustration

aunched just last October as something of a passion project, the Talk Art podcast has amassed a significant following during its two series. Featuring the initially unexpected pairing of actor Russell Tovey and gallerist Robert Diament, Talk Art is billed as a podcast about art and friendship with special guest interviews. It is an engaging, at times joyful, listen with the pair’s infectious enthusiasm for visual art offering a refreshingly straightforward take on the complexities of the art world. The pair aim, fundamentally, to make contemporary art more accessible. Says Diament, “I just loved this idea of somehow breaking down the boundaries of elitism within the art world. Trying to show that you don’t have to have money to be into art, that a lot of museums and galleries are free to go to, and they are available for people to go and see.” He continues: “It’s about joining the conversation, realising that you can be part of that conversation. You don’t have to have all the knowledge, the weight of art history if you don’t know it yet. Your own responses and ideas are valid and important.” This is borne out by their own experience. Both collectors, neither took an orthodox route into the art world. For Tovey, his interest was sparked by the Young British Artists, and he spent his first paycheck from The History Boys film on a Tracy Emin monoprint. Diament’s interest in art started as a teenager, running parallel to his first career in music. “When I was really young I was obsessed with Frida Kahlo. I read a book about her life before I saw any of her work, so it was very much narrative-led in a way. This idea that somehow, despite all our troubles we have in life, art and creativity could help people to survive and make something of their lives.” This connection is deeply personal – Diament lost his brother around this time, and Kahlo’s story offered some solace in his grief. “One of the things that kept me going was that idea of Frida Kahlo for some reason. Then I

Photo: Callum Bennetts – Maverick Photo Agency

Interview: Rosamund West

It’s refreshing to hear about collecting from this perspective. It is an integral part of the art world but often seems from the outside to be the preserve of the super-rich. “One of the reasons I wanted to have a career in contemporary art, and why I’ve always been a fan of it, was because I liked the idea of supporting now and being able to help facilitate the creation of artwork in our time.” Diament’s motivations here connect with the motivations for the podcast in general. “For the artist, yes it’s important to have collectors to buy your work, or museums and galleries to represent you, but one of the most important things I think beyond all of that is actually having conversations and feeling like people are connecting with your work. I think we’re trying to encourage and engender that, really, to kind of start this conversation between people, and bring people together in that way. It’s really worked, in quite a short space of time.” The interview subjects on the podcast range from artists – including Michael CraigMartin, Tracy Emin, Phyllida Barlow – to gallerists (Sadie Coles offers a fascinating insight into the workings of artist representation) to fellow collectors taking their first steps into the art world. Says Diament, “We don’t just interview artists, we interview art world people, but one of the things we quickly realised is that to make it have a bigger audience we need to reach out to different kinds of creative people, or people who aren’t creative necessarily but are fans of creativity or art.” For the Edinburgh episodes, supported by Bombay Sapphire, Talk Art take a tour of the city. They begin at Jupiter Artland to meet curator Claire Feeley, who offers some insight into the new Joana Vasconcelos swimming pool as well as a deeper level of understanding of the complexities of programming site specific artwork outdoors, piece by piece. Next they

ART

head to Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop to hear about the practice-based space and exhibitions from director Laura Simpson, programme coordinator Lesley Young and artist Adam Benmakhlouf, who you may recognise as Art Editor of this very magazine. In part two, they head up to Collective during a thunderstorm to meet director Kate Gray, hear about the development of the space and their Satellites programme as well as experiencing the current sound installation by James Richards. In Parliament Hall they meet Edinburgh Art Festival director Sorcha Carey who discusses their commissions programme opening up hidden spaces within the city. Finally, they visit Talbot Rice Gallery to meet assistant curator Stuart Fallon and hear more about how the gallery within the university facilitates collaboration between artists and academic researchers to use emerging technology in surprising ways. The podcasts offer a remarkable depth of insight, even for those already well versed in Edinburgh’s art scene. The pair enjoyed their time exploring the city, even though the torrential rain grounded their flight and they had to get a taxi back to London. Says Diament, “The thing about Scotland is that the art curators and artists that I’ve met there are all so down to earth, so open and so friendly. That’s another thing I want people to realise. The art world can only exist if we have these conversations, and if people engage with those spaces and support them and visit them. Because that’s why, in a way, we’re all doing it – to connect with other people.” Talk Art: Edinburgh Art Festival Parts 1 & 2 are available on Apple Podcasts, ACAST and Spotify Supported by Bombay Sapphire @TalkArt

THE SKINNY

Where Art Now? With September comes the last blush of summer and the first of a new season of exhibitions across Scotland

Words: Adam Benmakhlouf

expectations and possibilities of the space for art today with speakers including artists, architects, curators and others. This month, Glasgow-based architect Jude Barber is the invited speaker. Barber is director of the studio Collective Architecture, a 48-strong, 100% employee-owned and controlled studio, committed to “creative freedom, equity and sustainability.” The event takes place 6-8.30pm in Langside Halls on Thursday 19 September, tickets are £3-5, free for the unwaged. Also on 19 September, artist and performer Thulani Rachia’s first solo show opens in Civic Room, as part of the programme, Of Lovely

James Richards, Migratory Motor Complex, six-channel audio installation, 2017

James Richards Collective Gallery rrrrr Coming into the large observatory of Collective Gallery, the space is variously shrunk and expanded by the composition of disparate musical, percussive and ambiguous noises that form James Richards’ Migratory Motor Complex. Filled by spitting, hissing, electricalsounding gusts at one point, the edge of a choral phrase gives way to drops and the sound of something like a boat banging against the post to which it’s tied. Six speakers are spaced evenly around the stripped-back brick walls of the large rounded room. A grey honeycomb-like seating structure is at the centre, with no prescribed point to listen to the work. Moving around, different elements are louder or quieter dependent on which speaker the listener is nearest to. “Sound system” the voice sings at one point, then “begin again”. This comes after what could be the sound of a journey through an echoey underground tunnel. Sounds travel around the room, a

September 2019

plaintive passage is quickly complicated by the noise of clanging metal and tinkling. “All I need” is the next phrase, then what sounds like “of him” and “all of me”. The audio is finely tuned, and there’s the pleasurably discomfiting sense of being able to hear the timbre of the singer’s throat as she cuts the edges of vowels and consonants. Differently furtive noises emerge briefly, repeat, grow in volume or fade, and resist identification or straightforward interpretation. At points, echoey passages lull the seated audience into a coolly ambient environment, then the pace gathers and the space closes in. A corridor to the next soundscape, or vocal fragment; the repetitive and thoughtful strains of the operatic voice evoke a ghostly, thoughtful companion through the work’s sensuous and evocative network of interconnected expanses, abrasive textures, clanging surfaces, leaky subterranean chambers and convulsing tracts. [Adam Benmakhlouf] Migratory Motor Complex, Collective, Edinburgh, until 13 Oct

Tyrants and invisible women. Rachia presents a new moving image and installation work, stemming from his practice-as-research methodology, which investigates his interests in site and history and how these coalesce in the formation of identity, culture and memory and draws on his experiences of growing up in South Africa and his training in architecture. The exhibition continues until 3 November. From 20 September, this month’s interviewee Ashanti Harris presents a major new solo show in Transmission Gallery. See p18 for a full feature on her practice and projects. During 20-22 September, Screen Argyll

Opportunities The In Tandem residency allows two artists to apply for a joint residency of four weeks, delivered by Embassy and Basic Mountain, two Edinburgh art organisations. Intended for early career artists to test new ideas, the opportunity also includes one public outcome that can take whatever form the artists wish. Artists must be based in or around Edinburgh, transport costs can be covered and the fee is £1,500 per artist. Deadline: 9 September The Visual Arts Scotland: Inches Carr Craft Mentoring Award provides a £5,000 fee for the selected early career artist, and an additional £2,000 for the artist’s chosen mentor whose discipline or professional experience would add value to the winner’s practice. The opportunity also includes two exhibition opportunities in the Royal Scottish Academy. Deadline: 1 October

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Location photograph for Night Walk for Edinburgh, 2019

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s Night Walk rrrrr With a borrowed smartphone and headphones, the Nightwalk starts immediately outside Cockburn Street’s The Milkman. “Walk with me, not too fast,” the voice of Janet Cardiff asks. The artists have made a moving image work for the small screen of a phone held directly at the centre of the viewer’s line of sight roughly at arm’s length, a filmic version of augmented reality. Loose historical facts are strewn at certain points. With a penchant for the gruesome, an overheard tour guide’s voice directs attention to a specific door where criminals would have their ears nailed. You could leave whenever you liked, she jokes darkly. The video glitches at points, to a crime scene investigation on the street as a group of three observe the area closely, a parallel made between the slow observation that Cardiff demands and the patient eye of a sleuthing detective.

ART

Photo: Chris Scott; image courtesy of the artists

Alberta Whittle, between a whisper and a cry, Film Still 2019

Photo: Alberta Whittle

present Sea Change: Powering Women in Film. Taking place on the Isle of Tiree, the public festival celebrates the life of renowned French film director and photographer Agnès Varda, and marks the centenary of the Orkney filmmaker Margaret Tait with a screening of Blue Black Permanent, the first Scottish feature film directed by a woman. Tickets for the festival are priced from £30-45. For more information see screenargyll.co.uk

Photo: Tom Nolan; image courtesy of Collective; © James Richards

here are three new exhibitions in CCA through September. “No more artists,” says artist Aman Sandhu whose exhibition opens 6 September (until 22 Sep) and revolves around this mantra. Then there’s Grace Schwindt from 7 September-13 October, whose work investigates all levels of power structures, including family, government and religion. As the next part of the CCA’s ongoing series of performance-related exhibitions Some things want to run, the artist Jasmina Cibic will share a film trilogy on the topic of major state presentations to the world (international art festivals, architecture fairs, world expos), and the ways that women are silenced within politics (13 Sep-13 Oct). From 14 September (until 24 Nov), Dundee Contemporary Arts present the first major Scottish solo exhibition of Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle. Whittle’s interdisciplinary practice draws out nuanced insight into memory, trauma, weather and tensions between land and sea. Whittle’s performance, sculpture, prints and films challenge accepted Western constructs of history and society, and considers the afterlife of slavery, “when the black body can become suspended in a state of stress that directly impacts upon physical, mental and emotional health.” The Common Guild present the next in their programme of events on the needs,

Grisly threat is punctuated by parts that are elegant and wondrous. One of the many players that populate the video hangs some washing in the yard of an old block of flats. A figure emerges from behind the washing and they dance a complicated choreography around the washing line. It’s a surprise to see Cardiff appearing in the video. She talks with a homeless man about his childhood and the freedom of living near the woods and going running with his pet dog. The camera pulls away and we’re told his daughter died the year before, the grief of which managed to pull his life into impossible difficulty. Cardiff thinks aloud how similar her experience growing up was to his. Wandering alongside the audience, Cardiff ’s narration is completely engaging throughout. Resourceful technological novelty, pitch-perfect vocal delivery and well-crafted storytelling combine to form an enchantingly captivating nighttime détournement. [Adam Benmakhlouf] Commissioned by The Fruitmarket Gallery

Review

In Cinemas Rojo

Director: Benjamin Naishtat Starring: Darío Grandinetti, Andrea Frigerio, Alfredo Castro

rrrrr

While waiting for his wife in a busy restaurant, a middle-aged lawyer named Claudio (Grandinetti) is accosted by a nervous-looking stranger. He demands Claudio give up his table so he can order, which Claudio reluctantly acquiesces to. But this is regional Argentina in 1975, and although the coup d’état that ousted Isabel Perón won’t happen for another few months, the threat of violence is palpable. Their quarrel doesn’t stop here, and things turn ugly when Claudio begins psychoanalysing the man’s behaviour. He responds violently, ranting loudly about Nazis before being forcibly ejected. After dinner, Claudio discovers that the man has been waiting for him outside. What happens next is unexpected and, like many Argentinians deemed to be a threat to the status quo, the stranger suddenly ‘disappears’. Naishtat’s psychological portrait of compli-

city is a film of absences; not just the disappearances that would define the Dirty Wars, but the lack of resistance to this proliferating evil. Three months later Claudio finds himself under investigation by a celebrity detective from Chile, but Rojo is much more than a Columbo style whodunit. The arrival of a troupe of American cowboys and a shady real estate deal might feel like narrative dead ends, but each incident alludes to the various internal and external elements that would help the USbacked military dictatorship consolidate power. A pastiche of Latin America’s conflicted identity, the film’s aesthetic is heavily influenced by American cinema and television advertisements of the era, combining the melodrama of telenovelas with the gritty visual palette of films like Serpico and The Conversation. Highlighting the role colonisation played in this unsettling period of Argentinean history, Rojo demonstrates how a culture of silence and denial can culminate in a climate of fear. [Patrick Gamble] Released 6 Sep by New Wave; certificate 15

The Farewell

Director: Lulu Wang Starring: Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Zhao Shuzhen

rrrrr

Even if The Farewell was not a work of autobiography, it would still be a highly personal picture for Chinese-American director Lulu Wang. Broadly speaking, her new film is about the very tension that comes from being both Chinese and American, and how the self-preservation of assimilation can be uncomfortable to reconcile with the strength of one’s heritage. But it’s one particular tradition that focuses Wang’s concerns into something sharper, at once probingly intimate and appealing in a broad, crowd-pleasing fashion. An uncharacteristically gentle Awkwafina plays Wang’s avatar, Billi, a New York-based 20-something whose grandmother, affectionately nicknamed Nai Nai and played by veteran Chinese soap actress Zhao Shuzhen, has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. But the family, as per tradition, has kept the diagnosis

from Nai Nai to preserve her happiness in her final months, an idea with which Billi is not comfortable. Using a wedding as cover, the family comes together in China after years of being apart to see Nai Nai for what might be the last time. Wang’s closeness with this story is what makes its realisation especially consummate. A revolving door of characters (Billi’s family exceeds 20 people), who are nonetheless drawn with fine, sophisticated brush-strokes, weave in and out of Billi’s experience. Around dinner tables in expertly directed sequences, the family hashes out their grievances with each other, all the while keeping Nai Nai’s diagnosis under wraps. She can’t understand why everyone is so tense (though she is also far from a clueless retiree archetype – she’s perhaps the most intricately detailed character in the movie, a love letter to her real-life counterpart). But it’s because she thinks everyone is here for a wedding; in reality, they’re here for a funeral. [Thomas Atkinson] Released by 20 Sep Entertainment Film; certificate PG

Rojo

Honeyland

Phoenix

Skin

rrrrr

Director: Tamara Kotevska, Ljubo Stefanov Starring: Hatidze Muratova, Nazife Muratova, Hussein Sam

Director: Camilla Strøm Henriksen Starring: Ylva Bjørkaas Thedin, Maria Bonnevie, Sverrir Gudnason, Casper Falck-Løvås

Director: Guy Nattiv Starring: Jamie Bell, Danielle Macdonald, Daniel Henshall, Bill Camp, Louisa Krause, Zoe Colletti, Kylie Rogers

A woman walks slowly across a mustard coloured field. Getting to a rock face, she gently reaches her hand into the dark, pulling out slabs of honeycombs, bees tumbling out. The woman is Hatidze, an ancient and agelesslooking beekeeper, the last of her kind, who lives out a quiet existence in rural Macedonia with her elderly mother. Honeyland is full of these quiet rituals as Hatidze works the land to support herself and her mother. Disruption to their solitude comes in the form of a rowdy family who moves in next door, and it’s the conflict between these neighbours that drives the narrative of Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s documentary. The story may not sound riveting, but Honeyland – shot fly-on-the-wall style – is surprising in its ability to sink its hooks into the viewer. Paradoxically, the minuteness of Honeyland’s focus is what allows for its grand scale, perhaps most poignantly encapsulated in Hatidze’s new neighbour’s recklessness wreaking havoc upon the careful ecosystem between humans and bees. [Katie Goh]

Jill (Thedin) signs for a cake. Her 14th birthday isn’t for a few days, so she assumes her mother has made a mistake, and lies to her younger brother, telling him the bakery is at fault. When her mother (Bonnevie) does wake up, she hurriedly opens the cake box, sticks a sparkler in it and announces she has a job interview – celebrating something she is yet to achieve. Phoenix is Norwegian actor Camilla Strøm Henriksen’s feature directorial debut, informed in part by her own upbringing. Jill suffers more disappointments as she consistently behaves as the responsible adult of the house while yearning for someone to care for her. Her lies become increasingly serious as she uses them to protect herself and her brother. The film envelopes the audience in the turbulent emotions of a childhood with a depressive, alcoholic, yet loving mother. Jill’s home is cluttered with her mother’s artwork made of cloth and rope. At night the art spreads tendrils over the floor. Later it appears when Jill dreams of being saved from this life only for reality to disappoint once again. [Gianni Marini]

Nazis seem to be having something of a comeback in movies – what is it they say about life mirroring art? But if you thought that Patrick Stewart (Green Room) and Daniel Radcliffe (Imperium) were the least likely of the recent wave of screen fascists, what about Jamie Bell? Once the adorable Billy Elliot, he’s now playing a skin head so hard he’s owning the name Babs in Guy Nattiv’s Skin. The sweetness Bell showed as that pintsized Geordie ballet-nut is on display here, despite being covered head to toe in swastika tattoos and opening the film by viciously beating black teenagers at a white supremacist rally. His redemption comes in the form of Julie (Macdonald) and her three young daughters. Even as he begins to reject his hateful ideology in favour of a quiet family life, his skin reminds himself and everyone around him of his past. Skin isn’t always convincing – is the love of a good woman all a Nazi needs to change their ways? – but Bell is. Long one of our most compelling actors, he makes Nattiv’s rather shallow film feel like its ideas go further than skin deep. [Jamie Dunn]

Released 13 Sep by Dogwoof; certificate PG

Released 13 Sep by Verve; certificate 15

Released 27 Sep by Lionsgate; certificate 15

Review

FILM & TV

Night Hunter

Director: David Raymond Starring: Henry Cavill, Ben Kingsley, Alexandra Daddario, Stanley Tucci

rrrrr

A string of missing girls. A hellish basement lair. A disaffected cop with a young daughter of his own, and a too-obvious suspect who is not all he seems. Night Hunter knows exactly the kind of cold, brooding crime thriller it wants to be, but it struggles to carry out the plan effectively thanks to a leaden script and a story that undervalues its most interesting parts. The problem with attempting terse, Bogartian dialogue is that, if you don’t tune it to perfection, it comes out flat and stilted. Stanley Tucci and Ben Kingsley throw the full weight of their character acting talents against the writing and manage to wrestle some value from it. Poor Henry Cavill, left stuck in the spotlight with the bulk of the worst lines, is reduced to a series of perfume advert frowns and left with a performance so one-dimensional that it reads more like an SNL parody than a real character. When it grasps at larger themes later on, it feels even more lost in the dark. [Ross McIndoe] Released 13 Sep by Signature; certificate 15

THE SKINNY

At Home Mindhunter: Season 2

Hot Air

Euphoria

rrrrr

Director: David Fincher, Andrew Dominik, Carl Franklin Starring: Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Hannah Gross “You saw The Exorcist?” FBI agent Bill Tench (McCallany) asks David Berkowitz, aka Son of Sam, in a chilling scene in the new season of David Fincher’s Mindhunter. “Everyone saw it,” he candidly responds. Friedkin’s controversial horror masterpiece is referenced more than once this season, including an interview scene with one of the film’s more infamous extras, Paul Bateson, who was latterly convicted for murder in 1979. Nods to this 1973 horror masterpiece remind us of the moral panic that swept America at the time. After the Manson murders, combined with the rise of gender, sexual and race politics, not to mention Vietnam and Watergate, and America was on less sure footing. It was a nervous time, susceptible to mass panic. It’s against this carefullycrafted backdrop that Fincher sets his gripping crime-thriller. If last season was about establishing the theory about how serial killers think, then this season is about putting those ideas into practice. The fledgling FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit need to prove their findings have a practical application by solving the seemingly racially-motivated Atlanta Child Murders while battling with bureaucracy and the media. An icy atmosphere looms large as the investigation proceeds and gore is kept to a tasteful minimum. This is balanced by how the main action sits alongside the relationship dramas of the FBI agents – although the personal life of agent Holden Ford (Groff) is reduced to fleeting references to his panic attacks, triggered from his encounters with ‘The Co-ed Killer’ Ed Kemper in season one. Fincher has evolved as a storyteller since Seven and Zodiac, and what is so refreshing is that having mined the subject of serial killers for decades, he shows that the genre can still be fresh. [Joseph Walsh]

Director: Frank Coraci Starring: Steve Coogan, Neve Campbell, Skylar Astin This hideous fever dream of a movie may well be director Frank ‘Spank’ Coraci’s bid to redeem himself after a lifetime of Adam Sandler collaborations. It’s as saccharine as the worst of his work, but at least attempts to make a laudable political statement in unambiguous terms. Steve Coogan’s right-wing radio personality, Lionel Macomb, isn’t necessarily the villain of the piece, but is certainly a force of cosmic negativity. His button-pushing invective is something that must be maintained at all costs in order to keep his ratings afloat, and so in this respect, his culpability is diminished. He is merely a puppet. Macomb’s teenage niece, who suddenly walks into his life, meanwhile, represents our collective hope for the future, the younger generation tasked with undoing the damage caused by their boomer elders. The likes of Nicholas Ray’s Bigger Than Life have shown that it can be effective to have Brits portray Americans in movies that examine the US’s tortured psyche, the stars’ alien qualities lending their critiques a sense of detached objectivity. Casting Coogan in the lead here, however, feels like an act of cowardice. His ropey accent is a bizarre distraction, and he lacks the specific brand of showmanship and charisma required to sell this role. Hot Air is predictable, artless fare at its core, yet also disappointingly toothless. Here Coraci doesn’t hold the mirror up to America, but rather a trite Snapchat filter. [Lewis Porteous] Hot Air is out now on VOD by Signature Films

