” Celebrates the people who have come before and those we are yet to
DANNY MUNRO
Are there too many trigger warnings in the world? Probably. Do some people need to be protected from disturbing material? Of course. How you square this circle is an eternal battle for woolly liberals like all of us at The List (last time I checked) and the ‘free-speech’ alt-righters who are usually chucking ‘woke’ this and ‘snowflake’ that around until their own hypocritically tender sensibilities are bruised by something largely innocuous.
So, all I’ll say, here and now, is that the feature on our cover star Peaches may well upset some people. It’s a no-holds barred portrait of a punk artist whose song titles alone would frighten all the horses in England (not the Scottish ones, though, they’re made of sterner stuff). There are the frank publicity pictures, sure, that’s one thing; but then there are the words and quotes from the woman herself which contain more references to body parts (and things you can do with said body parts) than an average episode of ER/Casualty/that new one with Noah Wyle. Brace yourself. Gird your loins. Tense those cheeks. For some, it’s going to be a rough old ride.
If a Peaches interview might just be too rich for your blood, far gentler waters can be waded in elsewhere across the mag. There’s our theatre special in which we examine the unshakeable popularity of Matilda The Musical, where we chat to the stars of a new Waiting For Godot and pick out the key players in today’s Scottish theatre landscape. Another Glasgow Film Festival is upon us and we meet the twin brothers who have directed a Shaun Of The Dead-style horror set in that city . . . oh, wait. Well, right, if we’re talking happy families, we meet the musical sisters harking back to the glory days of Scotland’s indie/DIY awakening (the 80s) and there’s the wedded couple who are enticing people to Caithness with their distillery delights. And there’s the film Twinless: that might be nice. Just please don’t ask us about our sex-purge Mouthpiece or the bloody Hot Shot image from FrightFest. It’s a mixed bag of tastes this month, let’s leave it at that.
Brian Donaldson EDITOR
Dalliston
Afreka Thomson, Ailsa Sheldon, Allan Radcliffe, Brian Donaldson, Carol Main, Claire Sawers, Danny Munro, David Kirkwood, Eddie Harrison, Ellie Carr, Emma Simmonds, Evie Glen, Fiona Shepherd, Gary Sullivan, Greg Thomas, Isy Santini, Jay Thundercliffe, Jo Laidlaw, Kelly Apter, Kevin Fullerton, Lucy Ribchester, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir, Mark Fisher, Megan Merino, Murray Robertson, Neil Cooper, Paul McLean, Rachel Morrell, Rob Adams, Vic Galloway, Zara Janjua
The Great Wave
Dai Fujikura & Harry Ross
front
mouthpiece
Does the two-pronged release of Wuthering Heights and a new Peaches album mark a very sexy fresh era for mainstream culture?
Our regular columnist Kevin Fullerton visits an orgy in George Square to find out
Iemerged from the writhing mass of grasping flesh for a brief sit-down between thunderous orgasms, lank with sweat as the patrician glare of Walter Scott peered down at me. ‘What are you looking at?’ I sneered. ‘This is the most fun you can have without laughing.’ I was attending the inaugural Sex Purge, a new legally mandated day in which the crotch-centric hang-ups and restrictive nomenclature created by dating apps and an increasingly conservative media were flung aside for a 24-hour free-for-all of no-holds barred rutting.
This year, in place of Valentine’s cards, Keir Starmer (who announced the Purge while cupping himself and swigging mouthfuls of brandy from a diamante decanter) encouraged participants to delete their Hinge account, make lustful eye contact with all and sundry, and get down and dirty in the nearest layby with consenting strangers. Sex Purge orgies were established in city squares across the country, including this Glasgow one, with bashful individuals choosing to bear witness from the nearby Wetherspoon’s pub garden.
I put on my complimentary Sex Purge embroidered dressing gown and removed my Jason Statham face mask (which I had brought myself) to watch a few of the keynote speakers at the event. Emerald Fennell bounded on stage, forced to shout
Normally we wouldn’t condone the flagrant use of the f word (as in ‘fuck’ not ‘flagrant’) but sadly there’s no avoiding it in this roundup of f-related February-isms. Our cover star Peaches has a substantial back catalogue of sweary song titles as the column above suggests, but she has competition this month with the profane likes of Fcukers (an ‘unstoppable dance-pop duo’ c/o Rolling Stone), announcing their debut album, Ö Canadian Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq has a new album on the way featuring lead single ‘Foxtrot’ with vocals from Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham. That song, if you’re interested, apparently ‘weaponises the
over the guttural groans of orgiastic Glaswegians. ‘Hi guys! It’s Emerald!’ she declared in her incomprehensible southern English accent. ‘I’m here to tell you about my new romance Wuthering Heights, which I’ve filled with as many knobs and naughty bits as possible. I can tell from the sounds of this crowd that you’re going to love it.’ Next up, Peaches promoted new album No Lube So Rude by serenading her somewhat distracted fans with moving renditions of ‘Fuck Your Face’, ‘Hanging Titties’ and ‘Fuck How You Wanna Fuck’. Her up-tempo electronica acted like an erotic metronome for the crowd, who timed their mangled thrusts accordingly.