Euphoria is a thoroughly unflinching treatise on teenage hedonism. It’s also acutely aware of the machinations of adolescence for Generation Z, as we’re reminded by an opening scene that sees lead character Rue Bennett being born on 11 September, 2001, on a maternity ward gamely dealing with a world that continues to turn as images of a burning World Trade Centre flicker on television sets in the background. There’s no denying that the show is hyper-stylised, sometimes to its credit – the soundtrack, featuring the likes of Lizzo, Billie Eilish and Migos, is sharp enough to cut yourself on – and sometimes to its detriment. The chopped-and-screwed cinematography and flits between breakneck and glacial editing are equal parts exhilarating and exasperating. It’s true, too, that HBO’s typically laidback censors have not been made uncharacteristically skittish by the teenage cast, with every aspect of its sex, drugs and Instagram scroll approach relayed graphically. Beyond that, broader and more profound truths about the teenage experience unfurl themselves as the season wears on. Zendaya’s lead turn as 17-year-old Bennett is remarkable. She does not, initially, present as a universally relatable narrator – drug-addicted, wrestling with severe mental health issues, dry-as-a-bone witty. As she woozily weaves her way through this crucial passage in her own coming-of-age, though, evidence subtly begins to stack up that there is more uniting Bennett and her peers than dividing them, whether they’re malevolent jocks, neurotic geeks or unapologetic burnouts. The controversy and hot takes that Euphoria’s no-holds-barred aesthetic was always bound to generate has already secured it a second season. It might just be, though, that this bleak, grimy vision of teenage life is simply another reflection of a long-established maxim – it ain’t easy being young. [Joe Goggins] Available now on Sky Atlantic and Now TV

Mindhunter: Season 2 is streaming on Netflix

September 2019

Created by: Sam Levinson Starring: Zendaya, Maude Apatow, Angus Cloud

FILM & TV

Review

THE SKINNY

Young Guns The Glasgow Youth Film Festival Young Programmers – the GFT’s team of sharp young film fans aged 15-18 – introduce some of the films screening in this year’s festival, from 80s cult classic Heathers to joyous doc The Biggest Little Farm

The Biggest Little Farm

Heathers Dir. Michael Lehmann At this point, if you haven’t seen Heathers, then what are you even doing!? Murder, teenage cliques, Christian Slater! What’s not to like? Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) is royally regretting her decision to join the infamous Heathers clique that launched her social status from loser to mean girl. When head bitch Heather Chandler (Kim Walker) humiliates her, Veronica decides to take revenge. With the help of the clearly damaged, psychotic and hauntingly pretty JD (Christian Slater), Veronica is led down a twisted yet hilariously funny path of murder and teen suicide. This film surprised me. It’s so mind-bendingly 80s that I – a Gen Zer – forgot it was literally from that time and thought it was a collection of references. I love this film. The irony mixed with tongue-in-cheek humour is a perfect match. And over the years it’s proved itself a timeless classic, tackling issues of teen depression, suicide and the obliviousness of adults in a way that’s still relevant today – all the while being hilarious. Certain scenes haven’t aged well, I must admit, specifically the one where JD pulls out a gun in school. But despite the odd dated elements, Heathers is a funny, clever and sarcastic film that should speak to a lot of people. [Nadia Coia] Fri 13 Sep, GFT, 11pm

Coraline Dir. Henry Selick Coraline (not Caroline!) is bored with her life and her uninterested parents, then she discovers a secret door; a passage to another world. She enjoys her new life in this dreamy parallel universe – until it becomes a nightmare, that is. “I used to hate button-eyed dolls anyways.” Henry Selick, who made The Nightmare Before Christmas, shows his mastery of stop-motion animation and gives us a different take on the traditional storytelling form – again! Everything is handmade: 150 sets, 250 dolls and an unbelievable number of dogs! Style and creativity are melting through the scenes; the inconceivable patience and hard work put in to create this aesthetic is there for all to see. Reportedly Neil Gaiman’s favourite adaptation of his work, Coraline proves that a film can be scary without being a blood bath, with walking hands, button eyes and talking cats among the disquieting imagery. Selick’s film acts like a thriller rather than a kids’ movie, but it’s also a vivid fairytale for children and is full of beautiful detail about the trials of growing up. You can watch this masterpiece comfortably with your seven-year-old kid, alone or with your lads and still enjoy it to the fullest. Don’t forget, some doors should never be opened. [Seyma Dag] Sat 14 Sep, GFT, 11.30am

Coraline

September 2019

The Biggest Little Farm Dir. John Chester Picture this. You are on the outskirts of LA. The sun is shining and you’re sitting on a hill looking down at a picturesque farm. Just a few feet below are acres and acres of trees, all growing different fruits and all with a distinct purpose. In the distance, you are able to see the chickens, turkeys, pigs and other animals that bring the farm around you to life. You are able to see that all the things on the farm are intertwined, all are connected to one another. With an uplifting message that shows you can do anything with a dream and a little bit of hard work, The Biggest Little Farm is a must-see documentary. Set over seven years, we are able to see the journey of husband and wife team John and Molly – and Todd, their dog, who is arguably one of the best parts of the whole documentary. Not only does The Biggest Little Farm show John and Molly’s struggle to create a functioning traditional farm in a world that is now almost completely overrun by industrial farming,

Words: GYFF Young Programmers

but it also shows the hurdles they have faced and the amazing journey of growth that the farm goes through across the period of filming. The Biggest Little Farm takes you on an adventure. It makes you feel as though you were also there with John and Molly at the beginning when their idea of owning a farm was only a dream. As each new problem arises, you are on the edge of your seat about the outcome and effects that it could have on the farm, but with every win you too find yourself proud of the accomplishments that have come from those who are at the roots and the heart of the farm, those who stuck with the dream through the hard times. Over seven years, a lot can change, and The Biggest Little Farm is a perfect example of how not all change is bad, that even something like running a farm is possible if you believe in it enough. It shows change can bring new life to old grounds and that with some love, anything can become something. [Isobel Speirs] Sun 15 Sep, GFT, 4pm

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Scott Pilgrim vs the World Dir. Edgar Wright Not so long ago in the mysterious land of Toronto, Canada, Scott Pilgrim was dating a high schooler. What else do you need to know? In Edgar Wright’s fourth feature-length film we follow the precious little life of 23-year-old Scott Pilgrim (portrayed by Michael Cera) as he struggles with all of life’s typical problems: being in between jobs, playing bass guitar for his failing band, dealing with relationship problems and fighting his girlfriend’s seven evil exes in order to continue dating her. Based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel of the same name, Wright’s hyperactive style works incredibly well with the film’s comic book aesthetic, with sound effects appearing on-screen along with eye-popping super-powered battles in which hipster Toronto suddenly resembles a live-action arcade game. The casting for the film is impeccable. Keiran Culkin steals every scene he’s in as Wallace Wells, Scott’s sarcastic roommate. Even the small, subtle details and easter eggs that Wright is now famous for all add up to vastly improve the quality of the movie as well as making it endlessly rewatchable for years to come. With epic fights, killer comedy and some genuinely charming moments – oh, and of course, garlic bread – this movie is not one to miss. [Matthew Cowan] Sun 15 Sep, Maryhill Burgh Halls, 6pm

FILM

Stars by the Pound Dir. Marie-Sophie Chambon Stars by the Pound is a heartfelt, down to earth and intimately real look at mental illness. The film follows a young French girl, Lois, who dreams of becoming an astronaut, but is held back by her weight. The way the film portrays Lois’s eating disorder is painfully real and to someone who has experienced one, it’s the best portrayal of anorexia in media I’ve ever seen. There are shots in the film that are genuinely breathtaking, and some so claustrophobic that you feel as if you’re trapped inside Lois’s mind and body along with her. There are painfully funny moments too, mostly coming from Lois’s interactions with the other girls in her mental health unit. The dark humour in these exchanges complements the general air of quirkiness throughout the film. I would advise anyone attending GYFF to see this film. [Alex Cunningham] Sun 15 Sep, GFT, 1.30pm Glasgow Youth Film Festival, GFT, 13-15 Sep glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-youth-film-festival

Review

Stage Directions If the Fringe whet your appetite for more theatre, there’s plenty to see across Scotland this month n Glasgow, the Tron Theatre has an excellent programme this month, kicking off with Black Men Walking on 5 September. Created by Revolution Mix, an Eclipse movement spearheading the largest ever national delivery of new Black British stories, the show’s first UK tour was a roaring, sell-out success last year. Other shows hitting the Tron this month include Power Ballad (12-14 Sep), Julia Croft’s feminist, live art investigation of language and idealogy, The Chosen (19-20 Sep), the world premiere of Scotland’s Company Chordelia’s dance piece about dying and embracing the art of living, and The Hound of the Baskervilles (25-28 Sep), Northern Stage’s adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous classic. Over at Tramway, Zinnie Harris’s adaption of The Duchess [of Malfi] returns (4-21 Sep), while theatre company A Moment’s Peace host one of their shared space events, featuring multilingual and multidisciplinary work from artists with lived experience of the immigration system on the 15 September. In Edinburgh, the Traverse shows no sign of slowing down after its excellent festival

season: catch award-winning playwright Sally Hobson’s rehearsed reading of The Play of Light Upon the Earth (5 Sep) for an early glimpse of a fascinating sounding work in development, or head along with or without any kids in your life to Whirlygig (13-14 Sep), a musical adventure for anyone aged six or over. The Traverse will also host two A Play, A Pie and A Pint events in September – From Paisley to Paolo, Martin McCardie’s story about teenagers at T in the Park determined to meet Paolo Nutini (10-14 Sep), and Number One Fan, a play by Kim Millar about a woman who falls on hard times, gets hit by the menopause and has her final straw very much pulled by a woman-hating column she reads in the paper (17-21 Sep). Anyone who loved the BBC’s TV series Fleabag might be interested in going along to a screening of the original stage version at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh (12 Sep), written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and directed by Vicky Jones. For tiny theatre goers, the Studio Festival Theatre will also be hosting Andy Manley and Ian Cameron’s show for

three-to-six year olds, Stick By Me, about ‘friendship, play and treasuring the little things’, on 13 September. In Dundee, you can catch The Chosen at Dundee Rep on 26 September. Check out Sinatra Raw there too on 27 September,

Seabright Productions’ portrait of the famous singer as he faces retirement. Finally, Tay Bridge – a new play by Peter Arnott – will be running until 21 September, and explores the events behind the 1879 collapse of the Tay Bridge.

Tay Bridge in rehearsal

Photo: Sean Millar

Words: Eliza Gearty

Access All Areas The vast annual free festival that spans the nation from Shetland to Dumfries, Doors Open Days returns for its 30th outing this month offering the opportunity to delve into spaces that are usually off limits

ach year Doors Open Days spread across the country, facilitating access to a wide array of buildings and environments to celebrate Scotland’s heritage through spaces and the people who use them. It offers a place for learning and communication, fostering greater understanding between community groups alongside the opportunity for general nosiness. We’ve scrutinised the various city programmes to offer a few highlights from each – use this as a stepping off point for a deep dive into the many and various events appealing to interests as broad or as niche as the people in this small strange nation. Dundee (14 & 15 Sep) Immediate standouts on this year’s programme include a visit to the Dundee Sheriﬀ Court – backstage access in this case including a trip to the cells (not again) – and a 15 minute tour of celebrated local boozer The Speedwell Bar, aka Mennie’s. Their toilets are

listed, due in part to the ‘Edwardian lavatorial excellence of mosaic flooring’, don’t you know. Celebrating the 50th birthday of the Dundee City Archives, there will be special tours including access to documents tracing the city’s history right back to the 14th century. Architecture fans can take the opportunity to visit the Frank Gehry-designed Maggie’s Centre and adjoining Labyrinth. The ever-inclusive Dundee Contemporary Arts are offering tours behind the scenes of the projection room and print studio access, Caird Hall offer backstage passes to snoop around the workings of a theatre, and the McManus are providing a curator-guided tour of their Collections Unit. Glasgow (16-22 Sep) That’s right, Glasgow’s Doors Open lasts a full week, reflecting the generosity and spirit of the dear green place itself. Scotland’s largest and most diverse city has a suitably eclectic

Drumsheugh Baths

Review

line-up featuring a record 122 venues ranging from Sikh temples (pro tip – they may feed you!) to allotments to the Willow Tearooms, as well as multiple opportunities to see the inside of a cell. Sub Club have joined the programme for the first time this year and are offering a variety of intimate workshops, demonstrations and live performances. Music fans can also explore the iconic surrounds of the Barrowland Ballroom with the lights on, or visit Barrowland Ballads, an exhibition celebrating Glasgow’s music scene in the Glasgow City Heritage Trust. The city’s historical links to the slave trade hang heavily over the splendour of the mercantile buildings. The Civic Room hosts of sugar and Bones, an exhibition by Thulani Rachia responding to the foundations and origins of Glasgow’s Victorian wealth and development. Amongst the dizzying number of tours and events is Slavery, Abolition and Glasgow’s Built Heritage led by historian Stephen Mullen around the Merchant City revealing historic connections with transatlantic slavery, its abolition, and how these connections shaped the modern city. The hub for Glasgow Doors Open Day as a whole is in The Garment Factory, which will host a series of events and exhibitions ranging from the Future of Iran in Drumchapel to tote bag screenprinting worshops via a talk on Glasgow’s interwar queer community. The range of opportunity within this city’s programme is genuinely inspiring and somewhat overwhelming so we urge you to head to their site to plan your time wisely. Edinburgh (28 & 29 Sep) Where Glasgow celebrates a multiplicity of citizen stories, the capital’s Doors Open Day strength lies in providing access to spaces

THEATRE / ART

Words: Rosamund West that are usually restricted or private. The Anatomical Museum at the University of Edinburgh is used by medical students and houses Scotland’s biggest collection of anatomical specimens, including the skeleton of celebrity grave robber, William Burke! Also at the University, visit the £45 million Bayes Centre to find out more about the world-leading data science and artificial intelligence teams who claim to be shaping a better future for everyone. Dean Gardens are usually off limits to anyone outwith a narrow New Town postcode with cash to burn on annual key holding fees. Not this weekend! Rampage through these pleasure gardens of the Victorian rich before heading up to the Drumsheugh Baths, the city’s most luxurious historical swimming pool which is, again, usually only accessible with the payment of a hefty membership fee. Similarly, the vast Regent, Royal and Calton Terrace gardens can be visited this weekend – go marvel at the urban green space you cannot usually access. Away from the centre, you can visit a converted oil barge with stunning views from its Glass Room in the Vine Trust Barge. It may be prudent at this point in history to visit Barnton Quarry’s Cold War bunker, marvel at its historical circuitry and carefully note down its location just in case. Beyond these individual curios, Edinburgh throws open the doors to another wide selection of venues from religious institutions to arts institutions to architecturally significant schools. Pick up a programme, head to the website, and immerse yourself in this celebration of the weird and wonderful monuments to daily life and civic pride. doorsopendays.org.uk

THE SKINNY

ICYMI Scottish sketch comedy group Planet Caramel have a blast watching kids TV sketch show, Sorry, I’ve Got No Head Illustration: Emer Kiely

lex, David and Richard (three best friends) are crowded around a cathode ray tube television. David: You’ll never guess what I’ve found! David brandishes a big VHS. Richard: I guess we never will David. David: It’s a new sketch show that we can all watch together. It’s called Sorry, I’ve Got No Head and it’s been going for three series and has 39 episodes in total. Also it’s not new, it’s from 2008. Alex: That sure is a lot of episodes David! How come we’ve never heard of it? David: Because it’s ‘for kids.’ Like raves or butterfly farms. Planet Caramel all watch all 39 episodes of ‘children’s’ sketch show Sorry, I’ve Got No Head. Alex: I have consumed an incomprehensible quantity of sketch comedy, and I would categorise that as ‘a pleasant surprise’. David: That was as good as any sketch show for adults made by the BBC in the last 15 years. I think the fact it’s aimed at kids means the writers could actually get away with more than they can in most shows aimed at adults. An adult sketch show has three possible settings: ‘witty’, ‘gross’ or ‘mad’. This manages to be all three interchangeably without showing off or being self-conscious. Alex: Yeah, SIGNH treats kids with more respect than a lot of adult sketch shows. There are fart jokes – because farts are hilarious – and there are repeating sketches (like the old ladies who think everything costs ‘A THOUSAND POUNDS’),

September 2019

but another repeating bit, ‘Maybe my bees can help!’, is great because you never know where James Bachman and his bees will turn up. David: This show is obsessed with bees. Which is a refreshing surprise because everyone else seems big into bones/skeletons these days. Alex: It’s not recurring because it’s afraid of surprise, it works because of the surprise. Richard: It’s just like a normal sketch show but they don’t talk about blow jobs or say the word cunt. Although there are still quite a few sketches that just didn’t work. Alex: That's true: some of the sketches fail because you’re spending too much time working out why you should find it funny, such as the ‘only child in a school on a remote island’, or the boy who’s ‘getting into a lot of deer stuff ’. When I was a pre-teen, I definitely wasn’t self-aware enough to want to watch sketches gently lampooning my burgeoning moodiness. David: When I was a pre-teen I was watching Fry and Laurie to look like a big clever grown up boy but I wish I’d been watching this. As far as I can remember there are no Fry and Laurie sketches where someone uses a hollow dog to smuggle buffet snacks. Alex: Do a summary Richard, we’ve got a new hit sketch show to write! Richard: 50% of SIGNY is sketch comedy in the best sense, and 50% is ‘kids comedy’ in the worst sense. David: It’s also 100% bees. Planet Caramel are three lovely boys who form Scotland’s leading sketch comedy group. Keep an eye on planetcaramel.com for upcoming gigs and their writing will also be featured on FUNC, BBC Alba’s sketch comedy show with a second series out later this year

COMEDY

Review

Listings

THE SKINNY

Glasgow Music Tue 03 Sep THE STEEL WOODS

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £14.50

Like Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Steel Woods balance heavy blues-rock with Southern poetry, and a bit of plainspoken outlaw country. RE: FORMATION

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC

A night of improvisational music. FÖLLAKZOID (EGOPATTERNS)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £15.40

Chilean cosmic music band. AMANDA MCALLISTER

STEREO, FROM 19:30, £6

Concluding a Masters degree in music, McAllister will play a mix of original and cover material with a focus on combating regressive and stereotypical gender norms. AL HUGHES

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Rooted in the blues and soul tradition, Al Hughes’ music is modern, relevant and gathering praise from a growing number of well-respected figures on the British music scene. SASAMI (MOLLY LINEN + FAITH ELLIOT)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £9

Sasami Ashworth has been making music, in almost every way you can, for the last decade: from playing french horn in orchestras to playing keys and guitar in local rock bands.

Wed 04 Sep MORGAN EVANS

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £14.50

Australian singer-songwriter currently based in Nashville. SCALP

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Scalp (ex No Kilter, Crusades, Trapped in Kansas) play fast, loud punk influenced by the likes of The Wipers, Fugazi and Hot Snakes. KIP MOORE

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £27.02 - £145.90

American country singersongwriter, Kip Moore brings his raw and rustic sound to Scotland for a hypnotic live performance. KOAN SOUND

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £15 - £16

Tasty funk-infused bass, from dubstep to glitch-hop. LITTLEHILL

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, £4

Group from Glasgow who released their debut album in January.

ADWAITH (MELT + PAPUR WALL)

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £7.25

The Welsh acoustic indie-folk trio Adwaith head to SWG3. THE EASY WINNERS

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Conor and Michael play a classic blues selection from across the decades BOOK KLUB (CASUAL DRAG + GHOSTBABY)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5

Described as a mix between The Smiths and Chapel Club, the four-piece play The Hug and Pint.

Thu 05 Sep SPEAR OF DESTINY

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £19

Anthemic punk power rock band Spear of Destiny were founded in 1983 by singer and songwriter Kirk Brandon. THE VANITIES (BAD HOMBRES + BIGHT + THE PHASE)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8

Taking their distinct brand of Glaswegian garage punk around the block, The Vanities stay true to the ferocity and energy of their chaotic live sound.

LUCID HOUND (NORTH BY NORTH + THIRD PARTY)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6

Blues/grunge/psychedelic trio based in Glasgow.

September 2019

THE S.L.P. SWG3, FROM 19:00, £33.19

The solo project of Kasabian’s Serge Pizzorno, touring ahead of his debut release later this year. TYBER & PETER FROM THE DUALERS

SWG3, FROM 20:00, £15.19

The Dualers are a nine-piece ska and reggae band from South East London, and tonight sees Tyber and Peter from the group put on their own show. CHARLEY CROCKETT (JAIME WYATT) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £15.40

A unique sound blending a rich and diverse heritage of both new and traditional music from Charley Crockett. MARK MULCAHY & BAND

STEREO, FROM 19:30, £15

The former singer of the wellregarded and influential Miracle Legion heads to Glasgow to perform his critically-acclaimed solo material. COSMONAUTS (DAS PLASTIXX + HELICON)

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 19:30, £7 - £7.70

California-based garage punk group Cosmonauts return to Glasgow, with support from Das Plastixx and Helicon.

THE BERRIE BIG BAND SEPTEMBER SOIRÉE ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £5 - £7

Playing a wide variety of music to appeal to a broad age range, incorporating music by Stevie Wonder, Kraftwerk, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and TV/ movie themes.

JOHN DE SIMONE: INDEPENDENCE

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 20:00, £7 - £10

Drawing on Scottish traditional music and post-minimalism, John De Simone’s Independence is a musical examination of personal, cultural and national identity in Scotland. THREE CARD TRICK

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Scotland’s most popular power trio perform three hours of rockin’ blues. MEURSAULT PRESENTS CROW HILL (KITS + BLUE TIGER)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

Crow Hill is a place where fiction intrudes upon reality, haunting those who have neglected its teachings and devalued its message.

Fri 06 Sep

HEAVY PETTIN’ (ROCK GODDESS)

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15

The rock legends continue to strengthen on their comeback tour. A NIGHT OF QUEEN WITH THE BOHEMIANS

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £20.75

Internationally-renowned Queen tribute band take you on a highenergy rollercoaster ride. BLACK KING COBRA (DEAD COYOTES + PETTY CASSETTES + OVER YONDER) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8

MICHAEL ROTHER PLAYS NEU! & HARMONIA & SOLO WORKS QUEEN MARGARET UNION, FROM 19:00, £25 - £28.25

Known as a founding member of NEU! and Harmonia and for his work with Kraftwerk, German multi-instrumentalist Michael Rother heads to Glasgow. AUSTIN JENKES

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £13.50

A country-folk musician whose music makes you long for a simpler time when the world moved a little slower and things felt a bit more pure. THE DUALERS

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £25.99

The infamous nine-piece Jamaican rhythm and blues band from South East London get back on the road. THE GALLERYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 19:30, £6

Kent-hailing band blending 60s rock, Britpop and indie sounds.

ESPERANZA (HUMAN RENEGADE + THE DF118’S)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9

Esperanza are a nine-piece ska collective from Glasgow famed for live shows where their infectious rhythm has the crowd involuntarily jumping in time. ARMAND HAMMER (COMFORT)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 20:00, £12

The duo behind Armand Hammer, Elucid and Billy Woods, are considered two of the most vital voices in hip-hop. BROKEN CHANTER (MAMMOTH PENGUINS + MOONSOUP)

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 20:00, £5 - £8.50

New project from Kid Canaveral’s principal songwriter, David MacGregor. BLUE MILK

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Blue Milk are a Glasgow-based blues band strongly influenced by the Mississippi Delta sound from the early 1920s to the 1960s.

KETTLE OF KITES (DAVE FRAZER + FLEW THE ARROW) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8.50

Kettle of Kites is an indie artrock band, a soaring crescendo and then a simple folk melody.

TOM MCGUIRE & THE BRASSHOLES PLAY JAMES BROWN THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £12

The Glasgow funk powerhouse band are directly inspired by the classic originator of big band funk, and are here to pay homage to the Godfather of Soul.

Sat 07 Sep

SIMPLE MINDED & DECON BLUES

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15

An evening celebrating two of Scotland’s greatest musical exports, Deacon Blue and Simple Minds. THE RUBENS

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £12

Music Matters is a live music evening featuring some of the most talented singers and performers in Scotland.

Legendary Scottish-Irish folk rock band return with a set comprising new material and the best of their recent and vintage work. RHYS CHATHAM’S PYTHAGOREAN DREAM (CUCINA POVERA)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 20:00, £12

Rhys Chatham is a composer, guitarist, trumpet player and flutist from Manhattan, who altered the DNA of rock and created a new type of urban music. THE SPOOK SCHOOL (LEGGY + HAPPY SPENDY)

THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 19:00, £11.25

This year, and more specifically this final show of the tour, will mark the end of the project known as The Spook School. CIARAN RYAN BAND (ZOR)

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 20:00, £8 - £9

Ciaran Ryan is a young multiinstrumentalist from the North East of Scotland and now based in Edinburgh. GUS MUNRO

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 18:00, FREE

Gus Munro is one of the hidden gems of Scotland’s thriving music scene. His music has been described as Scottishfolk–blues, combining his love of Scottish traditional music and his passion for the blues.

VINTAGE JAMBOREE #2 (THE VINTAGE EXPLOSION + PORT TOWN ROCKERS + BABY FACE AND THE BELTIN’ BOYS + DJ TOJO MOYES)

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, £10

Rock’n’roll, swing, rhythm and blues, teddy boy rock’n’roll, Western swing, Americana and a whole lot more across a retro night of bands.

STOCK MANAGER (FREAKWAVE + BUFFET LUNCH)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5

Stock Manager headline after a group of local acts.

MIC CLARK ACOUSTIC BUTTERFLY

PART TIME HEROES (AIR DRAWN DAGGER + THE BALCONY)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £3

THE DUALERS

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £20 - £25.99

The infamous nine-piece Jamaican rhythm and blues band from South East London get back on the road. ABSOLUTE BOWIE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £15

Europe’s favourite Bowie tribute act takes you on a musical journey through the ever-changing phases of his music and fashion, with incredible attention to detail.

MICHAEL CASSIDY

GO TO GIRL (MALL RAT)

BAND A.

FREAKENDER 2019

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £10

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:00, £21

Glasgow-based singer/songwriter with a tender voice and intimate lyrics. TALLIES (LIFE MODEL)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

Tallies navigate an unfamiliar world on their confident selftitled debut album, which blends elements of shoegaze, dream pop and surf rock into a fresh sound that’s all their own.

Tue 10 Sep

ERIC PASLAY (THOMPSON SQUARE)

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £17.50

The award-winning Nashvillebased country star heads to Oran Mór.

CANDY SAYS (VELVETEEN RIOT)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Lo-fi chic pop DIY outfit from Oxford, most oft to be found recording homemade pop in their bungalow garage. LINCOLN DURHAM (CRAIG WHITE + MATT SPENCER) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8

A Southern-gothic, psychoblues one man band with a heavy amped edge, preaching the gospel of some new kind of depraved music. FROTH (COMFORT + WYLDE)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, £8

Art pop experimentalists. WHITFIELD CRANE

CATHOUSE, FROM 19:00, £15

Former frontman and founding member of the rock band Ugly Kid Joe. THE VELVETEERS (THE PEARL HARTS)

Sun 08 Sep

THE VAUNTS (THE SHOALS + CAMERON LEDWEDGE)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6

Four-piece indie rock band from Falkirk. JIGS & REELZY

High-energy danceable rhythms from Manchester. GUS MUNRO

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Wed 11 Sep

ASTRID (MAN OF THE MINCH + THE HUR)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £13

Mon 09 Sep GIODYNAMICS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE

Improvised open mic with Jer Reid. SLEAZYOKE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:00, FREE

The big sleazy karaoke sesh with Gerry Lyons. THE WARLOCK (STEVENSON RANCH DAVIDIANS + THE KUNDALINI GENIE) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £16.50

Formed in America during 1999, The Warlocks produce a relentless, hypnotic wall of sound that suggests a collision between classic psychedelia, Krautrock and Velvet Underground style rock’n’roll.

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

MI MYE (GRANFALLOON + AORTAROTA)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:30, £5

A trio of bands: Sparklehorse vibes from Wakefield’s Mi Mye, folktronic fluffy man Granfalloon, and Aortarota, who is self-described as a “music project of a devil woman”. THREE CARD TRICK

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Scotland’s most popular power trio perform three hours of rockin’ blues. OPHELIA LIES (LUTHIA + SUPERCLOUD)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5

The electro-pop duo of Eugenio Dubla and Thomas Brumby formed only this year. MUSE-IC

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

TARUN BALANI

Tarun’s music and artistry has been described as “nothing short of remarkable”.

Fri 13 Sep

DANNY DAVIS (LIAM SOMERVILLE)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8

Danny Davis plays his first solo show under King Tut’s famous roof.

COLLIBUS (DARKNESS DIVINE + SPLINTERED HALO + THE RHUBARB) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:00, £8

Manchester-based prog metal band. JASON AND THE SCORCHERS (KENTUCKY HEADHUNTERS + DAN BAIRD)

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 17:30, £22.50

Country rock’n’rollers par excellence. LYDIA AINSWORTH

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £4 - £5

THE KILLING FLOOR (CHARLOTTE MARSHALL)

Cryptic Street is a musical riot, ready to rock your ears and mess with your brain.

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9

Frankie Lee heads to Glasgow following the release of his new album, Stillwater – a record about life in middle America.

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:00, £21

Rock band with a background in blues and soul music and songwriting in the vein of the Seattle grunge scene.

CRYPTIC STREET (MALLRATS)

FRANKIE LEE (STEVE GROZIER + THE LOGANS)

Singer, composer and producer Lydia Ainsworth heads to Scotland following the release of her third record, Phantom Forest.

KIT TRIGG (CARNIVAL CLUB + CATALINA SKIES)

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

The recording name of Scottish musician John Charles Wilson.

Born on the Isle of Lewis, Astrid return to Glasgow following the release of their comeback album Fall, Stand, Dance.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 17:00, FREE

Trad/folk open floor with Neil McDermott.

FROG POCKET

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £7

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £5 - £9

HANDLE (KURWS + VITAL IDLES)

STEVE IGNORANT

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £13

ELO tribute act.

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:30, £7

A concert of music by Scottish and Australian composers, including Kate Moore and Thomas Meadowcroft along with world premieres by Matthew Whiteside and Jane Stanley.

Steve Ignorant of punk outfit Crass returns to Glasgow to share his solo work.

THE ELO EXPERIENCE

THE KING’S THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £25.25 - £40.25

American rock trio from Colorado playing punk with an aggressive sound and grungy wisdom.

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

Mic Clark is a well-known popular performer on the live music scene in Scotland, joined by his band Acoustic Butterfly.

Go To Girl are an indie-pop four-piece based in Edinburgh, with thought-provoking lyrics teamed with catchy riffs and rhythmic drums and bass.

Talented singer-songwriters Nicola Evans and Olivia Ennemoser invite local singers and songwriters to join them every week.

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10.50

THE NIGHT WITH... ENSEMBLE OFFSPRING

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £6

BIG HOGG

Pop-punk trio from Glasgow.

MUSIC MATTERS

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £37.50

MONO, FROM 21:00, TBC

MONO, FROM 21:00, FREE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £10

THE WATERBOYS

The Howlin’ Wolf’s open stage blues jam.

Progressive power pop from three of Glasgow’s local talent.

Inspired by a mix of modern pop and disco, Chuchoter are a new Edinburgh act mixing deep-soul vocals, strong, self-assured lyrics and dirty jazz production to create a fresh sound with a club focus.

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £13.75

Alternative rock/garage/glam confusion of a thing, who claimed to have been formed from the malfunction of a terrible musical laboratory experiment.

Welsh alt-rock five-piece, not to be confused with the Reuben sandwich.

Rock band based in Glasgow, bringing you some gripping grooves and masterful melodies to caress your sound holes. CHUCHOTER

DIRTBOX DISCO (REACTION + BUZZBOMB)

MASTERS OF HARDCORE SCOTLAND

SWG3, FROM 20:00, £15 - £25

Get ready for the return of the world’s biggest hardcore brand. LUST FOR YOUTH (GRAND PRIX)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £14.85

Copenhagen-based Lust For Youth, made up of Hannes Norrvide and Malthe Fischer, return to Glasgow. PROBABLY OSLO

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

Probably Oslo combine sharp, earnest songwriting with the beguiling melancholy of early 80s guitar pop and present it energetically.

Thu 12 Sep DECLAN HEGARTY

ORAN MOR, FROM 21:30, TBC

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

FREAKENDER 2019

Step aside from the run of the mill festival circuit and head to The Old Hairdressers for a weekend of music and madness curated by Freakender. STEPHEN MALKMUS

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 19:30, £20 - £24

Indie rock king and former Pavement leader, Stephen Malkmus returns to Glasgow for a rare solo show. RIGID SOUL

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

A three piece blues/rock band from Glasgow, with a lot of energy.

Along with a skilled quartet of luminaries, Audrey reimagines The Associates’ debut album, The Affectionate Punch.

Sat 14 Sep THE ABSOLUTE JAM

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:45, £14

Tribute band capturing the authentic raw energy and sound of The Jam’s early punk roots. EELS (CHAOS CHAOS)

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £34.50 - £41.66

Mon 16 Sep

THE REYTONS (HAZEYDAYS)

Yorkshire-based indie-rock band. AITCH

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £13.75 - £68.65

ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC W/ GERRY LYONS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE

First the Mancunian rapper took over your airwaves, and now he’s taking over SWG3.

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

CATHOUSE, FROM 19:00, £5

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

METAL AGAINST HOMELESSNESS

A roster of particularly charitable metal musicians rallying together in aid of the homeless.

MESSED UP YOUTH (LOST VEDA + NASTY NESTO AND THE SADBOIS + SUMMIT) STEREO, FROM 18:45, £6 - £7

What’s The Noise Presents an epic night with some of the best buzz bands on offer, headlined by Messed Up Youth. FREAKENDER 2019

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 14:00, £21

Step aside from the run of the mill festival circuit and head to The Old Hairdressers for a weekend of music and madness curated by Freakender.

THE PROCLAIMERS (BE CHARLOTTE)

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £39.75 - £45.40

You may have to walk 500 miles to be guaranteed a ticket for this monster show. HUGH KEARNS

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 18:00, FREE

Scottish multi-instrumentalist songwriter, influenced by John Prine, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and The Rolling Stones.

ELEANOR KANE

Eleanor Kane blends soul and funk influences with a gritty undertone to produce raw, vocal driven pop. NATIVE HARROW

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:00, £7.50

Native Harrow cuts out clear and vibrant narratives on fear, love, the open road, ill-fated relationships, and coping with the state of the world.

Tue 17 Sep OUTDOOR SCENE

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Outdoor Scene was born out of Monty Williams’ move north. What emerged was not one consistent band but a journey of diverse influences. PILE (CUTTY’S GYM + AMERICAN CLAY)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £10

The explosive Boston-based four-piece come to the UK. KING KHAN’S LOUDER THAN DEATH (GOLDIE DAWN)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £12.10

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

Louder Than Death began as the love child between King Khan and the almighty punk rock legends the Spits, and now it comes to Glesga.

SHAZ MARTIN ALBUM LAUNCH

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £51.70 - £107.85

KIRK STRACHAN

Kirk Strachan is a singer-songwriter based in Glasgow. THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:00, £10

Singer-songwriter Shaz Martin plays tracks from her forthcoming album, set for release in September.

ARIANA GRANDE (ELLA MAI)

Multi-platinum superstar Ariana Grande brings her Sweetener World Tour to Glasgow. SCOTT MCPHERSON

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Sun 15 Sep

Jazz, blues, roots and soul from the bass player in the wacky Tom McGuire & The Brassholes.

ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7.50

JOHNNIE & JAZZ WITH GG JAZZ DUO

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

JOYERO

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £9.90 - £15

In addition to his role as one half of Wye Oak, Stack has gained notoriety in recent years as a multi-instrumental collaborator with several other musical acts.

STANLEY BRINKS AND THE WAVE PICTURES (FRESCHARD)

Multi-award-winning Melbourne contemporary folk outfit, The Maes is the brainchild of sisters Maggie and Elsie Rigby.

ROYAL SOUTH

SaraBeth, Glen Mitchell and Vickie Vaughn come together to form the harmony powerhouse Royal South.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £10 - £13

Former Herman Dune man Stanley Brinks plays backed by English rockers The Wave Pictures.

JULIA MICHAELS (NEW RULES)

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £22.50

Julia Michaels performs with support from New Rules as part of her Inner Monologue show. TRASH BOAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 17:30, £11

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £11

A fusion of Glasgow’s finest DJs collaborate with talented vocalists and exceptional musicians to offer something fresh and exciting to the city’s vibrant music scene.

IT’S FOR US

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £10

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

ORGANIC GROOVES

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 21:00, FREE

The Howlin’ Wolf’s open stage blues jam. A quartet based in Stockholm, Sweden, whose members have long been active in the Swedish indie music scene, in separate bands and together in different constellations.

Five-piece from St Albans.

PIE & BREW, FROM 18:00, FREE

THE KILLING FLOOR (CHARLOTTE MARSHALL)

2019 sees the triumphant live return of the Eels, having extended their headline tour, following their latest album The Deconstruction.

DENI SMITH (KATIE MALCO + CRAIG CARRINGTON-PORTER)

Deni Smith carts her sun-soaked pop tunes and infectious charisma to The Hug and Pint.

Step aside from the run of the mill festival circuit and head to The Old Hairdressers for a weekend of music and madness curated by Freakender.

LAUREN JENKINS

Big Machine recording artist Lauren Jenkins has been a touring artist since she was 15 years old, with music her one constant companion. MEGAN MCKENNA

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £15.12 - £33.60

Best known for her exploits as a reality TV star and business woman, Megan McKenna embarks on the second part of her first tour across the UK.

THE MAES (ZOË BESTEL)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £8

Wed 18 Sep YVET GARDEN

BLOC+, FROM 20:00, FREE

Hailing from Valence, the French pop-punk band Yvet Garden take their influences from early 90s bands, the emerging UK pop-punk wave and the nostalgic emo scene. RASCALTON (SNASH + SPYRES)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £9

The increasingly popular Glasgow upstarts drop by for another predictably raucous live show. RICHARD YOUNGS (MICHAEL CLARK + HEIR OF THE CURSED)

MONO, FROM 20:00, £5

Long-running UK experimental musician Richard Youngs is a British musician with a prolific and diverse output. FUR

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9

Soak up some jangling, sepiatinged and 60s-inflected bop from this Brighton quartet.

Listings

THE BAR STOOL PREACHERS (AERIAL SALAD) STEREO, FROM 19:00, £10

The Bar Stool Preachers return to Glasgow for their only Scottish date of 2019. THE EASY PEELERS

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

BARRASFEST 2019 (YOKO PWNO + THE HOOJAMAMAS + MELISSA KELLY AND THE SMOKIN’ CROWS + FEET OF CLAY + STARRY SKIES + CONNOR FYFE + ROBIN ASHCROFT) BARROWLANDS, FROM 18:00, £16.75 - £25.55

BARRASFEST 2019 (MUNGO’S HI FI + THE GIROBABIES + STEVE MASON (ACOUSTIC) + JOHN MCMUSTARD AND FRIENDS + THE MOODS) BARROWLANDS, FROM 18:00, £16.75 - £25.55

A new two day indoor music festival in the iconic Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow’s East End Quarter.

The Easy Peelers take bring you all the best of rock’n’roll, blues, soul, country, folk, Americana, funk, jazz and rhythm & blues.

A new two day indoor music festival in the iconic Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow’s East End Quarter.

THE EX (BAMYA + PAINTED X-RAY)

THE TURBANS (OMAR AFIF + THREE TREE TRIBE)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £5 - £8

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £10

STEREO, FROM 20:30, £12

THUNKFISH (TRIO TYR)

Thunkfish play PTHRONK, which – to them at least – is a tight yet unpredictable blend of jazz, punk, thrash, prog and funk.

Thu 19 Sep DECLAN HEGARTY

ORAN MOR, FROM 21:30, FREE

Fully trained folk harp player who also plays the guitar and sings, bringing his multiinstrumental talents to a regular Oran Mor crowd. FETTY WAP

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £33.95 - £34.50

Dutch post-punks The Ex celebrate 40 years strong with support from the amazing Bamya and Painted X-Ray. ALISTAIR GRIFFIN (ROSS MCGUIRE)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:30, £16.76

Alistair Griffin returns to Scotland for another intimate show with support from Glasgow singer Ross McGuire. KHALID (MABEL + RAYE)

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £39.75 - £53.35

The rapper who found success sharing his affections for his trap queen.

International multi-platinumselling artist Khalid is the next big name to take to the Hydro’s stage.

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £10.25

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

SPIELBERGS

Oslo indie-rock outfit having a blast making guitar-based indie rock.

CASA BACARDI PRESENTS: THE SOUND OF RUM SWG3, FROM 20:00, £6.25

Expect carnival vibes, classic Bacardi rum cocktails and a sound system that is set to get everyone moving. JEFFREY LEWIS & THE VOLTAGE (US HIGHBALL) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £13.75

Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage play a brilliant style of scuzzy urban indie-rock-folk, like a 21st Century mash-up of Sonic Youth, Pete Seeger and R. Crumb. BODYPOSIPANDA’S NEVER SAY DIET CLUB LIVE

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £22 - £46

Singing, dancing, sass and a healthy dose of destroying diet culture.

PABLO JONES

Pablo Jones is a one-manlooping band playing a collection of classic funk, soul and blues covers. SUSAN CADOGAN (FRIENDLY FIRE BAND)

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, £12

The Jamaican Queen of reggae makes another visit to Glasgow for her only Scottish date. ORGANIC GROOVES

PIE & BREW, FROM 18:00, FREE

A fusion of Glasgow’s finest DJs collaborate with talented vocalists and exceptional musicians to offer something fresh and exciting to the city’s vibrant music scene. BONSAI

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £5 - £8

Chosen in the ‘Shape of Jazz to Come in 2018’ in Jazzwise, Bonsai are an award-winning band based in London.

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

IMPATIENT LAUNCH NIGHT (PAQUE + RAPTURE 4D + LAUREN GLANCY + STXNER KID EASII)

MUSE-IC

Paque is ready to begin the next stages of his exciting career, starting with his brand new single, Impatient.

THREE CARD TRICK

Scotland’s most popular power trio perform three hours of rockin’ blues. PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

Talented singer-songwriters Nicola Evans and Olivia Ennemoser invite local singers and songwriters to join them every week.

59:60 – RACHEL LIGHTBODY: ELLA FITZGERALD SINGS THE GEORGE AND IRA GERSHWIN SONGBOOK (RACHEL LIGHTBODY) THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £5 - £8

The 59:60 series at The Blue Arrow pays tribute to a selection of era-defining albums, featuring some of the most exceptional young talent Scotland has to offer.

Fri 20 Sep THE FILTHY TONGUES

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12.50 - £14.50

Alternative rock group from Edinburgh. JOHHNY LLOYD

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8.50

Once of the commercially-loved Tribes, Johnny Lloyd hasn’t looked back since taking on the music world on his own. NEKKURO HÁNA

MONO, FROM 21:00, FREE

Making self-proclaimed ‘sex music’, the Glasgow-based quintet’s performances are pleasurable for the mind, body and soul. A FOREIGNER’S JOURNEY

CATHOUSE, FROM 19:00, £12

Tribute act to Foreigner and Journey. DRAB MAJESTY (SRSQ)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £16.50

Drab Majesty is an interdimensional platform aimed at channeling aural and visual messages founded by a human being from Los Angeles in 2013.

Listings

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 23:00, £8

Sat 21 Sep THE RISING

ORAN MOR, FROM 18:45, £13

Bruce Springsteen tribute act. HUNKPAPA (GHOSTWRITER + KIERAN ORR) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8

Four eccentrics from Armagh, with a loose grip on social norms and reality, specialising in anthemic bangers. THE KIDNEY FLOWERS

MONO, FROM 21:00, FREE

Psych and shoegaze from the self-professed fast food enthusiasts.

BUCKFEST 2019 (THE PHARISEES + THE RAPTORS + KOSHER PICKLES + THE FNORDS + THE BUCKY RAGE + SECRET ADMIRER) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 15:30, £8

The purple nectar party returns, featuring live music and DJs celebrating the chronic tonic all night long.

Sonically huge and visually arresting, International Gypsy Klezmer Balkan legends The Turbans bring their interstellar live show to Stereo. SWEET WILLIAMS (IRMA VEP BAND + PEFKIN)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:00, £6

Sweet Williams are a deep and emotionally crushing vehicle, featuring fat cyclical dirty bass and looping relaxed yet hefty drums. SOUL FEEDER

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 18:00, FREE

Playing a wide range of funk, soul and blues covers, you are sure to be impressed with the high level of musicianship on show. IST IST

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

Majestic post-punk; haunting and hypnotic – sounds cool, right? THE POACHERS

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

The Poachers are a folk pop duo consisting of Neil Donaldson and Seb Jonsen, who previously played together in psychedelic favourites The Beetroots. ORLANDO WEEKS

THE BLUE ARROW, 15:00 + 20:00, £22

Orlando Weeks, formerly of The Maccabees, will be performing new solo material.

Sun 22 Sep PIXIES (THE BIG MOON)

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £39.50

Pixies kick off a year-long world tour with a headline UK tour. NO HOT ASHES

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £8.50

Three-piece from Manchester adding a bit of funk to their indie rock. FERRIS & SYLVESTER

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £11

The London-based songwriting duo have picked up praise from critics far and wide. AIDAN MOFFAT & RM HUBBERT

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £18.56

The two Scots team up for music and good times. THE KILLING FLOOR (CHARLOTTE MARSHALL)

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 21:00, FREE

The Howlin’ Wolf’s open stage blues jam.

Mon 23 Sep MARIKA HACKMAN

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £14.50

Sweet-voiced young folk singer/ songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC W/ GERRY LYONS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE

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

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

My Chemical Romance tribute.

Jed Potts of JP and the Hillman Hunters supplies only the deepest of grooves and the rudest of shuffle and blues.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £9

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

THE BLACK CHARADE

CATHOUSE, FROM 19:30, £12

CALLUM BEATTIE

The young Edinburgh singer/ songwriter shares his acoustic indie-pop gems.

THE REBEL (WEST WICKHAMS + MEMES) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9

The alter ego of Country Teasers’ Ben Wallers, The Rebel dates back to the tailend of the 80s.

MERMAIDENS

Wellington trio Mermaidens follows the story arch of how most bands start, through longterm friendship and bonding over music that shaped their salad days.

Tue 24 Sep CULTDREAMS

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Formally known as Kamikaze Girls, Cultdreams recently released their brand new album Things That Hurt and are stopping by Bloc on their album release tour.

VOLBEAT (BARONESS + DANKO JONES) O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £37 - £324

The Danish metal heavyweights continue to tour. WINTERSLEEP

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £9.35

Nova Scotians in possession of suitably infectious soundscapes, built on dense, rhythmic postrock structures. SPIRAL STAIRS (BULL)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £11

Scott Kannberg, better known as Spiral Stairs, follows up his third solo album, We Wanna Be HypNo-Tized, with a UK tour. JACK RICHARDSON

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Jack Richardson of The Hoojamamas and Harry & The Hendersons brings his solo act to The Wolf. MICHAEL JANISCH

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

Michael Janisch has established himself as a first-call electric and double bassist, MOBO-Award nominated solo artist, producer and owner of Whirlwind Recordings.

Wed 25 Sep

FIREBALL (LESS THAN JAKE + GOLDFINGER + SAVE FERRIS + THIEVES OF LIBERTY + MATT STOCKS + LOCAL BAND COMPETITION WINNER) O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £21

The infamous tour returns for its fourth year, with ska-punk favourites Less Than Jake coming back for another stint. AARON WEST AND THE ROARING TWENTIES (LIZZY FARRALL + ANNA’S ANCHOR) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £12

Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties is as much a band as it is a story, playing americana, sometimes with up to 10 people. JACUZZI BOYS (FAUX FEROCIOUS)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £8

Miami trio who’ve been spitting garage-pop fire since 2009, when a run of successful 7-inches gave way to their first LP.

DIZRAELI (JUST FARLEY + SNOW THE DON)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £11

Dizraeli is a rapper, multiinstrumentalist and sometimes singer taking hip-hop to new terrains. BAD BOOGALOO

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Alternative bluegrass and rockabilly soundsmiths. PLASTIC MERMAIDS

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £9

Plastic Mermaids are a fivepiece indie pop crew from the Isle of Wight. SERGIO PRAZERES & MARIANA MOREIRA

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

WILCO (SPIRAL STAIRS + OHMME)

CHIRS ANDREUCCI

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £40.25 - £42.20

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £8

The Illinois alt-rockers have been going for over 25 years now, and another tour looms large as they head to Glesga. KING OF BIRDS

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £8

On the eve of their debut album release, King Of Birds play Stereo on a celebratory occasion. ADAM SUTHERLAND: TUNES ‘N’ TALES

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:00, £11.37

A rare chance to join Scottish fiddler Adam Sutherland for a rollercoaster evening of charismatic storytelling and tunesmithery. THREE CARD TRICK

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Scotland’s most popular power trio perform three hours of rockin’ blues. NOSSA BOSSA

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

Artists Angela Higney and Pete Parisetti take the public on a voyage of discovery into the mesmerising world of Brazilian music. THE HUMAN ELEMENT

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £5 - £8

The band’s music goes deep, reveals human desire, allows human error and inspires the listener to embrace everything that makes life worth living.

RODRIGO Y GABRIELA

Fresh from the release of new album, Mettavolution, Mexican acoustic-rock duo Rodrigo y Gabriela are back in the UK to mark the next chapter in their career. INGRID ANDRESS (MABES)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £10

One of the most unique and moving vocalists in the country, space and beyond; thrillingly honest, raw and refreshing. ANNIE LENNOX: AN EVENING OF MUSIC AND CONVERSATION

SEC, FROM 18:30, £51.10 - £141.90

Annie Lennox shares her thoughts, memories and reflections during an evening of conversation, musical performance and visual imagery.

Sonny & the Sunsets’ busted beach-pop songs spark recollections of doo wop’s otherworldly despair, a dose of goofball humor and positive possibilities. ALI BARTER

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9

Ali Barter brings her triumphant record, Hello, I’m Doing My Best, out on the road. CHARLIE AND THE BHOYS

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £22

Together almost 30 years, the group brand themselves as ‘the world’s no. one Celtic band’. RETRO VIDEO CLUB

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £11

Bursting onto the scene in 2017, Retro Video Club are a highoctane indie rock band hailing from Edinburgh. BEN HEMMING

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 18:00, FREE

Great guitar chops and more blues sensibility than you can shake a stick at. DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, £11.25

LAUREN SPITERI

A Glasgow-born singer-songwriter, who learned to strum the guitar at an early age and soon honed her songwriting skills. KRYSTHLA

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:00, TBC

Metal band formed from the ashes of Gutworm.

THIS FEELING (ONLY SHADOWS + SLOUCH + THE STONED IMACCULATE + THE REASON) BROADCAST, FROM 19:30, £6.60

Branded as “the best club in the UK for future rock & roll stars” by Noel Gallagher – it speaks for itself, right? HEAVY RAPIDS (PARLIAMO + PARIS STREET REBELS) STEREO, FROM 19:00, £9

Hotly-tipped Glaswegian young team.

THE BEVIS FROND (SMACK WIZARDS + GERRY LOVE (DJ SET))

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:30, £12 - £15

An iconoclastic collision of distinctly British psychedelia, space-rock, grunge, slowburning soulful laments, grizzled folk and moments of sublime pop genius. ALEX CAMERON

THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 19:00, £14.62

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £31.70 - £38.04

SONNY & THE SUNSETS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £7

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8

Thu 26 Sep Fully trained folk harp player who also plays the guitar and sings, bringing his multiinstrumental talents to a regular Oran Mor crowd.

Glasgow’s latest hype band show you what all the noise is about.

AWKWARD FAMILY PORTRAITS ALBUM LAUNCH

Sydney’s prime purveyor of wry, modern pop, Alex Cameron returns to Scotland.

DECLAN HEGARTY

HOME$LICE

MONO, FROM 22:00, FREE

Fri 27 Sep

Acoustic Latin rhythms hosted by Portuguese musicians, Sergio Prazeres and Mariana Moreira.

ORAN MOR, FROM 21:30, FREE

21-year-old Scottish singersongwriter based in Glasgow, with a strong repertoire of self-written songs and a solid fanbase across Glasgow and Ayrshire.

PYGMY TWYLYTE

Pygmy Twylyte play the music of Frank Zappa with the same cosmic, otherworldly bent with which it was intended. A must for hardcore fans and beginners alike. ORGANIC GROOVES

PIE & BREW, FROM 18:00, FREE

A fusion of Glasgow’s finest DJs collaborate with talented vocalists and exceptional musicians to offer something fresh and exciting to the city’s vibrant music scene. FRANKY’S EVIL PARTY (GRAVELLE + NASARI)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £6

With a driving incendiary sound that refuses to be defined or confined to any limits, Franky’s Evil Party have rapidly become one of Scotland’s most exciting uprisings.

Sat 28 Sep

GARY NUMAN (KANGA)

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £34.50 - £48.55

To celebrate 40 years since his first ever tour, electronic pioneer Gary Numan is back this autumn with his (R)evolution tour.

The Glasgow-based group celebrate the release of their new album with a show at Drygate Brewery.

THE ROQUES (CANARY GOLD + THE MORNING RETAKES) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5

The Dundee-based dark-indie group hit up Scotland’s music city. LATIN RHYTHMS

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

Acoustic Latin rhythms hosted by Portugese musicians, Sergio Prazeres and Mariana Moreira. SAVAGE MANSION (GOOD DOG + CODIST + HAPPY SPENDY + DJ BRB) THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 20:00, £7

Savage Mansion, newly expanded to a five-piece line-up, perform a hometown show ahead of a UK tour in support of the Revision Ballads LP.

Sun 29 Sep

JOHNNIE & JAZZ WITH GG JAZZ DUO

ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE

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

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £15

Approaching 20 years as a band and with a storied album catalogue, Stars continue to prove themselves some of the finest musical storytellers in the country. KOLLAPS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £10

Melbourne-based noise/industrial trio. YCEE

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £12

Nigerian rapper, singer and songwriter YCee performs a headline show at SWG3.

Mon 30 Sep

KING YELLOWMAN & THE SAGITTARIUS BAND

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £8

Jamaica’s first dancehall superstar, Yellowman ushered in a new era in reggae music, bringing the popularity of toasting – the reggae equivalent of rapping – to a whole new level.

INHALER

A Dublin four-piece rock’n’roll band, with an exciting CV having supporting The Sherlocks, Blossoms, The Coronas and Picturehouse. ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC W/ GERRY LYONS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE

FOLK NIGHT AT LEITH DEPOT (CARO BRIDGES AND THE RIVER + MOTEH PARROTT + PEERIE FAERIES + PETE KAVANAGH)

ASHLEY MCBRYDE

Monthly folk night and open session.

Come and see some of the best unsigned artists in the country for free. QUEEN MARGARET UNION, FROM 19:00, £21.50

McBryde isn’t afraid to tell the truth, get raw and real, and harness the spirits of country, folk and rock. SAY SUE ME

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 19:30, £12 - £13

Cited as one of 2018’s breakout bands, Say Sue Me are a surfrock inspired indie band from Busan, South Korea. ANDREW THOM NEIL

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

THE KILLING FLOOR (CHARLOTTE MARSHALL)

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 21:00, FREE

The Howlin’ Wolf’s open stage blues jam. JEREMY TUPLIN (PETER CAT)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

Jeremy Tuplin is a singersongwriter from Somerset, now living in London.

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £8

Charity night featuring some killer acts getting behind a great cause. BIG ART PETERS

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

Big Art Peters of The Lurkers and 999 heads to Edinburgh for a ‘punktry and western hootenanny’. TRUE SOUL WEEKENDER

Moonrunners headline Sneaky Pete’s as part of their UK tour with Manchester based SUNGLO.

LIVING HOUR (LEMON DRINK + COP GRAVEYARD)

What started with dreamy love songs inspired by the cinematic sky of their hometown has transformed into even more sprawling and expansive expressions on Living Hour’s latest effort, Softer Faces.

WEE RED BAR, FROM 20:00, £15

MOONRUNNERS (SUNGLO + PUPPY FAT + BETTY & THE BASS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6

A BIT OF A BLUR AND THE CHARLATUNES

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £13

Two of the finest tribute bands to Blur and The Charlatans bring a full on Britpop experience to Scotland. COLT LUGER

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £5-7

Tue 03 Sep

ENUFF Z’ NUFF (THE LAST GREAT DREAMERS)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £15 - £18

Chicago rock legends return to Bannermans to play the hits and more. BOYZLIFE

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £30.78

Brian McFadden from Westlife and Keith Duffy from Boyzone join forces to celebrate the success of each of their charttopping bands.

YELLOW HELEN (PELICAN TUSK + LEMONGRASS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £5

Yellow Helen return to Sneaky Pete’s to offer up a range of tasty ballads of the indie-pop variety, with notable influence from artists like Talking Heads and David Bowie.

MARIACHI DEATH SQUAD (KURTZ + BRUK + COLOUR CARNIVAL) LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

A loud’n’fuzzy night at the Depot.

Wed 04 Sep

S.O.T.O. (STOP STOP + SACRLET AURA) BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £17 - £20

The legendary frontman brings his Oragami tour to Edinburgh. NORTH BY NORTH (RADIALS + BETTY & THE BASS + SPYYN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £5

US power pop duo North by North bring their “melodic hooks, soaring vocals, crushing guitar, [and] bombastic drums” to the UK for the first time.

ARCADE FEATURING HEIDI TALBOT & ADAM HOLMES CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 19:30, £14.50 - £17

SPG ONE (RODNEY RELAX + JOHNNY & THE DEADBEATS)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £6

An informal gathering of folk musicians playing a few sets in a cabaret style gig.

For the first time Ireland’s Heidi Talbot and Scotland’s Adam Holmes are joining forces to tour, write and record an album of original material together.

Fri 06 Sep

Another soul music rendezvous in the capital.

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £7

THE COVASETTES

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 20:00, £5

Andrew Neil of The Hoojamamas and The Easy Peelers’ solo act, fusing rock’n’roll, blues, soul, country, Americana and rhythm & blues.

HOOTENANNY AT THE DEPOT (JACK RICHARDSON + BETH MYERS + MICHAEL ROSS)

The Covasettes are an indie-rock four-piece from Manchester.

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £20

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Thu 05 Sep

THE FLAMING LIPS PERFORM THE SOFT BULLETIN

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £35.75 - £45.97

The Flaming Lips will perform their classic album The Soft Bulletin in its entirety.

Blues and rock’n’roll night with special guests to be announced.

Sat 07 Sep

TWISTED NERVE (TOO LATE TO ATONE)

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5 - £6

Charity night in support of the Anne Konishi Memorial Fund and Maggies Centre. SOULACOASTER

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £7

Soulacoaster’s 12-piece band will have the dancefloor jumping to the greatest soul hits from Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Sam & Dave, Tina Turner, The Jackson 5 and many, many more. CATANDFI4MND FUNDRAISING CONCERT

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £10

CatandFi4MND are raising money for MND Scotland by trekking the Great Wall Of China in September. TRUE SOUL WEEKENDER

WEE RED BAR, FROM 20:00, £15

Another soul music rendezvous in the capital. THE BOHEMIANS – A NIGHT OF QUEEN

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £19.80

Queen tribute act.

DOG TIRED (KING WITCH + DISPOSABLE + PERPETUA + LETHAL INJURY + SOLAR SONS)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 17:00, £8 - £10

Releasing their highly anticipated fourth album The Electric Abyss, expect a monstrous spectacle of new riffs and metal nonsense. AULD AETHER REEKIE AUTUMNATION (DRIVEN SERIOUS + PROFESSOR ELEMENTAL) THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:30, £14

Witness the highly implausibly lovely, steampunk eccentricity of Professor Elemental alongside Driven Serious’s rousing raucous and melodic original punk/ folk/rock. THE PARTY SLOGAN

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £5

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

Sun 08 Sep

STEVE IGNORANT’S SLICE OF LIFE

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £13 - £15

Acoustic project of anarchopunk singer Steve Ignorant (Crass, Conflict, Thought Crime), joined by Carol Hodge and Pete Wilson.

THE SKINNY

September 2019

Listings

Edinburgh Music CHE LINGO

COLUMBIA

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £8 - £8.80

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 22:00, £9.05

The South London hip-hop artist makes his way north of the border for a headline show. GLASS CITY (ANTIGUO + CODESPEAKER)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £4

Glass City are pleased to finally announce the release of their new EP, All Those Shapes Were Meant to Fit.

Mon 09 Sep

DEATH REMAINS (THE FIVE HUNDRED)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £7

Killer double metal bill.

SOUNDHOUSE: 3HATTRIO

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £12

Continuing its weekly gig residency at Traverse Theatre, Soundhouse host a special set from 3hattrio, a band comprising banjo, guitar, fiddle and double bass. EMERGING ARTISTS: OKAPI DUO (KATIE KIM AND BRIAN KING) USHER HALL, FROM 11:00, £0 - £3

The Okapi Duo will perform an eclectic programme for flute and classical guitar.

Tue 10 Sep

PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED

BANNERMANS, FROM 17:00, FREE

Local artists play stripped back sets, before the public get to be the stars at karaoke. EDINBURGH INDIE FRESHERS (INDIGO VELVET + VANSLEEP + FLYING BY MIRRORS)

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 19:00, £8 - £10

Your go-to event for your indie/ rock needs during Edinburgh Freshers 2019, featuring Edinburgh’s indie rock outfit Indigo Velvet.

ARMAND HAMMER (KENNY SEGAL)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £10

The duo behind Armand Hammer, Elucid and Billy Woods, are considered two of the most vital voices in hip-hop. INDIA ELECTRIC CO

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £9

Diverse inspirations and quirky arrangements are brought together in a satisfying smorgasbord of joyful musicality.

Oasis tribute act performing Definitely, Maybe in its entirety, followed by a greatest hits set. THE FILTHY TONGUES

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £14.50

Alternative rock group from Edinburgh. POZI (CALLUM EASTER)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6

Pozi are from South London and create a visceral, stripped-back and driven sound. BEEZER (NELSON SAVAGE + PAPER RIFLES)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £5.50-6

COLLIBUS

Manchester-based prog metal band. EDINBURGH BLUES CLUB (RUF RECORDS BLUES CARAVAN)

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:15, FREE

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

PROBABLY OSLO (JAMES MICHAEL RODGERS)

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, FREE

Probably Oslo combine sharp, earnest songwriting with the beguiling melancholy of early 80s guitar pop and present it energetically.

NEIL MATTHEW FOX (THE LOWER DEPTHS + ROSIE SMITH + STEPHANOS CONSTANIDOU)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £5

A night of music from some of Edinburgh’s best local performers, celebrating the launch of The Songs of Neil Matthew Fox.

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £27

With the band having performed every Joy Division and New Order song ever released up until the mid Nineties, Peter Hook brings his band to Edinburgh for another tour.

BIGFOOT

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £10

The final tour as rock outfit Bigfoot step down from melting faces. SPYLAW (BLIND CIRCUITS + THE HOLY SMOKES)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 19:00, £5

Edinburgh brass-rockers Spylaw play their biggest headline show of the year. STANLEY BRINKS AND THE WAVE PICTURES (FRESCHARD)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £12

Former Herman Dune man Stanley Brinks plays backed by English rockers The Wave Pictures. MAN OF MOON

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £11

Psychedelic duo from Edinburgh. MI MYE (GIRL JESUS)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 14:00, TBC

A trio of bands: Sparklehorse vibes from Wakefield’s Mi Mye, folktronic fluffy man Granfalloon, and Aortarota, who is self-described as a “music project of a devil woman”. HEAVY DUTY BOX COMPANY

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Indie punk rock party.

Sun 15 Sep

RICHY NEILL & THE REINFORCEMENTS (SHE BURNS RED + THE BRINK) BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £5 - £8

FEMI KUTI

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £27

THE GUNS AND ROSES EXPERIENCE

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, TBC

Guns N’ Roses tribute act. VULPES URBANA (SERA)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Welsh four-piece poetry and music collective.

Mon 16 Sep

SOUNDHOUSE: BUDAPEST CAFÉ ORCHESTRA TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £12

The Budapest Café Orchestra play traditional folk and gypsyflavoured music from across the world.

Tue 17 Sep

PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED

BANNERMANS, FROM 17:00, FREE

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

ABLE NOISE (TZITZIFRIKI + COMA CAT + BAMYA)

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:30, £5

Netherlands/Greek outfits Able Noise and Tzitzifriki are joined by Edinburgh’s Coma Cat and Glasweigans Bayma.

UNDER THE WIRES PRESENTS (THE SILLY WALKS) LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Dirty rock’n’roll party.

Fri 20 Sep DIRTY DC

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £12 - £15

The ultimate tribute to AC/ DC play Bannermans for the first time.

SWEET WILLIAMS (ZED PENGUIN + MXD SIGNALS + PEFKIN) HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:30, £5 - £6

Sweet Williams are a deep and emotionally crushing vehicle, featuring fat cyclical dirty bass and looping relaxed yet hefty drums. GUNS 2 ROSES

THE HIVE, FROM 18:00, £12.50

The only Guns N’ Roses tribute to perform with four different Guns N’ Roses members. AIDAN MOFFAT & RM HUBBERT

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £16.50 - £18.50

The two Scots team up for music and good times. HUNKPAPA

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £11.39

Four eccentrics from Armagh, with a loose grip on social norms and reality, specialising in anthemic bangers. GRISLY FAYE

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Ukrainian experimental pop artist Grisly Faye takes to the stage for a night of sonic revelry in support of her upcoming short film, Backseat.

Sat 21 Sep

INFA-RIOT (ARCH RIVALS + HATEFUL + PANIC ATTAK)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £12.50 - £15

The 80s punk legends are back to tear it up. AC/DC UK (VAULT VI)

THE HIVE, FROM 18:00, £10 - £12

Listings

A night of local talent.

BANNERMANS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Classic rock covers from the 60s to present day.

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:30, £17

SOUNDHOUSE: LETITIA VANSANT

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £12

Baltimore singer-songwriter who came to prominence in 2017 after winning the prestigious Kerrville New Folk Songwriting competition. THE REBEL (CASUAL DRAG + BUFFET LUNCH)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

The alter ego of Country Teasers’ Ben Wallers, The Rebel dates back to the tailend of the 80s. DUMB INSTRUMENT

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

The inventive and infectious Ayrshire bunch have delivered their new EP, regressivelyentitled Backwards Is the New Forward. EDINBURGH OKTOBERFEST AT THE PITT

THE PITT, FROM 12:00, £1 - £2

Authentic Oktoberfest at The Pitt hosted by Barney’s Beer, with on-tap beers straight from Munich, delicious street food and live music from some of Scotland’s hottest brass, funk and soul bands.

Mon 23 Sep SIN IN THE FLESH

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, TBC

“As determined as The Beatles, AC/DC, Oasis or Led Zeppelin,” or so they say. SOUNDHOUSE: MARTIN SIMPSON

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £12

VOODOOS (THE VANITIES + PUBLIC TRANSPORT)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £9

Thrashing high-energy punk from deepest Glasgow. DELTA MAINLINE (CALLUM EASTER)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £7

CORNFIELD CHASE

The debut single launch from melodic indie rock outfit Cornfield Chase.

The Irish singer-songwriter returns to Edinburgh for his first show in three years. GAELYNN LEA (KAPIL SESHASAYEE)

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £11

Classically-trained violinist and songwriter Gaelynn Lea has been bewitching fans with her haunting original songs and experimental takes on traditional fiddle music. AGUSTITOS NIGHT

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Flamenco, Scottish traditional folk and a little bit of everything with special surprises.

Tue 24 Sep

BLUE RUIN (DIGAME LOULOU)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

FRANC CINELLI (DAVID LATTO + PAT DENNIS)

Born in Rome and raised in London, Franc Cinelli was brought up on a sterling collection of blues, folk, country and wholesome rock’n’roll music. CALLUM BEATTIE

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £9 - £9.90

The young Edinburgh singer/ songwriter shares his acoustic indie-pop gems. OVERLAPS

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Experimental jam sessions with special guests.

Wed 25 Sep BLACK COAST (BAILER)

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £7 - £9

A night of melodic hardcore to rattle your ears with these outstanding bands.

FOLDA

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £8 - £8.80

Folda create their own brand of dark electronic pop. REGGAE GOT SOUL

JOHN OTWAY AND THE BIG BAND

From the age of nine, John Otway knew he wanted to be a pop star and look at him now! HEAVY RAPIDS (PARLIAMO + PARIS STREET REBELS) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

Hotly-tipped Glaswegian young team. KAT HEALY & FRIENDS

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £10

An evening of acoustic folk music with Edinburgh singer Kat Healy, featuring duets and jams with her music playing pals.

Fri 27 Sep

JAMES (TWO-CAN)’S 50TH BIRTHDAY GIG (HAPPY SPASTICS + THE FUCK UP’S + DAPITZ + SOCIAL INSECURITY + CRITIKILL) HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:00, TBC

An evening of music to celebrate 50 years of Two-Can. HYBRID THEORY

THE HIVE, FROM 18:30, £10 - £12

The UK’s leading Linkin Park tribute band. NAZARETH

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £22.50

Dunfermline legends Nazareth pull out all the proto-metal stops. Expect no mercy. RETURN TO THE SUN

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £5

A farewell gig for local act Return to the Sun. FAT-SUIT

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £8

REFUGEE BENEFIT GIG

The 31st Solidarity with Displaced Humans benefit raising much needed funds for refugees.

Authentic Oktoberfest at The Pitt hosted by Barney’s Beer, with on-tap beers straight from Munich, delicious street food and live music from some of Scotland’s hottest brass, funk and soul bands.

Sat 28 Sep SINNERBOY

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £12.50 - £15

Rory Gallagher tribute act.

ALY BAIN & PHIL CUNNINGHAM

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 18:30, £24 - £29

THE PITT, FROM 12:00, £1 - £2

ALCATRAZZ (THE JOKERS + EVYLTYDE)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

Fri 13 Sep

MAN MADE ORIGIN (SOLAR SONS + SIIAMESE) CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:00, £6

Progressive metal from Dundee.

Sat 14 Sep

SHEEP ON DRUGS + MECHANICAL CABARET

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £15

PENGUIN CAFE

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £10

Legendary frontman Graham Bonnet returns with his outstanding band. THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 18:30, £26.50 - £37

The ever-enigmatic Penguin Cafe bring their live show that transcends both popular and classical music all over the UK. RUTH THEODORE & BAND

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Ruth Theodore returns to Leith Depot with her band, continuing to fascinate audiences with her gripping honesty and distinctive lyricism.

Mon 30 Sep MARISA & THE MOTHS

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £6

The killer grunge-influenced band make their Bannermans debut. SOUNDHOUSE: ALYN COSKER GROUP

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £12

The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra drummer will be joined by pianist Steve Hamilton, guitarist Davie Dunsmuir and electric bass player Colin Cunningham. EMERGING ARTISTS: BARBARA COLE WALTON AND ALINA MÉSZÖLY-HORVÁTH

USHER HALL, FROM 11:00, £0 - £3

From arias by Strauss and Mozart through to the delights of Gilbert & Sullivan and Scots song, there is sure to be something for everyone. JEREMY TUPLIN + SAMUEL NICHOLSON

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £6.60

Jeremy Tuplin and Samuel Nicholson perform a special double headline show at Leith Depot.

Dundee Music Tue 03 Sep

EDWYN COLLINS (ASTRID)

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 19:00, £20

The former Orange Juice frontman returns with his ninth solo album.

Thu 05 Sep A BIT OF A BLUR (THE CHARLATUNES)

CHURCH, FROM 19:30, £13

Alternative rock/garage/glam confusion of a thing, who claimed to have been formed from the malfunction of a terrible musical laboratory experiment.

Another killer This Feeling bill including hard rockers Only Shadows, supported by two top class local acts.

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:00, £6

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £18 - £20

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £10

ONLY SHADOWS (THE BRIGHT SKIES + THE MOON KIDS)

CAIRD HALL, FROM 19:00, £43.50 - £53.50

The Stereophonics frontman takes his gravelly vocals out on a solo tour. Lucky us!

A double headline techno/ industrial/rave/punk tour from two long-standing purveyors of onstage disarray and mischief.

Blur tribute act.

Funk-tinged tunes from Edinburgh-based three-piece High Fade.

KELLY JONES

EDINBURGH OKTOBERFEST AT THE PITT

Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham have established themselves as the epitome of excellence in the world of traditional music. HIGH FADE

Sun 08 Sep

Bailer bring their fiery brand of metallic hardcore all the way from Cork City, Ireland.

A night of dub, reggae and ska bangers.

EDINBURGH OKTOBERFEST AT THE PITT (SHUNPIKE SOCIAL CLUB)

THE PITT, FROM 12:00, £1 - £2

New project from Kid Canaveral’s principal songwriter, David MacGregor.

BAILER (SLEPT ON + BELOW THE NECK + VENA AMORIS)

Sun 29 Sep

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, TBC

BROKEN CHANTER (ULTRAS) BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £9

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 20:30, TBC

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £15

BOOTLACE (STUFFED ANIMALS + THE HARMONIX + JAMES LIANDU)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

The London-based songwriting duo have picked up praise from critics far and wide.

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 15:00, £10

Tribute acts to Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Kraftwerk and JeanMichel Jarre.

Scottish alt/indie night.

Thu 26 Sep

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £11

FERRIS & SYLVESTER

MOCKNESS PRESENTS SYNTHETIC EDINBURGH (A LITTLE RESPECT + VERY PET SHOP BOYS + MAN MACHINE + JUST JARRE)

Authentic Oktoberfest at The Pitt hosted by Barney’s Beer, with on-tap beers straight from Munich, delicious street food and live music from some of Scotland’s hottest brass, funk and soul bands.

Pixies kick off a year-long world tour with a headline UK tour.

PIXIES

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £43.45 - £43.50

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, FREE

HOZIER USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £32.45 - £38.45

Instrumental collective Fat-Suit boast a line up of guitars, violins, keyboards, horns, bass, drums and percussion. Their progressive mix of jazz fusion is full of driving drums, infectious horn lines, traditional airs and jigs and meandering synth.

English folk singer regarded as a bit of a talented bugger on guitar, banjola and banjo.

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:15, £15

EDINBURGH BLUES CLUB (GEOFF ACHISON + THE UK SOULDIGGERS + REDFISH)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £6-7

NINTH DEGREE

CRANACHAN

The all female punk/rock outfit from New Zealand make their Bannermans debut.

Wed 18 Sep BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5

Free music all day from acoustic to blues and rock.

Europe’s premier tribute to AC/DC.

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £6

Full band show from the rock group.

OPEN MIC

BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE

THE EX

SUMMERHALL, FROM 20:00, £15

A night of alt/indie bands, with Joss Malcomson coming through on his UK tour.

NITROVILLE (ENGINES OF VENGEANCE + FIRES OF FREYA)

Sun 22 Sep

Acclaimed folk artist Heidi Talbot presents and performs with a fantastic line-up for QH@40.

Fri 13 Sep

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Authentic Oktoberfest at The Pitt hosted by Barney’s Beer, with on-tap beers straight from Munich, delicious street food and live music from some of Scotland’s hottest brass, funk and soul bands.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

Delta Mainline play a unique mix of dream pop, shoegaze soundscapes, electronic experimentation and psychedelia-infused garage rock.

JOSS MALCOMSON

THE PITT, FROM 12:00, £1 - £2

HEIDI TALBOT PRESENTS DUKE SPECIAL + JAMES YORKSTON + BRIGHDE CHAIMBEUL

FUR (LOGAN’S CLOSE)

Dutch post-punks The Ex celebrate 40 years strong with support from the amazing Bamya and Painted X-Ray.

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £4-5

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £7

PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT

Sat 14 Sep

The Grammy-nominated superstar of Afrobeat, Femi Kuti returns for a UK tour.

Thu 12 Sep

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £13 - £15

The Nashville guitar legend returns with his solo outfit for another Southern rock show.

It’s the return of the greatest Weezer tribute act that ever lived, playing the Blue Album in full.

Wed 11 Sep

Another legendary Fuzzbar gig at the Depot.

WARNER E HODGES

Soak up some jangling, sepiatinged and 60s-inflected bop from this Brighton quartet.

Richy and co launch their new EP and bring two killer supports.

ALBERT SHAKESPEARE (GAY PANIC DEFENCE + REGRETTA GARBO)

Thu 19 Sep

EDINBURGH OKTOBERFEST AT THE PITT (BRASS GUMBO)

Fri 06 Sep DIRTBOX DISCO

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £10

Sat 07 Sep MAJESTY

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £20

A tribute to Queen.

STILLMARILLION

Sun 29 Sep REFLEKTER

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 19:30, £5

Rock and rolling straight from Nottingham. THE AFFECTIONATE PUNCH

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 15:00, £7

The Associates’ debut album performed live.

Tue 03 Sep ONLY THE SUBJECT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

New wave of underground Glasgow DJ talent. #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

Wed 04 Sep IT’S NOT A PHASE, MOM!

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Nu-metal, pop-punk, emo and early 00s tunes. CATHOUSE WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

Glasgow band who’ve been together for more than 30 years and still going strong.

DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best pop-punk, rock and hip-hop.

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:30, TBC

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

HOUDINI SAID NO (KING KOBALT + IMMORTAL OMEN + HOWLETT)

GLITTERED! WEDNESDAYS

High voltage, riff-driven guitar rock band with punk and metal influences.

DJ Garry Garry Garry in G2 with chart remixes, along with beer pong competitions all night.

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 15:00, £7

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3

PARTY FEARS THREE

SUNNY SIDE UP!: RUMSHACK STEVE

One of the UK’s leading and most highly-respected 80s covers bands, celebrating the era’s music and sounds.

A charity club night focused on developing a more sustainable world and delivering quality music to dancefloors.

Sun 15 Sep

Thu 05 Sep

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 15:00, £7

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

GET BACK

An afternoon dedicated to the music of The Beatles with a live set from local legends Ringer.

Thu 19 Sep

AIDAN MOFFAT & RM HUBBERT

THE GARDYNE THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £17.75

The two Scots team up for music and good times.

Fri 20 Sep MOTHERSHIP

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £16

Led Zeppelin tribute.

QUEEQUEG’S COFFIN (THE RAG N BONE MAN + ASTROPHE + THE WILDHOUSE)

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:30, £5 - £7

An electrifying sonic mash up of liberatory noise, Queequeg’s Coffin come over like Gossip partying with Bikini Kill under Marilyn Manson’s disapproving gaze.

Sat 21 Sep HEAVY RAPIDS

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £6

Hotly-tipped Glaswegian young team.

Fri 27 Sep CURVED AIR

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £19.50

The vintage 70s rockers get their prog on once again for their latest tour. XSLF

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 18:30, £10

Stiff Little Fingers homage, composed of original exmembers Henry Cluney and Jim Reilly.

STAR SIGNZ

Flamboyant disco dream weavers. UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

Ross MacMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey. FOUNDRY: DUELIST

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Foundry welcome back The Duelist for a special live show days after playing his Berlin debut.

Fri 06 Sep GLITTERBANG

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Disco divas and Euro-pop anthems for those ready to sweat. CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style. FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore. AIR MAX ‘97 (UNDERTHUNDER + BOOSTERHOOCH)

STEREO, FROM 23:00, £5

The Scottish debut from the London via Melbourne DJ playing real nightmare dance music. DARK ENTRIES LABEL NIGHT

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £10 - £16

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £22.50

Club night with Dark Entries label-head Josh Cheon playing a four-hour DJ set.

HORDES OF BELIAL ALL DAYER

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £15 - £18

Sat 28 Sep NAZARETH

Dunfermline legends Nazareth pull out all the proto-metal stops. Expect no mercy. BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 15:20, £10

One-day noise fest welcoming a selection of bands of the underground metal and hard rock persuasion; you do the moshing.

LA CHEETAH 10TH BIRTHDAY: THEO PARRISH (WARDY & DOM D’SYLVA)

No words needed, except it’s been five long years since the master Theo Parrish graced the La Cheetah booth.

THE SKINNY

Glasgow Clubs 10 YEARS OF THUNDER DISCO: BRAME & HAMO SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

The ‘Irish Ant & Dec’ bring their eclectic mixes of soulful house, Detroit techno, disco and ghetto house to Sub Club for their first appearance at the venue. MAGIC CITY: WHAT’S LUV? (TOO GALLUS + MULLEN + IRA )

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £7 - £10

Serving up dirty dancehall jams, slow jam killas, 00s R’n’B gold, hot hip-hop anthems and UK flavour all night long. 9000 DREAMS WITH AVALON EMERSON (JASSS)

ROOM 2, FROM 23:00, £10 - £13.50

Avalon Emerson takes to the larger surrounds of La Cheetah’s sister venue Room 2 for the third part of her 2019 residency, accompanied by JASSS.

Sat 07 Sep

REALLY GREAT PEOPLE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Dank hip-hop, pop and nu-metal bangers. 90S RAVE IN AID OF CANCER RESEARCH SWG3, FROM 20:30, TBC

Techno fest raising money for CRUK, with all ticket sales donated to CRUK’s Beatson facility in Glasgow. ALL U NEED IS KETTAMA

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £10 - £15

After rocking the Subby to its core and a very special appearance at Flat 0/1, Glasgow cemented itself as a city that celebrates the brilliance of Irish star KETTAMA. SHOOT YOUR SHOT

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Discotheque provocateurs SYS take you higher with DJs spinning Italo and more alongside queer cabaret and performance. CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs. I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you.

HELPING WITH HOUSE X SMALL HOURS: DANCE FOR MND (JONESY)

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, FREE

Broadcast bring house, disco, techno and anything funky to the forefront, whilst raising money for charity in the process – this time for MND Scotland. LOCURA PRESENTS: HANS BOUFFMYHRE

STEREO, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

Hans Bouffmyhre is a wellestablished artist within the techno scene and one that will continue to develop and influence the future of the genre. SUBCULTURE

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. SPOOK SCHOOL AFTERPARTY (MARBLE GODS + HEYUP)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £3

An afterparty following The Spook School farewell show at The Art School. DAFT FUNK

ROOM 2, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Daft Punk tribute act.

EAST END FREE FESTIVAL AFTERPARTY: ZAZIM SOUNDSYSTEM (LETITIA PLEIADES + DEEP BRANDY ALBUM CUTS)

ROST, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Two of Glasgow’s finest DJs are bringing the heat. If you don’t know, get to know. Full soundsystem, intimate setting.

September 2019

Sun 08 Sep HELLBENT

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

From the fab fierce family that brought you Catty Pride comes Cathouse Rock Club’s new monthly alternative drag show. SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.

Mon 09 Sep BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

Tue 10 Sep #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

Wed 11 Sep

RETRONIC W/ FRANKIE ELYSE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Rock’n’roll, and 50s and 60s bangers. CATHOUSE WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best pop-punk, rock and hip-hop. GLITTERED! WEDNESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

DJ Garry Garry Garry in G2 with chart remixes, along with beer pong competitions all night. ARCADE 013: RIBEKA

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

Arcade continue to bring the best Glasgow has to offer, with latest guest and local legend Ribeka.

Thu 12 Sep SCIENCE FICTION

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

The Queens of the Glasgow disco scene, FKA Drugstore Glamour. UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

Ross MacMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey. AFLOAT: 90S UK RAVE

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Afloat pay homage to the sounds of 90s UK rave culture, a time that changed Britsh music forever. FAST MUZIK (BOOSTERHOOCH + HEARTCOREGIRL + OSITI + JOEY MOUSEPADS)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 23:00, TBC

FAST MUZIK is for everyone, but especially ravers, freaks, cyberpunks, groovy chicks, hackers, MySpace celebrities and responsible tamagotchi owners.

Fri 13 Sep SINGLES NIGHT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Beans + Divine explore the hits on 7” vinyl. ABBA DISCO WONDERLAND

SWG3, FROM 22:00, £5 - £15

An extravaganza of soul shaking and body rocking disco classics alongside the greatest hits from the legendary ABBA. CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style.

FRESH BEAT THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore. I AM: 9TH BIRTHDAY (BETA & KAPPA)

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

i AM’s 9th birthday aims to keep the quality high and the recipe simple with a cocktail of Beta & Kappa and long-time collaborator AM.

MANDATE PRESENT (UH + DOUBLE DISCONE + SOFT RIOT) STEREO, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

Mandate is back to push new terms of compliance, with three live acts to enthral you on the dancefloor. FANNY PACK (DJ BRB + RUBY WALTERS + BONZAI BONNER)

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 22:00, £5

Once a iconic staple in the London party scene, the reliving of the Notorious 1990s makes its way to Glasgow. RETURN TO MONO: SNTS (LIVE) & STEPHANIE SYKES

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £12.50

The mysterious SNTS makes his Sub Club debut, with Glasgow favourite Stephanie Sykes joining the party hot on the heels of her tremendous display at Riverside. SYMBIOSIS (VILLAIN)

AUDIO, FROM 23:30, FREE

The longest running and hardest hitting drum’n’bass night in Glasgow. OXMAN (BASS WARRIOR SOUND SYSTEM)

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £7 - £10

Bass Warrior Sound System welcome Eddie Oxman, an institution in the London reggae revive scene, perhaps best known for his work with the renowned Dub Vendor and Soul Jazz crews. STEPHEN MALKMUS AFTERPARTY (CODIST + LP RADIO DJ SET) THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 23:00, £3

Stephen Malkmus is returning to Glasgow for a sold out show at the CCA, and The Blue Arrow host the afterparty.

ROOM 2 DANCE: LEON VYNEHALL (WARDY & DOM D’SYLVA) ROOM 2, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

THE MARTINEZ BROTHERS

FRESH BEAT

SWG3, FROM 21:00, £20 - £25

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Bringing with them that New York flavour and armed with a summers worth of dancefloor bombs, The Martinez Brothers hit up Glasgow once more.

Sun 15 Sep

ANWULI SOUND 003: BACK TO SCHOOL

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £4

Drum’n’bass, techno and disco. SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.

Mon 16 Sep BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence. SOULJAM: LOST IN MUSIC

THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 19:00, £6 - £8

One of the UK’s premier touring soul, funk and disco parties, currently bringing the best in boogie to thousands of students every month.

Wed 18 Sep DON’T BE GUTTED

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

All-out decadence in the name of euphoria. CATHOUSE WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best pop-punk, rock and hip-hop. GLITTERED! WEDNESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

DJ Garry Garry Garry in G2 with chart remixes, along with beer pong competitions all night. ATTENTION//PLEASE: LET YOUR BODY TALK

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

PRAY 4 LOVE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up.

HORSE MEAT DISCO

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £10

The Horse Meat Disco crew bring their usual mischief and disco mayhem. ANIMAL FARM: SETAOC MASS (QUAIL) ROOM 2, FROM 23:00, £5 - £10

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

All love songs + all bangers.

I LOVE GARAGE

Adryiano and Demuja make their joint debuts in Sub Club and it’s not one to be missed.

#TAG TUESDAYS

Grime, bassline and UK garage.

Hip-hop and live percussion flanked by wicked visuals.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £7 - £30

Sat 21 Sep

Thu 19 Sep

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.

WE SHOULD HANG OUT MORE: DEMUJA B2B ADRYIANO

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, TBC

Sat 14 Sep

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £8

Partial recruit Golden Pudel resident Phoung Dan to help them celebrate five years of parties.

The one and only Setaoc Mass returns to Glasgow for a night of typically thunderous techno.

BASS INJECTION PRESENTS: NOISEY PLACES

The first residents only night since A//P’s La Cheetah inception, banging out the finest best house cuts.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

PARTIAL’S 5TH BIRTHDAY: PHOUNG DAN

Tue 17 Sep

Expect twists and turns all night long from UK maestro Leon Vynhehall as he makes his Room 2 debut. SHAKA LOVES YOU

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

Ross MacMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey. PALA

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5

Pala residents takeover La Cheetah Club for the full four hours.

THE LANCE VANCE DANCE

Exotic dreamy disco.

GBX ANTHEMS 25TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY SWG3, FROM 18:00, £28.13

25 years of GBX Anthems celebrated with a huge line-up of acts. CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs. I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests.

SHOOT YOUR SHOT: REX THE DOG

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £10

An innovator who has crafted his art over many years and unlike most who this can be said about, Rex the Dog is a true entertainer. MOJO WORKIN’ (FELONIOUS MUNK)

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £3

Monthly soul party playing all things Motown, Northern Soul, 60s R’n’B and more. MY HOUSE YOUR DISCO

THE AMSTERDAM, FROM 22:00, £5 - £7

Resident Discos No Further transports her popular Sunny G radio show to the basement of The Amsterdam for four hours of house and disco fun.

Sun 22 Sep

PSYFUNKTION GATHERING

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Psytrance and techno trippiness. CHEERS FOR THIRD SUNDAY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

DJ Kelmosh takes you through Mid-Southwestern emo, rock, new metal, nostalgia and 90s and 00s tunes.

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, FREE

PROJECT X WAREHOUSE PARTY VOLUME III

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

SUBCULTURE

Expect to see a swimming pool, hot tub, bouncy castle, pinata’s, pyro cannons and lots of fire at Project X’s Warehouse parties.

PERPLEX (JOE WILSON + JOE VARELA)

Perplex invite more of Glasgow’s finest talent to join resident Tinto behind the decks. SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. LOOSEN UP (FERGUS CLARK + CHARLIE MCCANN + DAVID BARBAROSSA)

Fri 20 Sep

ANNA & HOLLY’S DANCE PARTY

Rock’n’roll, garage and soul. SWG3, FROM 22:00, £10

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style.

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £4

Pan-global sounds from three of the Loosen Up crew.

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

SESH

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.

Mon 23 Sep BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

Tue 24 Sep #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

Wed 25 Sep FREAK LIKE ME

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Soul, hip-hop and funk.

CATHOUSE WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best pop-punk, rock and hip-hop. GLITTERED! WEDNESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

DJ Garry Garry Garry in G2 with chart remixes, along with beer pong competitions all night.

RUSH (BASH MAN + MI$$ CO$MIX + JOHNNY5) LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5

RUSH residents take control for the full night, bringing you the finest techno, acid and breaks.

Thu 26 Sep PEACHY KEEN

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Monthly shindig at Bloc+, spinning psych, fuzz, 60s garage on vinyl all night long. BREAKFAST CLUB

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

An 80s mega-mix party. UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

Ross MacMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey. RENEGADES OF FUNK

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5

Renegades of Funk DJs all night long.

Fri 27 Sep SHAKE APPEAL

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Six decades of rock’n’roll under one roof, hosted by the ultimate DJ trivium. GUNZ FOR HIRE (RAN-D + DJ ANDRO)

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £33.75

f you love all things hardstyle and rawstyle then you cannot miss this event as Gunz For Hire returns to Glasgow. EASY PEELERS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Bangers ripe and ready for your enjoyment. WE ARE THE BRAVE (ALAN FITZPATRICK + GARY BECK + ALIAS GB)

SWG3, FROM 22:00, £18 - £22

After last year’s sell-out We Are The Brave night, Alan Fitzpatrick brings his label party to the mighty Galvanizers at SWG3. CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style. FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

SOUTHSIDE SOLIDARITY (MOTHER + ADLER) STEREO, FROM 23:00, £5

Rubadub stalwart/Concrete Cabin bossman Mother and Partial’s resident party-starter Adler head up the bill for a night of ruff and rugged dancefloor mayhem. ELISCO: DICKY TRISCO (CRAIG MOOG + FOURTH PRECINCT)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £8

DJ, producer, remixer, and labelhead of the well-loved Disco Deviance imprint, Dicky Trisco joins Elisco.

Sat 28 Sep SHAKA LOVES YOU

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Hip-hop and live percussion flanked by wicked visuals.

MELLA DEE PRESENTS WAREHOUSE MUSIC (NIGHTWAVE)

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £19.13

Mella Dee, a producer defined by a willingness to experiment with a wide range of sounds, concepts and landscapes, hits up Glasgow’s SWG3. A NIGHT OF IBIZA TRANCE CLASSICS

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £7 - £12

For the next instalment of A Night of Trance classics, find yourself transported to summer sun, boat parties and massive club nights on the island. CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs. I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

STEREO, FROM 21:00, £5

Celebrate 12 years of Stereo with live music, performance and Djs.

SHANTI CELESTE’S PEACH PARTY (GRAMRCY)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10 - £12

Part three of the Shanti saga sees her invite good friend and fellow Peach Discs boss Gramrcy along for the ride. SUBCULTURE

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. PARANOID LONDON (BRAIN DANCING)

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £10 - £15

Paranoid London bring their hammering 303 sound to Charing Cross to blow the lid clean off The Berkeley Suite. SISTERS OF REGGAE (LUCKY CAT ZOE + MC MAD-X)

MIDNIGHT BASS THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

Big basslines and small prices form the ethos behind this weekly Tuesday night, with drum’n’bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage aplenty. TRASH

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

Wed 04 Sep COOKIE LAUNCH NIGHT

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

90s and 00s cheesy pop and modern chart anthems. HEATERS: MOTLEY MUSIC

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

An assorted mix of mischiefmakers bring all kinds of party weirdness to the Cowgate for a one off meeting of banger collections.

Thu 05 Sep

UNDERGROUND SOCIETY LXXXIII: DAVE HILL ALL NIGHT LONG

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

Expect music from across the spectrum at Cab Vol’s weekly midweek party, every Thursday. HI-SOCIETY LAUNCH NIGHT

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Student anthems and bangerz. POPULAR MUSIC

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

DJs playing music by bands to make you dance: Grace Jones to Neu!, Parquet Courts to Brian Eno, The Clash to Janelle Monae.

Fri 06 Sep

VERSION II: EUPHORIA (TRANSCEND + PILA B + PEARCE SHERIDAN + ADA) HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

Euphoria brings together some of Scotland’s upcoming talents, each bringing their own flavour and vibe to a night of non-stop underground techno. METROPOLIS: PROLIFIX & DYL’S BIRTHDAY SKANKOUT

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Two rooms of D’n’B, jungle, house and Techno, with a host of guest DJs as well as Metropolis residents. FLIP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect. PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 20:00, £5 - £10

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

Sun 29 Sep

Miss World welcome Lauren Hansom to their musical beauty pageant; a world class digger and selector, she’s known for her genre-spanning mixes and discerning taste.

The UK’s finest all-female reggae DJ Collective playing the sweet sounds of ska, rocksteady, roots, revival reggae, rub a dub, lover’s rock and early digital. FUNK PRESENTS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, TBC

Ecstatic party vibes. SLIDE IT IN

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Classic rock through the ages from DJ Nicola Walker. SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.

MISS WORLD: LAUREN HANSOM

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

TONTO TECHNO: GARY BURROWS

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £10

Gary Burrows is an up and coming techno DJ and producer from Birmingham who is firmly establishing a name for himself within the scene.

FIRST EDITION: SPACE DIMENSION CONTROLLER

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £12

BARE MONDAYS

SDC is the cosmic entity galvanising dance music’s traditions into his own cyberpunk aesthetic.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6

Mon 30 Sep Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

BURGH BOUNCE

Bringing you the best of old skool, new old skool, hard dance, 90s classics, chart remixes, scouse house, hardcore and more. FLY CLUB

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £5

Tue 03 Sep HECTORS

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £0 - £7

Since May 2012, Hectors has become Edinburgh’s soundest midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday to their home, the prestigious Cabaret Voltaire.

With a powerhouse of residents, including Denis Sulta, Theo Kottis and Jasper James, FLY Club has been setting the standards for a serious party business for over four years at Cab Vol.

Sat 07 Sep PLEASURE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Regular Saturday night at Cab Vol, with residents and occasional special guests.

Listings

Edinburgh Clubs MUMBO JUMBO + LUCKY 7 THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Funk, soul, beats and bumps from the Mumbo Jumbo gang and room two residents Lucky 7. BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure. REWIND

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £5

ELEMNT X ELECTRIKAL PRESENT: SAMMY VIRJI LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £12

Sammy Virji is one of the nation’s most exciting bass and garage DJs, coupled with the Buckfast Boys club and arguably one of the best soundsystems in the world. ARTIISAN’S 1ST BIRTHDAY (VOLRUPTUS)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £9

Monthly party night celebrating the best in soul, disco, rock and pop with music from the 70s, 80s, 90s and current bangers.

After a whole year of fantastic parties all around Edinburgh, Artiisan celebrates its first birthday.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, TBC

Thu 12 Sep

HECTORS: WBEEZA

Peckham’s finest WBEEZA plays one of his famous live sets for Hectors’ latest show in the sweatbox. KEEP IT STEEL 5TH BIRTHDAY: HEAVY METAL VOMIT PARTY (MATT JUSTICE)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

As well as non-stop riffage from some of Scotland’s very best rock/metal Djs, expect a plethora of insanely irresponsible party games, a burlesque stage show and massive giveaways. MIGHTY OAK SOUNDSYSTEM

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6

Roots and culture, powered by Mighty Oak’s hand-built soundsystem.

PSYCHEDELIC MADNESS II (PSILOCYBURNS + PHLEGETHON + ALLYCAT ) THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

After a stupendously successful launch, it seems loud and clear that Edinburgh has found an itch for fast as fuck psychedelia as Psychedelic Madness returns.

Sun 08 Sep SUNDAY CLUB

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/handle on a Sunday. COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

Mon 09 Sep MIXED UP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hip-hop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

GROOVELABS FEAT. OVERGROUND: THE CALMZONE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

Groovers launch the new monthly event Groovelabs, working with a different promoter/DJ and raising money for different charities.

Tue 10 Sep HECTORS

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £0 - £7

Since May 2012, Hectors has become Edinburgh’s soundest midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday to their home, the prestigious Cabaret Voltaire. MIDNIGHT BASS

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

Big basslines and small prices form the ethos behind this weekly Tuesday night, with drum’n’bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage aplenty. TRASH

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

Wed 11 Sep COOKIE

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

90s and 00s cheesy pop and modern chart anthems.

HEATERS: FEENA + C-SHAMAN

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

A freshers special, as C-Shaman welcomes upcoming firestarter Feena back to the Heaters booth. Seatbelts recommended.

Listings

UNDERGROUND SOCIETY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Expect music from across the spectrum at Cab Vol’s weekly midweek party, every Thursday. HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Student anthems and bangerz. POPULAR MUSIC

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

DJs playing music by bands to make you dance: Grace Jones to Neu!, Parquet Courts to Brian Eno, The Clash to Janelle Monae. ABBA DISCO WONDERLAND

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £7 - £12

An extravaganza of soul shaking and body rocking disco classics alongside the greatest hits from the legendary ABBA. PRONTO PRESENT: QUINTON CAMPBELL & BRAGA CIRCUIT (ANN TWEAK + BRANDON SPOWART)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £9

Quinton Campbell has been a prominent figure on the scene for some time now, while Braga Circuit continues to pick up heat.

Fri 13 Sep

ELECTRIKAL: SERUM & INJA

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £13.45 - £15.65

CITRUS SATURDAY WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

Expect the usual Citrus blend of indie mixed with some soul classics and maybe a few 80s hits. TEESH: DJ KÜSSE VS DJ CHEERS

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £6

DJ Küsse is one half of spice boys duo Hi & Saberhägen and has since established the Sensible Seelen label and party in Berlin. PALIDRONE: DE GRANDI B2B LE DOM (PROC FISKAL)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £10

De Grandi and Le Dom have unleashed some of the most innovative and deadly club tracks of recent years, and they go B2B for Palidrone’s latest party.

Sun 15 Sep SUNDAY CLUB

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/handle on a Sunday. COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion. RHYTHM UNDERGROUND (PADDY DE REGO)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Motion House Events presents Rhythm Underground, featuring a night of house and techno with Paddy Do Rego and guests.

Mon 16 Sep

MIXED UP: HI! MY NAME IS…

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Get to know your fellow Freshers! Free T-Shirts and fabric markers. VOLENS CHORUS

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Delivering a sermon of fast paced dance music from all over the world you can’t help but sweat to. GOOD COMPANY

Hard graft and years of experience in DJing and production has seen Serum rise from relative obscurity to being one of the most prolific of the new breed of D’n’B producers.

Funk, soul, disco and house with DJ Spudcannon, Iced Gem and Louis Ravens.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £0 - £7

FLIP

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect. PROPAGANDA: ARCTIC MONKEYS

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. LEZURE: RESIDENTS

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £7

Fresh off the back of the latest Pace Yourself in Berlin, residents Dcln, Doggo and Lenny take you through for the full four hours. POWERHOUSE: HEDONISM, UNITY & FREEDOM THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Edinburgh underground heavyweights channeling serious nae-nonsense techno and dark body music. FLY CLUB

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £6-12

With a powerhouse of residents, including Denis Sulta, Theo Kottis and Jasper James, FLY Club has been setting the standards for a serious party business for over four years at Cab Vol.

Sat 14 Sep

PLEASURE PRESENTS SAOIRSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £6

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

Tue 17 Sep HECTORS

Since May 2012, Hectors has become Edinburgh’s soundest midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday to their home, the prestigious Cabaret Voltaire. MIDNIGHT BASS

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

Big basslines and small prices form the ethos behind this weekly Tuesday night, with drum’n’bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage aplenty. TRASH: PIZZA PARTY

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Pop-punk and pizza? What more do you need? KINKY DISCO – REMASTERED (DJ HUGH RUSSELL PARSONS)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

Kinky is back and bigger than ever, keeping everything that was loved from last year – old school bangers, face paint, extra decor and sweets for days. HOMETOWN

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

The Hometown residents are bringing a pal each to draft in for this party. Expect the usual party vibes and a class night throughout.

An evening with another of the best and most popular DJs on the circuit, Saoirse.

Wed 18 Sep

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Rated Edinburgh’s most smile-inducing, body-grooving, guaranteed marble-losing night by anyone with good taste.

HOTLINE

Smashin’ cloob, run by women, for everyone. R’n’B, disco, funk and dancing. BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

OSCILLATE PRESENTS SESSION VICTIM

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

COOKIE: I <3 90S

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Throwback to the best decade ever, the 90s. All the biggest cheese hits and more.

HEATERS: NIKNAK + MARIEDDU

AUNTIE FLO (ALL NIGHT)

MJÖLK

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

Brilliantly bizarre party duo NikNak make their midweek debut, supported by a Sneaky’s debut from the mysterious Marieddu.

One of the most truly original production talents of recent times, Auntie Flo offers a gateway to lesser-known strands of music that need exploring.

Thu 19 Sep

Sun 22 Sep

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

UNDERGROUND SOCIETY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Expect music from across the spectrum at Cab Vol’s weekly midweek party, every Thursday. 23 DEGREES: DJ DECOY (SKILLIS + ARTIISAN)

SUNDAY CLUB: THE HIVE CARD GIVEAWAY

For one night only, pick up The Hive card for free. COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

23 Degrees returns for another old skool special.

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Mon 23 Sep

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £10

HI-SOCIETY: PIRATE PARTY

Yarr! Set sail on the seas of Hive with pirate goodies and décor. Student anthems in two rooms. CHURCH 4.1: THE RESURRECTION W/ CHRIS LORENZO

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £6 - £12

Chris Lorenzo is widely acknowledged for pioneering a sound that has become increasingly prominent around the world. POPULAR MUSIC

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

DJs playing music by bands to make you dance: Grace Jones to Neu!, Parquet Courts to Brian Eno, The Clash to Janelle Monae.

Fri 20 Sep HEADSET

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Headset features Skillis and friends playing garage, techno, house and bass downstairs, with old school hip-hop upstairs.

MIXED UP: BUILD-A-BOOZE

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Create your own cocktail at the cocktail bar. BRAZILIAN WAX

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Brazilian Wax bring the best floor-fillers and Brazilian killers the country has to offer, from Afro-Brazilian to disco, modern Brazilian electronics to MPB classics.

Tue 24 Sep HECTORS

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £0 - £7

Since May 2012, Hectors has become Edinburgh’s soundest midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday to their home, the prestigious Cabaret Voltaire. MIDNIGHT BASS

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

Playing the finest in Swedish indie-pop, 60s, 70s and independent music from near and far. PROPAGANDA: PIZZA PARTY

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

MINISET: ZED BIAS AND GRAMRCY

A rare opportunity to see UK Garage and 2-step don Zed Bias bless up a 100 capacity club alongside Gramrcy, who runs Peach Discs with Shanti Celeste. ASCETIC PRACTICES 01 (SOFIA STERGIOU + THE NIGHTLARK + DONALD DUST)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Ascetic Practices is a monthly party joining the dots between synthwave, dark Italo, EBM, bass, bleeps, breakbeats and more. LIONOIL: FYI CHRIS

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

The Lionoil pride take over The Mash House with Rhythm Section duo and label alumni FYI Chris from Peckham alongside Edinburgh family.

Sat 28 Sep PLEASURE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Regular Saturday night at Cab Vol, with residents and occasional special guests. MESSENGER SOUND SYSTEM

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Conscious roots and dub reggae rockin’ from the usual beefy Messenger soundsystem. BUBBLEGUM: SUPERHERO SATURDAY

Theatre Glasgow Theatre Oran Mor GIRLS NIGHT OOT

29 SEP, 4:00PM, £15

Sequel to feel-good production I Will Survive, featuring songs from the 60s right through to modern hits. Frothy as it comes.

The King’s Theatre

THE SENSATIONAL 60S EXPERIENCE

29 SEP, 7:30PM, £24 - £30

Mike Pender, Chris Farlowe, Herman’s Hermits, The Fortunes and New Amen Corner come together to perform 60s pop classics. THE SIMON & GARFUNKEL STORY

9 SEP, 7:30PM, £23 - £42

50th anniversary tour, direct from its success in London’s West End. JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOUR DREAMCOAT

3-7 SEP, TIMES VARY, £13 - £53.90

PROPAGANDA: UV PARTY

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

25 SEP, 7:30PM, £24.50 - £44.50

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. ON LOOP: CC DISCO! AND MOXIE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

On Loop returns to its Edinburgh home, Sneaky Pete’s, with Moxie and Australian selector CC:DISCO! LF X SPACE CADET (DRS + SKEPTICAL + GLXY + BLINDSIDE)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £20

Space Cadet has been at the forefront of the UK hip-hop, D’n’B, jungle and MC cultures for many years with heaps of talent, soul and musical versatility. EH-FM (PALIDRONE + MISS WORLD + LIONOIL INDUSTRIES)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Edinburgh community radio station EH-FM brings in some of the city’s finest party-starters and radio presenters across two rooms to kick off the new academic year.

Sat 21 Sep

FLY OPEN AIR AFTERPARTY

Mmmm, doughnuts. Rock and pop-punk anthems. SOUL JAM: BILL BREWSTER

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

The man who literally wrote the book on how to DJ returns to Soul Jam on his 60th birthday tour.

Wed 25 Sep

COOKIE: TRAFFIC LIGHT PARTY

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

The popular queer night returns to the Wee Red. RIDE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

Live fast die yung, Ride gals do it well. Teacha El and Checkyer Strides play 00s R’n’B and 90s hip-hop and put their lighters up. COMPRESSION & TARTAN TECHNO PRESENTS: ANNE SAVAGE THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £10

Pick your colour and let your status shine! Cheesy pop and chart anthems.

The queen of hard dance, Anne Savage lights up The Mash House with a selection of DJs.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £10 - £15

HEATERS: DJ ELIOT (C-SHAMAN)

DJ Eliot brings her collection of deep cuts and dance-inspiring favourites North of the border for a midweek showdown.

Thu 26 Sep

UNDERGROUND SOCIETY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Expect music from across the spectrum at Cab Vol’s weekly midweek party, every Thursday. WACK: MARQUIS HAWKES

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £9

PULSE: DVS1 (DARRELL PULSE)

DVS1 heads back to the capital for another night of partying.

Sun 29 Sep

SUNDAY CLUB: YALDI! IT’S LEWIS CAPALDI

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Free Capal-tees, Capal-décor and Lewis Capaldi masks. COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

Afterparty for FLY Open Air, taking place during the day at Ross Band Stand in Princes Street Gardens.

As a DJ, Marquis Hawkes promises to bring the party wherever he goes. There is no messing around with his mixing style; straight up movers and shakers from start to finish.

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £7

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hip-hop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

POPULAR MUSIC

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £3

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £45 - £105

SOULSVILLE: ANDREA MONTALTO

HI-SOCIETY: FOAM PARTY

EH-FM co-founder and Paradise Palms regular, in the guise of his monthly residency Riviera Paraiso, Andrea Montalto returns for another run of the Soulsville controls.

Let’s. Get. Bubbly. Student anthems in two rooms.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

WE DO DISCO: CRAZY P

BUBBLEGUM: SUPERHERO SATURDAY

Girls and guys, get the gladrags on! Discount entry in a dress. Chart, R’n’B and pop. HEART OF GLASS

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £4 - £6

Glamourous, glittery, flamboyant, feathery, ostentatious and rock ‘n’ roll, Heart of Glass plays only the best music from the 70s and beyond.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

DJs playing music by bands to make you dance: Grace Jones to Neu!, Parquet Courts to Brian Eno, The Clash to Janelle Monae. LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £9 - £12

Fusing slinky underground disco, deep electronic throbs and shimmering pop moments, this is dance music with a voice, a heart and soul.

Fri 27 Sep OVERGROUND

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

I AM A RAVER

Lo-fi raw house and techno.

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £9.05 - £16.75

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

A night of happy hardcore, DJ Rankin, DJ Bad Boy and co.

FLIP: HYVE FYRE FESTIVAL

Greatest Festival that never happened? Hold our beer.

Mon 30 Sep MIXED UP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

TEN BIT

More techno and breaks smashers from local wrecking crew Ten Bit.

Power Ballad is an angry, feminist, live art investigation of language and its sometimes hidden ideologies.

NORTHERN STAGE: THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES

25-28 SEP, TIMES VARY, £8.50 - £11

Northern Stage presents Sherlock Holmes’ most infamous case, adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s gothic classic.

Edinburgh Theatre Assembly Roxy THE BOX

24 SEP, 7:30PM, £5

Celebrating the music of The Bee Gees.

XOXO

POWER BALLAD

12-14 SEP, 8:00PM, £8.50 - £11

8 SEP, 7:30PM, £25.15 - £45.15

Girls and guys, get the gladrags on! Discount entry in a dress. Chart, R’n’B and pop.

TRASH: KRISPY KREME GIVEAWAY

The first story from Revolution Mix, an Eclipse movement spearheading the largest ever national delivery of new Black British stories.

27-28 SEP, 7:30PM, £8 - £10

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

The world’s craziest, often offensive game gets taken up a notch.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

BLACK MEN WALKING

5-21 SEP, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

One of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s more garish gifts (which is saying something), with Jaymi Hensley leading the way as Joseph in this biblical retelling of a man, his showboat of a coat and his eleven green-eyed bros.

Big basslines and small prices form the ethos behind this weekly Tuesday night, with drum’n’bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage aplenty.

FLIP: CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY CLUB EDITION

Tron Theatre

YOU WIN AGAIN

ONE NIGHT OF ELVIS: LEE ‘MEMPHIS’ KING

Lee ‘Memphis’ King, Europe’s most successful Elvis Presley tribute artist, recreates the essence of the King. LOST IN MUSIC

28 SEP, 7:30PM, £29.15 - £44.15

A celebration of disco with a live band recreating the songs of Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor and more. RESPECT – THE ARETHA FRANKLIN SONGBOOK

26 SEP, 7:30PM, £23 - £41

An amazing tribute to the Queen of Soul, featuring guest vocalists and a live orchestra. LES MUSICALS

14 SEP, 7:30PM, £22.65 - £27.65

Immerse yourself in the world of musical theatre with classics from Les Miserables, Phantom Of The Opera, Blood Brothers and many more. IN THE AIR TONIGHT

27 SEP, 7:30PM, £29.15 - £44.15

A celebration of Phil Collins with Dean Edwards and a live band. STEVE STEINMAN’S ANYTHING FOR LOVE

30 SEP, 7:30PM, £30.90 - £32.90

Steve Steinman brings his brand-new production, featuring Meat Loaf’s greatest hits, with special guest star Lorraine Crosby.

Combining exquisite choreography and thought-provoking social commentary, this dance theatre piece explores the impact depression can have and how our society responds to it. PAGE2STAGE EDINBURGH

Showcasing extracts from four brand new plays read in front of a live audience, with a chance to carry on discussions and meet the team, writers and actors. THE OLD HOUSE

27-28 SEP, 7:30PM, £8 - £10

Revisiting The Old House, mother and daughter hang on to fragments of what they know. Memories surface, slip away; a last chance to meet each other anew.

Festival Theatre EYE OF THE STORM

19-21 SEP, TIMES VARY, £18.50

Set in the Welsh valleys, Emmie must decide between pursuing her passion for science and fascination with tornados, and her duty as a young carer devoted to her mother. RICHARD ALSTON

27-28 SEP, 7:30PM, £19 - £25

The outstanding dance company make their last ever visit to Edinburgh.

King’s Theatre Edinburgh A TASTE OF HONEY

24-28 SEP, TIMES VARY, £10 - £33

One of the great taboo-breaking plays of the 1950s, offering an explosive celebration of the vulnerabilities and strengths of the female spirit in a deprived and restless world.

Theatre Royal

Royal Lyceum Theatre

17-21 SEP, TIMES VARY, £13 - £57

12 SEP-5 OCT, TIMES VARY, £10 - £33

THE EXORCIST

New theatrical adaptation of the two-time Oscar-winning movie, featuring the voice of Ian Mckellen as the Demon. WHITNEY - QUEEN OF THE NIGHT

8 SEP, 7:30PM, £26.90 - £45.90

A stunning celebration of the music and life of one of the greatest singers of our time.

SCOTTISH BALLET: THE CRUCIBLE

25-28 SEP, 7:30PM, £13 - £45

Arthur Miller’s famous Tony Award-winning re-telling of the 1692 Salem witch trial hysteria, performed by the Scottish Ballet.

Tramway

SOLARIS

David Greig brings Stanislaw Lem’s classic sci-fi novel to the stage for the first time to create a stylish 1960s space-scape for a story which explores the nature of love, loss and consciousness.

Summerhall ANATOMY #21: SLANDER!

13 SEP, 8:00PM, £7

Anatomy is a quarterly live art cabaret based in Edinburgh’s Summerhall, featuring astonishing work in dance, performance art, burlesque, clownery, music, physical theatre and more.

THE DUCHESS [OF MALFI]

4-21 SEP, TIMES VARY, £10 - £26.50

An exploration of male rage and female resistance as two brothers try and control their sister, block her marriage and repress her agency with fatal results.

THE SKINNY

The Edinburgh Playhouse ANNIE

30 SEP-5 OCT, TIMES VARY, £13 - £92.50

The Gardyne Theatre COUNTRY SUPERSTARS EXPERIENCE

A musical set in 1930s New York, Annie tells the story of a flamehaired orphan in pursuit of her real parents.

8 SEP, 7:30PM, £22 - £23

14 SEP, TIMES VARY, £13 - £74.50

Roy Orbison tribute show.

PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ

US dance production featuring famous song and dance moments of Fred Astaire and the golden age of Hollywood. MAMMA MIA!

19-28 SEP, TIMES VARY, £13 - £107.50

One of the biggest grossing musicals ever returns, featuring the songs of everyone’s favourite Swedish pop group, Abba. BIANCA DEL RIO’S “IT’S JESTER JOKE”

7 SEP, 8:30PM, £39.15

The self-proclaimed ‘Clown in a Gown’ will tell tales of her world travels and the outrageous circus that is her life on the most ambitious solo drag show tour in history.

Traverse Theatre WHIRLYGIG

13-14 SEP, TIMES VARY, £8 - £10

WhirlyGig is four brave musicians, 30 instruments and countless musical puzzles to solve. THE PLAY OF LIGHT UPON THE EARTH

5 SEP, 8:00PM, £5 - £7

The award-winning forces of Sally Hobson and Muriel Romanes come together to present a reading of The Play of Light Upon The Earth. A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT: FROM PAISLEY TO PAOLO

10-14 SEP, TIMES VARY, £13.50

Martin McCardie’s play centres on 19-year-old Jack in the year 2006, who goes to T in the Park with his two best friends. A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT: NUMBER ONE FAN

17-21 SEP, TIMES VARY, £13.50

Jan McArthur sets out for revenge on writer Jack Bonham after reading his women-hating column. BLACK MEN WALKING

5-21 SEP, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

The first story from Revolution Mix, an Eclipse movement spearheading the largest ever national delivery of new Black British stories. A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT: MACK THE KNIFE

24-28 SEP, TIMES VARY, £13.50

Morag Fullarton’s play follows young Jewish composer, Kurt Weill, as he meets his muse, singer Lotte Lenya, and falls in love.

Dundee Theatre Caird Hall ONE NIGHT OF QUEEN

13 SEP, 7:00PM, £20 - £22

Gary Mullen’s acclaimed Queen tribute act, bolstered by tricksy staging and lighting effects.

Dundee Rep TAY BRIDGE

3-21 SEP, TIMES VARY, £12 - £25

Tay Bridge is a heartfelt and moving portrait of an era, and of a group of people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. SINGIN’ I’M NO A BILLY HE’S A TIM 2

25 SEP, 7:30PM, £10 - £16

Scotland’s favourite bigots are back in this hilarious new sequel to Des Dillon’s smash hit comedy, Singing I’m No A Billy He’s A Tim. SINATRA RAW

27 SEP, 7:30PM, £10 - £21.50

Richard Shelton’s masterful show revealing the man behind the music tours, following a sold out West End season.

September 2019

A tribute show to the icons of country music. THE ROY ORBISON STORY

20-21 SEP, 7:30PM, £24

Whitehall Theatre

THE JOHNNY CASH ROADSHOW

23 SEP, 7:30PM, £25

Comedy 4 SEP, 8:30PM, £4 - £6

The Edinburgh Playhouse

BBC COMEDY PRESENTS

12-21 SEP, 7:30PM, £29.40

COMEDIAN RAP BATTLES

The country’s best comedians battle it out. 11 SEP, 8:30PM, £4

Join BBC Comedy and The Stand for a night of brand new comedy.

LARRY DEAN: WORK IN PROGRESS

23 SEP, 8:30PM, £4 - £5

The only show to be endorsed by the Cash family.

Larry Dean is here to try out some brand new jokes.

28 SEP, 7:30PM, £23 - £25

16 SEP, 8:30PM, £8

THE TINA TURNER EXPERIENCE

This fully live energetic show charts the life and career of one of the world’s iconic performers. THOMSON-LENG MUSICAL SOCIETY PRESENTS OLIVER THE MUSICAL

11-14 SEP, TIMES VARY, £15.25 - £18.75

Thomson-Leng’s take on the classical musical, based on Charles Dickens’ 1838 novel of the little shit who asked for more.

BENEFIT IN AID OF COSGROVE CARE

A group of comedians come together to raise money for leading learning disability charity Cosgrove Care. SPONTANEOUS POTTER

5-19 SEP, TIMES VARY, £5

A brand new Harry Potter play from some of Edinburgh’s most top notch improv wizards. BENEFIT IN AID OF COMEDY SUPPORT ACT

3-9 SEP, 8:30PM, £10

A night of surprise guests for charity.

Glasgow Comedy Glee Club

FRIDAY NIGHT COMEDY

6-27 SEP, 7:00PM, £8 - £20

The perfect way to end the working week, with four superb stand-up comedians. SATURDAY NIGHT COMEDY

7-28 SEP, 7:00PM, £8 - £23.95

An evening of award-winning comedy, with four superb standup comedians that will keep you laughing until Monday. BOB’S COMEDY FUNHOUSE

24 SEP, 7:00PM, £20 - £45

A comedy camp special show hosted by Bob The Drag Queen, wuth special performances from Liverpool’s drag legend The Vivienne and more acts to be announced.

TOP FLIGHT TIME MACHINE

8 SEP, 6:00PM, £12.50

Andy Dawson and Sam Delaney’s highly-acclaimed podcast is finally re-imagined as a theatrical experience.

Edinburgh Comedy La Belle Angele POLSKI STAND UP

20 SEP, 7:00PM, £20

A night of Polish stand-up comedy.

Monkey Barrel Comedy Club THE EDINBURGH REVUE

10-24 SEP, 7:00PM, £0 - £2

Oran Mor 22 SEP, 4:00PM, £12

12-26 SEP, 8:00PM, £5

Writer of the long-running hit topical radio show Watson’s Wind Up, Rikki Brown presents a fresh take on the news and those making the news.

The King’s Theatre

FRANKIE BOYLE: FULL POWER

12-21 SEP, 7:30PM, £29.40

Touring Scotland properly for the first time in over a decade, Frankie Boyle presents his sense of mounting horror in the form of stand-up comedy.

The Stand Glasgow

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE

1-22 SEP, 8:30PM, £5 - £6

The Stand’s popular Sunday show has resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond at the helm. RED RAW

2-30 SEP, 8:30PM, £3

Legendary new material night with up to 10 acts. Every Monday in Edinburgh and Tuesday in Glasgow. THE THURSDAY SHOW

5-26 SEP, TIMES VARY, £5 - £10

Start the weekend early with five comedians. THE SATURDAY SHOW

7-28 SEP, TIMES VARY, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians. THE FRIDAY SHOW

6-27 SEP, TIMES VARY, £6 - £12

The big weekend show with five comedians. GLASGOW KIDS COMEDY CLUB

1-29 SEP, 3:00PM, £4

The Stand Comedy Club presents a live stand-up show for younger fans every month.

Touring Scotland properly for the first time in over a decade, Frankie Boyle presents his sense of mounting horror in the form of stand-up comedy.

The Stand Edinburgh RED RAW

2-30 SEP, 8:30PM, £3

Legendary new material night with up to 10 acts. Every Monday in Edinburgh and Tuesday in Glasgow. THE THURSDAY SHOW

5-26 SEP, TIMES VARY, £5 - £10

Start the weekend early with five comedians. THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN

1-22 SEP, 8:30PM, £5 - £6

Chilled Sunday night comedy to see out the weekend. THE SATURDAY SHOW

7-28 SEP, TIMES VARY, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians. THE FRIDAY SHOW

6-27 SEP, TIMES VARY, £6 - £12

The big weekend show with five comedians.

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

The University of Edinburgh’s Comedy Society, who put on sketch and stand-up comedy shows every two weeks.

NEWS HACKS

FRANKIE BOYLE: FULL POWER

SPONTANEOUS SHERLOCK

An entirely improvised Sherlock Holmes comedy play from Scotland’s hottest improv troupe. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG FRIDAY SHOW

6-27 SEP, 7:00PM, £10 - £12

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SATURDAY SHOW

7-28 SEP, 7:00PM, £14

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy. TOP BANANA

4-25 SEP, 7:00PM, £0 - £3

Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene, hosted by Liam Withnail every Wednesday. PROJECT X

3-17 SEP, 7:00PM, £0 - £3

Iain Campbell hosts an experimental and new ideas alternative comedy showcase every Tuesday. PETER PANCAKES’ COMEDY EXTRAVAGANZA

9 SEP, 7:30PM, FREE

Phil O’Shea brings a handpicked selection of riotous lols to Monkey Barrel on the second Monday of the month. SPONTANEOUS POTTER

5-19 SEP, TIMES VARY, £5

A brand new Harry Potter play from some of Edinburgh’s most top notch improv wizards. MONKEY NUT LIVE

23 SEP, 7:00PM, £5

A monthly round-up featuring sketch, character, musical and stand-up comedy all from the minds of Joe McTernan, Megan Shandley and Jojo Sutherland.

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SUNDAY SHOW

1-29 SEP, 7:00PM, £5

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.

1-29 SEP, 1:30PM, FREE

Improvised comedy at its very best every Sunday. BONA FIDE

10 SEP, 8:30PM, £5 - £6

New comedy show with a different theme every month, hosted by Jay Lafferty. JOJO SUTHERLAND AND SUSAN MORRISON: FANNY’S AHOY!

Art

Glasgow Art CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art CHTO DELAT: TIMES, LINES, 1989S

1-8 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Times, Lines, 1989s explores alternative histories and the different forces of transformation that Glasgow has faced, aiming to build a more complex understanding of what has shaped the city. GRACE SCHWINDT: FIVE SURFACES ALL WHITE

7 SEP-13 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

A new multi-channel moving image installation, resulting from the artist’s ongoing interest in how public health is perceived and treated, and how mental health is discussed in contemporary society.

AMAN SANDHU: NO MORE ARTISTS

6-22 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

In this exhibition, Aman Sandhu will introduce the mantra No More Artists and a series of works informed by this proposition.

JASMINA CIBIC: AN ATMOSPHERE OF JOYFUL CONTEMPLATION

14 SEP-13 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

Jasmina Cibic presents her NADA film trilogy, installed within a specially developed immersive installation featuring props and sculpture, as well as an ongoing vocal performance in the CCA gallery spaces.

29 SEP, 5:30PM, £4 - £5

Compass Gallery

THE END OF THE WORLD SHOW

2-7 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Set sail with the award-winning grand dames of Scottish comedy. 18 SEP, 8:30PM, £5 - £7

Armageddon is not so much nigh as teabagging the world in the face. So now that we’ve bought the tickets to Hell in a handcart and this really is the end of civilisation, surely we can still find the time to trivialise it? BENEFIT IN AID OF COMEDY SUPPORT ACT

3-9 SEP, 8:30PM, £10

A night of surprise guests for charity. SHAMBLES

4 SEP, 8:30PM, £4 - £5

Join anarchic makers of madness Shambles for their monthly night of chaotic live comedy. THE STAND ACADEMY COMEDY COURSE

14 SEP, 10:00AM, £125

The legendary Stand Comedy Club welcomes you to our brandnew Stand Academy, where seasoned professional working comedians will be your tutors for our tough but fun bootcamp comedy course. THE STAND ACADEMY COMEDY COURSE SHOWCASE

15 SEP, 4:30PM, £3

The Stand Academy folks take to the stage.

MIXED EXHIBITION

A fresh and exciting combination of original paintings, drawings and sculpture including works by new Scottish Contemporaries, leading Modern Masters and selected recent graduates.

Glasgow Print Studio

DEEP NORTH: SELECTED PRINTS BY TOM HAMMICK 2004 -2019

1-29 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

A mid-career retrospective of work in print by internationally renowned artist Tom Hammick. FEATURED ARTIST: DAMIAN HENRY

5-29 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

New works in print by Glasgowbased printmaker Damian Henry.

GoMA

FIONA TAN: DISORIENT

1 SEP-26 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

A two-screen video installation combining a fictional scene, documentary footage and spoken word to explore complex historical identities, cultural perceptions and truths about the world we live in. MARK-MARKING: PERSPECTIVES ON DRAWING

1 SEP-20 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

Dundee Comedy Caird Hall

JIMMY CARR: TERRIBLY FUNNY

27 SEP, 8:00PM, £32

Jimmy Carr’s brand new show contains jokes about all kinds of terrible things.

The Gardyne Theatre CHRIS HENRY: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DATES

29 SEP, 7:00PM, £12

Chris Henry’s hilarious tale of how he is still single at 40 is a hysterical account of putting yourself out there on a global scale.

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

A group show featuring work by six contemporary artists who place drawing as central to their practice and challenge this assumption.

Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery

ILANA HALPERIN: MINERALS OF NEW YORK

1 SEP-13 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

This latest project from Ilana Halperin takes her back to her childhood home of New York through a ‘mineral biography of the city’, which takes shape across a range of media, including drawings, photographs, objects and a 35mm slideshow.

BARKCLOTH: REVEALING PACIFIC CRAFT 1 SEP-29 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

This exhibition highlights The Hunterian’s world-class collection of Pacific barkcloth (tapa) and showcases the findings of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project, Situating Pacific Barkcloth in Time and Place. TAKE AN OBJECT

1-27 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Take an Object showcases how items from The Hunterian’s collections continue to inspire new ideas and curiosity in the most creative minds.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum THE LINDA MCCARTNEY RETROSPECTIVE

1 SEP-12 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

A major retrospective of photography by Linda McCartney will be shown in the UK for the first time, curated by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney. It features iconic names and moments in music from the 1960s along with more intimate and emotional later work.

SOCIAL ALCHEMY 1-29 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Social Alchemy presents a set of ceramic furniture made of handsculpted tiles imprinted by the layers of actions and convivial rituals within the specific space of the living room. CIRCULAR ELABORATION

1-29 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

An installation by fragrance designer Clara Weale, inspired by The Lighthouse in its 20th anniversary year. TESTS OF CHANGE AND SPACE PIONEERS

1 SEP-14 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

Initiated by Architecture and Design Scotland, and supported by The Scottish Government, this programme uses ‘space hacks’ to quickly allow pupils and teachers to explore possibilities for their schools.

The Modern Institute @ Airds Lane

MONIKA SOSNOWSKA @ THE MODERN INSTITUTE

5-7 SEP, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Platform

Warsaw-based artist Monika Sosnowska’s large-scale sculptures will occupy both the gallery’s Aird’s Lane location and outside green space.

1-28 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Tramway

MADE IN ART FACTORY

A group exhibition of new artworks created by members of Platform art group Art Factory, featuring drawing, painting, sculpture, print and photography.

Project Ability YOUNG TALENT 2019

3-14 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Annual showcase of artwork created by children and young people from Project Ability’s Create programme, bringing together a diverse assortment of painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, banners and figurines.

Street Level Photoworks

ROBERT JOHN HENDERSON: IN PRAISE OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT

1-8 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

This work explores the experience of darkness and light. Its focus is the city, the streets, lanes, canals, rivers, the open places of the public sphere, the edges of private life. DORO ZINN: SAVE IT FOR A RAINY DAY

1-8 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Doro Zinn showcases his encounter with the Gorbals, the place and the people, providing an intimate portrait and story of its resilience.

The Common Guild

A PLACE FOR THE WORK AND THE HUMAN BEING

19 SEP, 6:00PM, £3 - £5

A series of talks exploring the needs, expectations and possibilities of the space for art today.

The Glasgow Art Club DENISE FRASER: CREATION CREATION

7 SEP-5 OCT, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

New work by Scottish painter and mixed media artist Denise Fraser. GAC AUTUMN EXHIBITION

7 SEP-19 OCT, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

An exhibition of work by elected artist members of the Glasgow Art Club.

The Lighthouse CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF THE LIGHTHOUSE

1-29 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

In celebration of The Lighthouse’s 20th birthday this year, the exhibitions team display a collection of archive material, reflections on past exhibitions and a look back to the city as it was in 1999.

JONATHAN BALDOCK: FACECRIME

1 SEP-6 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

Inspired by the discovery, in 1974, of more than a thousand perfectly preserved inscribed clay tablets in the ancient city of Ebia, Syria, Jonathan Baldock has created a new installation of work comprising of precariously stacked ceramic columns. NICK CAVE: UNTIL

1 SEP-24 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

American artist Nick Cave addresses issues of gun violence, gun control policy, race relations and gender politics in America, and its resonance across the world.

iota @ Unlimited Studios

NORMAN SUTTON HIBBERT: KINDER KINDER

19 SEP-5 OCT, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

The artist has been interested in the impact that the behaviour and attitudes of adults have on children, and the works in this exhibition respond to the stories of many of these children, past and present.

Collective Gallery

JAMES RICHARDS: MIGRATORY MOTOR COMPLEX

1 SEP-20 OCT, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

James Richards’ exhibition features a six-channel electroacoustic installation that explores the capacity of sound to render artificial spaces and locate sonic and melodic events within them. IF PLAY IS NEITHER INSIDE NOR OUTSIDE, WHERE IS IT?

1 SEP-6 OCT, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

A new film by Perthshire-based artist Helen McCrorie, showing as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2019, which centres on a childled outdoor playgroup that meets in the grounds of a former military camp in Scotland.

Dovecot Studios

JULIE COPE’S GRAND TOUR: THE STORY OF A LIFE BY GRAYSON PERRY

2 SEP-2 NOV, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, £0 - £9

An exhibition showcasing the complete set of tapestries designed by Grayson Perry for A House for Essex and exploring the creation of the house. OUR LINEN STORIES

16 SEP-25 JAN 20, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE

This exhibition and events series celebrates contemporary design in flax fibre and linen, and Scotland’s extraordinary relationship with this quintessentially European textile.

Edinburgh Printmakers

HANNA TUULIKKI: DEER DANCER

3 SEP-5 OCT, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

A new cross-artform project by artist, composer and performer Hanna Tuulikki, investigating the mimesis of deer, specifically representations within dance from across cultures. A MACHINE FOR MAKING AUTHENTICITY

3 SEP-12 OCT, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

From ‘curiosity’ to ‘art’, ‘souvenir’ to ‘ethnographic artifact’, this exhibition plays on the transformation of Castle Mills from a site of mass industrial manufacture to one of handmade artistic production.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

ADAM BENMAKHLOUF: THE NOISE OF MAKING SPILLS OVER

2-28 SEP, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Edinburgh Art

A collage of field recordings, and accumulated audio and music, gathered in a sound poem that reflects the ethos of ESW’s Schools Programme.

Arusha Gallery

2 SEP-30 MAY 20, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

ALL THAT THE RAIN PROMISES AND MORE...

1-14 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

This group exhibition takes the mushroom and its symbolism of hope, renewal and reproduction as a starting point, with 18 selected artists sharing a preoccupation with the symbiotic connection we each have with our environment.

City Art Centre VICTORIA CROWE: 50 YEARS OF PAINTING

1 SEP-13 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

Embracing every aspect of her practice, this exhibition of Victoria Crowe’s work will feature over 150 paintings, stemming from youthful student works to the assured, timeless landscapes and portraits of recent years. THE ITALIAN CONNECTION

LUCY WAYMAN: CLOVEHITCH

Lucy Wayman’s work, created from marine rope, follows her interest in the industrial and historic uses of rope, connecting ideas of system, control and release.

French Institute WEMYSS WARE EXHIBITION

15-30 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Exhibition of around 180 pieces of Wemyss Ware pottery, some dating back to 1817.

Ingleby Gallery DAVID BATCHELOR: MY OWN PRIVATE BAUHAUS

4-28 SEP, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

An exhibition by David Batchelor that marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus by Walter Gropius in 1919.

7 SEP-24 MAY 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Italian Connection explores the enduring bond between Scotland and Italy, celebrating the ability of art to transcend geographical borders.

Listings

Jupiter Artland TRISHA BROWN: TIME, SPACE, GRAVITY

1-29 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £4.50 - £9

The first retrospective of the artist’s moving-image archive, traversing her 40+ year career, from early site-specific pieces performed across New York streets to her later large-scale collaborative productions.

JOANA VASCONCELOS: GATEWAY

1-29 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £4.50 - £9

Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos unveils her highly anticipated new permanent commission for Jupiter Artland, Gateway: an intricately designed pool set within a landscaped formal garden.

Museum of Childhood BRINGING UP BABY

1-29 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

A new exhibition exploring the choices and challenges faced by parents, featuring a range of objects from the museum’s collection.

National Museum of Scotland

BODY BEAUTIFUL: DIVERSITY ON THE CATWALK

1 SEP-20 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Discover how today’s fashion industry is challenging perceptions and championing alternative ideals of beauty on the catwalk, in advertising, editorial and behind the camera.

Open Eye Gallery

JAMES FAIRGRIEVE RSA RSW: SEASONS

6-30 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

James Fairgrieve reflects on the theme of the changing seasons, in an exhibition exemplifying the ideas and subjects that have embodied his paintings throughout his long career. KEITH EPPS

6-30 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

In his debut solo exhibition with the Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh based artist Keith Epps presents an intriguing array of pastoral landscapes.

Royal Scottish Academy RSA

PHILIP REEVES RSA: FRAGMENTS OF FORM

1 SEP-13 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

A retrospective exhibition of the pioneering printmaker and collagist Philip Reeves RSA. DAVID MACH HRSA: THE PAPER TO PROVE IT

1-8 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition of collages and sculptures by world-renowned artist David Mach HRSA. ADE ADESINA RSA: AURORA

14 SEP-20 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

Focusing on the effects of climate change, deforestation and energy consumption, Ade Adesina’s ecologically-minded, monumental linocuts, woodcuts and etchings demonstrate the limits to which his chosen media can be pushed. NEO-NEANDERTHALS

14 SEP-20 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

THE ACADEMICIANS’ GALLERY FESTIVAL 19 1-8 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

During this year’s Edinburgh Festival, important works by present and past members of the Royal Scottish Academy will be on view in the newly-refurbished and rebranded exhibition space of The Academicians’ Gallery.

Scottish National Gallery BRIDGET RILEY

1-22 SEP, TIMES VARY, £8.50-15

A comprehensive exhibition, and the first museum survey of Bridget Riley’s work to be held in the UK for 16 years, spanning over 70 years of the artist’s work.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

NOW: ANYA GALLACCIO, CHARLES AVERY, AURÉLIEN FROMENT, ROGER HIORNS AND OTHERS

1-22 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

The fifth instalment in the NOW series will be centred on a major survey of work by Anya Gallaccio. CUT AND PASTE: 400 YEARS OF COLLAGE

1 SEP-27 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, TBC

The first survey exhibition of collage ever to take place anywhere in the world, with a huge range of approaches on show, from sixteenth-century anatomical ‘flap prints’ to computer-based images.

A collaborative project between artists Robbie Bushe RSA and Jeanne Cannizzo using scientific data on the inheritance left by the Neanderthals to ‘revisit’ the popular image of hairy, lowbrowed, unintelligent beings.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery THE MODERN PORTRAIT

1 SEP-27 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

A display collating paintings, sculptures and works from the Portrait Gallery’s twentiethcentury collection, feat. a variety of well-known faces, from Ramsay Macdonald to Alan Cumming, Tilda Swinton to Danny McGrain.

ARTIST ROOMS: WOODMAN, ARBUS AND MAPPLETHORPE

ANDREW SIM: NEW SODOM WILL BE A SHINING CITY ON A HILL

1 SEP-20 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

1 SEP-27 OCT, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Celebrating the work of three of the twentieth century’s most influential photographers, with a particular focus on selfportraiture and representation. THE LONG LOOK

1 SEP-27 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Long Look is a collaboration between the painter Audrey Grant and the photographer and printmaker Norman McBeath.

ART AND ANALYSIS: TWO NETHERLANDISH PAINTERS WORKING IN JACOBEAN SCOTLAND

St Margaret’s House

1 SEP-26 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

28-29 SEP, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

A small exhibition focusing on two 17th century artists, Adrian Vanson and Adam de Colone, showcasing a group of paintings which have been examined by paintings conservator Dr Caroline Rae, along with the findings from her research. IN FOCUS: THE EXECUTION OF CHARLES I

1 SEP-26 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition centred around a painting of the execution of Charles I – based on eye-witness accounts and contemporary engravings – by an unknown Dutch artist. THE REMAKING OF SCOTLAND | NATION, MIGRATION, GLOBALISATION 1760-1860

1 SEP-21 JUN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition exploring the lives and careers of the Scots behind the period of dramatic change between 1760 and 1860, when Scotland rapidly attained a central role in European cultural life and in Britain’s industrial and imperial expansion. It documents the material and artistic benefits of their achievements, while also confronting the darker shadows they cast.

OWEN NORMAND: MOVING ON

An exhibition of new figurative paintings by Owen Normand, exploring themes of nostalgia and the passing of time. This body of work is inspired by Normand’s return to Edinburgh after six years in Berlin and him recently becoming a father.

Stills

CINDY SHERMAN: EARLY WORKS, 1975-80 1 SEP-6 OCT, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

An exhibition showcasing seminal early works by Cindy Sherman, one of the most influential artists of the last 40 years.

Summerhall

ALAN SMITH: THE NEW WORLD – RETROSPECTIVE

1 SEP-27 OCT, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

After a life threatening illness, Alan Smith found the need to return again to the language of art and has completed a new body of work, prompted by Tiepolo’s Il Mondo Nuovo.

Andrew Sim’s pastel drawings express the strains of a community being pulled between a forward-facing radicalism and the unresolved traumas of the past; a personal account of learning what it means to be a queer person in 2019. JANE FRERE: EXIT - 100 DAYS OF KHAOS!

1 SEP-27 OCT, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Continuing to create pastel murals, and with other forms of media, Jane Frere used the Instagram hashtag #Exitkhaos as a novel means of daily documentation, charting her personal response during the 100 day countdown to the initial Brexit date. JOSH HANER: THE NEW YORK TIMES - CARBON’S CASUALTIES

The Queen’s Gallery

The McManus AS WE SEE IT: TWENTIETH CENTURY SCOTTISH ART

RUSSIA: ROYALTY & THE ROMANOVS

1 SEP-22 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

1 SEP-3 NOV, 9:30AM – 6:00PM, £7.20

An exhibition exploring the relationship between Britain and Russia and their royal families, through more than 170 works of art in the Royal Collection.

The Scottish Parliament

WHAT DO WE LEARN FROM ALL TH1S?

3-20 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Scotland’s WW1 story told from the perspective of 100 young artists from across the country as part of an innovative new installation, announced by WW100 Scotland in partnership with the Scottish Parliament.

In dramatic drone footage coupled with still photography on the ground, Josh Haner captures diverse environments as they are reshaped around the world while highlighting the intimate stories unfolding within them.

Dundee Art

1 SEP-27 OCT, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

ALBERTA WHITTLE: HOW FLEXIBLE CAN WE MAKE THE MOUTH

Robert McDowell curates an installation of art, prints, photographs, publications and objects of and about Joseph Beuys who remains a major inspiration of Summerhall.

Talbot Rice Gallery

SAMSON YOUNG: REAL MUSIC

V&A Dundee MAEVE REDMOND

1 SEP-15 SEP 20, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A compelling piece of graphic design that unpacks the wider context around a 19th century trade catalogue by cast iron manufacturers Walter MacFarlane & Co. CIARA PHILLIPS

1 SEP-15 SEP 20, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

1 SEP-27 OCT, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

JOSEPH BEUYS / LEONARDO DA VINCI

Exploring the innovative and diverse approaches artists have taken in their creative practice. Whether representing the real world, abstracting elements from it or depicting a realm from the imagination, each artwork is unique and individual.

DCA: Dundee Contemporary Arts 14 SEP-24 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle’s first major solo exhibition in a UK institution draws together new and recent artworks to reflect on memory, trauma, weather and tensions between the land and sea.

2 SEP-5 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

The first major UK solo exhibition of Hong Kong artist and composer Samson Young, featuring an ambitious collaboration with the University of Edinburgh’s Next Generation Sound Synthesis research group.

A new commission, championing the often-unseen process of making by evoking a moment suspended in time where vital decisions about materials and their composition are made. SCOTTISH DESIGN GALLERIES

1 SEP-15 SEP 20, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Explore the everyday relevance of design and how it improves our lives, experience the processes that underpin it and discover little-known stories of Scottish design with international impact. VIDEOGAMES: DESIGN/PLAY/ DISRUPT

1-8 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £5-9

Gain a unique insight into the design process behind a selection of groundbreaking contemporary videogames.

CCA Highlights Autumn arrives at CCA with documentaries on global change and social justice, a gig from indie-rock legend Stephen Malkmus and a detailed discussion on making sure sex toys are for all

ake One Action, Scotland’s global change film festival, returns (18-29 Sep) to premiere international documentaries on social and environmental justice. There’s a range of screenings and events including the film Push (19 Sep) in which Fredrik Gertten, the Swedish investigative filmmaker, tracks Leilani Farha, the lawyer and UN Special Rapporteur. She meets residents, campaigners and politicians in a bid to reclaim adequate housing as a human right, rather than as a commodity of the privileged. In Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (27 Sep), Canadian landscape photographer Edward Burtynsky collaborates with Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, who co-wrote the book of the same title, for a cinematic meditation on the way humanity’s signature has recklessly reshaped the Earth. Also on the big screen is the Scottish Queer International Film Festival (2-6 Oct). Back for its fifth birthday, the festival brings a mix of the best films, talks and workshops from the LGBTQIA+ communities. This year’s theme is collectivity and maintaining solidarity across divides. One topical film from the programme is Man Made (3 Oct) which follows four trans men as they step onto the stage to compete in Trans FitCon, an all-transgender bodybuilding

Listings

competition held in Atlanta, USA. Meanwhile, SQIFF also hosts Scotland’s leading sex toy retailer, Luke+Jack, who present Accessible Toys (4 Oct). This discussion explores adult toys and paraphernalia designed for deaf and disabled consumers – pleasure should be for all, after all. Erotica author Tabitha Rayne – inventor of the Ruby Glow ride on vibrator – powers in to chat about sensuality and sexual empowerment. The sex blogger Girl on the Net will also be on hand to talk about audio porn and how sexy stories can be made more accessible through audio recordings. CCA offer the best in music with an outing from Pavement’s leading man Stephen Malkmus (13 Aug). As one of the defining figures of 90s indie-rock it may be a surprise to learn his new solo album, Groove Denied, embraces the digital era, with Malkmus cranking open the laptop while tasting Berlin’s club scene. The results are as pleasingly hard-to-categorise as ever from the icon of lo-fi post-punk. Another musician going solo is Scottish guitarist David MacGregor. His latest project Broken Chanter launches with support from Mammoth Penguins and Moonsoup (6 Sep). Composed in the Highlands and Islands, recorded in County Donegal, Broken Chanter is an album that loses

Words: Ben Venables

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch

none of MacGregor’s existential, disconcerting sounds and unique vocals. If you like music with the crackle and pop of old vinyl then the installation and performance of The Fall (31 Oct-10 Nov) rings out with the sound of collapse. As part of Sonica Glasgow, the visual-sonic festival from arts collective Cryptic, Belgian artist Karl Van Welden

exhibits a single record (Carl Reinecke’s understated Elegie), as the LP turns behind its glass case ash gently falls on the vinyl. The installation’s simplicity as the dust settles belies the depth of the questions it raises on our fates and decay. cca-glasgow.com

THE SKINNY

Built to last Local Heroes select five practitioners from Design Exhibition Scotland who explore the ways in which functional objects enhance the way we live our lives and address issues around sustainability, materials and process

Becky Šik, Ama

September 2019

In Kate Morgan’s A Bench for The Universal Holding Device she explores ideas of functionality, gesture, and the decorative. Integral to the bench is Morgan’s Universal Holding Device, comprising two baton-like brass bars which can either sit in the aperture at the centre of the bench or be placed one at each end where they become functioning handles. The handles – brass was once the go-to material for furniture handles and door knobs – both signpost and invite potential sitters to engage in the physical act of picking up the bench and positioning it where they wish. The work – made primarily using tulipwood and walnut – “sets two paradoxical positions against one another, the tactile closeness of holding and handling an object, and the absurdity, in this context, of the necessity of a handle in the first place. Importantly for me, during the exhibition visitors were welcome and invited to enact this handling and move the bench around the space.” The Universal Holding Device is an ongoing project which began when Morgan was on residency at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop in 2017 (@kaetmrgn). Glasgow’s surface pattern trailblazers Mirrl (@mirrl_ltd) were encouraged by the DES platform to collaborate with London designer Adam Nathaniel Furman (@adamnathanielfurman) to create the critically acclaimed HK stool, bench and chair inspired by both Japanese lacquerwork and a folkloric one-eyed boy. Furman describes their collaboration as “A unlikely coming together. Simon Harlow and I met on Instagram, loved each other’s work, and eventually hatched the idea to create something new together that neither of us had done before, and couldn’t have done separately. Then DES came in to support us and we put this collection together, which

DESIGN

Hitotsume-kozō chair

Credit: Johnny Barrington

attachment and an enormous amount of time and effort,” says Brophy. “Being able to experience works first-hand and search for the finer details and design elements allows the public to become much closer to the designer and gain an understanding of their design philosophy.” Glasgow’s Kev Pollock (@kevpollock) has taken childhood memories of playing with and picking the blue foam from his mother’s upholstering projects to inform his highly original stainless steel and PU foam table and stools, with contrast between the baby blue foam and the clean, sharp lines of the stainless steel legs. “Mum was a dressmaker and dabbled in upholstering so we had lots lying around.” For the past two years he has been renovating a disused space and setting up a new workshop in Govan where his practice continues to explore the boundaries between sculpture and furniture. “I loved the opportunity to develop these structures and materials into a more viable product yet still using materials in a way not normally associated with furniture,” he says. Pollock believes that it's important for audiences to experience objects first-hand and explore the finer details rather than only consuming online. “Public exhibitions allow audiences to realise that local design is actually quite easily accessible and something to be encouraged and embraced, particularly in today’s world where low-cost furniture has almost become disposable.” Camille Arnould Walachowski is the founder of Studio Walac (@studio.walac). Her Room for Irregularities series incorporates a large mirror and chair made using hand blackened steel, with grey and silver mirrors. “The idea for the mirrors emerged from driving along Loch Lomond at night, under a full moon, from this calm body of black water with silver gleams and dancing shadows,” she says. “The night was a kind of anti-Narcissus where you can only guess the shapes of a body reflecting in the water. The topographic fragmentation of the land with all these lochs can be found in the three mirrors of the collection. They make room for irregularities and ‘connect the islands of self ’.” One of the biggest impacts for her of being invited to exhibit with DES was seeing the furniture community emerge. “When we were all isolated across Scotland, it turned out many of our neighbours were making furniture as well. We can start a discussion now, push it and challenge its edges.”

came from our shared fascination with Japan.” Furman was inspired as a child to discover the world of art and design initially through the incredible pieces he came across on the London Underground, including the work of Scottish designer and artist Eduardo Paolozzi at Tottenham Court Road station. “When I talk about public art, I am always effectively thinking of that piece... and I am absolutely determined to be a part of making sure that beautiful, exciting design is a part of everyone’s everyday life.” His favourite part of the DES project was “feeling part of something that was really considered, and full of substance, love and understanding. It’s often a tough environment out there, but Susanna crafts a space, both physical and in terms of the duration of time it takes to make the projects, that is extremely uplifting and positive, all about progression, making new connections, and being supported to think about the future.” See Mirrl’s Neon Milky Way surface material in person at the soon to be opened Bar Vini on Glasgow’s Victoria Road.

Design Exhibition Scotland, installation view

Last Word

Photo: Ruth Clark

esign Exhibition Scotland (DES) wants to “turn up the volume on robustly contemporary and exploratory design.” Founded in 2018, the latest incarnation was exhibited in June and featured furniture and accessories by 33 designers and artists. Founder Susanna Beaumont says, “I want to give impetus to long-fostered ideas and introduce a wide audience to the energetic brilliance of some of the many contemporary designers working today across Scotland.” Becky Šik’s minty fresh modular shelving piece Ama is made using powder coated, lacquered and stainless steel, with stained and oiled birch plywood. Inspired by modular units through the ages, particularly mid-century German and Scandinavian design, she decided to experiment with modular shelving. “I have a fascination with repurposing materials,” she says. “The welded mesh offers transparency, lightness, geometry and functionality to create adjustable shelving units that are light and open. The hanging mechanisms offer a playful solution to height adjustability and add splashes of colour.” Šik tells us: “There are lots of important conversations to be had about what makes truly sustainable design and what new materials can contribute to well-made items with a good lifespan. Eco, environmental, sustainable etc are all words we use a lot, but I think it is extremely difficult to make work economically viable while truly limiting its environmental impact, whether that is where the material comes from or the production processes used versus its lifespan and longevity. Exhibitions that profile innovative or beautiful, well-made items can raise the profile of design to a point where Scotland can take seriously the need for proper investment in new materials development and tooling, and in supporting small businesses and ideas to flourish.” Daniel Brophy, of Black Box Furniture (@blackboxfurniture), presented three pieces made using ebonised oak where the principles of high quality stand for well-built and considered design where there is true sustainability in longevity. Heavily inspired by the traditional joinery techniques and methods used in Windsor chair making, Brophy has taken the shapes, lines and elements from mid-century modern styling and refined these over many months to produce an aesthetically pleasing, functional and comfortable heirloom piece. “Much of the work produced by artists and designers holds both a deep emotional

Photo: Ruth Clark

Interview: Stacey Hunter