I couldn’t help but wonder if, after more than a decade of sex in mainstream art acting as a toxic space, the transgressive eye of Fennell and Peaches marked a new era of viewing sexuality with puckish joy instead of suspicion. Maybe we’d finally made progress. Then I remembered I was at an orgy. So, with dutiful care, I removed my gown, replaced my Jason Statham mask, clenched a large rose between my buttocks and waded back into the filth-flinging chaos. After all, it was Valentine’s Day.
Disclaimer: the Sex Purge is an invented concept. The List bears no liability for any mass orgies which may occur in George Square on 14 February.
military alphabet into protest callsign’. Special guests on bass icon Flea’s debut solo album number Nick Cave and Thom Yorke while there are also interpretations of songs by a bunch of other guys including Frank Ocean The folks over at Netflix (or as they shall be known this month, the ’flix) are revving up for an eighth season of Formula 1, if motorised racing is your thing (given we just called it ‘motorised racing’ you might conclude it’s not necessarily our thing). And there are various plans to mark the 30th anniversary of the late David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. Such as finding someone to read the whole thing without losing the plot (theirs and its)?
Fcukers
Formula 1
PlayList
We’re back with our first issue of 2026 and what better way to commence another year of cultural carry-on than through some songs that appear (or are hinted at, no matter how tangentially) across these pages. Hear show tunes from Matilda The Musical and Top Hat, as well as numbers by Belle And Sebastian, Tom Waits, Lou Mclean, Biffy Clyro, The Cords and many more
Scan and listen as you read:
Over the course of half a century, innumerable things drift in and out of fashion. It would be wholly false to claim that The Muppets have been solidly popular for 50 straight years but, to be fair to Miss Piggy, Kermit, Fozzie, Animal and co, they’ve assuredly had more peaks than troughs. On 4 February, the folks at Disney are marking this triumph with a special celebration and, in line with the show’s roots, a topnotch guest helps them pop the corks: namely, one Sabrina Carpenter. ‘It’s time to play the music; it’s time to light the lights . . . ’ And so on.
In this series of articles, we turn the focus back on ourselves by asking folk at The List about cultural artefacts that touch their heart and soul. This time around, Afreka Thomson tells us which things . . .
Made me cry: I went to see Loyle Carner at the O2 Academy a few weeks ago and left with unexpectedly wet eyes. It was a cold weeknight, and after an emotive set, his encore (a spotlit poem) cast a spell over an unusually peaceful Glasgow crowd. He speaks so precisely about the heartache of nostalgia, the power of home and the joy of having young children.
Made me angry: I got pretty riled up listening to The Guardian podcast The Birth Keepers. That series investigates a social media movement which profits from encouraging women to reject medical involvement in pregnancy and birth. A nuanced piece of journalism, it’s kind to the mothers who share their experiences but clear about the insidious, potentially deadly nature of misinformation online.
Made me laugh: Timothée Chalamet as the tenacious, slightly sociopathic table tennis player in Marty Supreme. I wasn’t expecting to laugh at this, but his dogged, deadpan serves are a real treat. An honourable mention also to @stockbridge_yummy_mummy on Instagram.
Made me think: I recently read a tiny book called The Slicks by Maggie Nelson, which is a comparative essay on Sylvia Plath and Taylor Swift. It made me revisit some of Plath’s poetry. She needs more presence in 2026 (Taylor needs less).
Made me think twice: I work for a social enterprise called Edinburgh Food Social, and recently attended one of their community cooking classes. Some of the kids there had never tried an orange before. My mum owned a vegetarian restaurant when I was growing up, and I’d taken that early exposure to cooking for granted. Food poverty is abhorrent, but it made me think about how education has to be part of the way forward.
The nicer the show, the nastier you can be “
To kick off our theatre special, Kelly Apter ventured south to witness one of the 21st century’s finest new musicals. She chats to some of the grown-up stars of Matilda and hears about young pranksters, glorious harmonies and the pure joy of being a baddie
Chomping on an apple as he enters the room, Scotty Armstrong looks around for a bin. It’s a couple of hours before curtain up at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre and he’s squeezing in this interview, and a snack, before costume and make-up. Several scoured corners later, he finally finds one and deposits the core, but it’s clear this is a man who doesn’t give up easily. Born in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Armstrong’s talent was first spotted by his high school drama teacher, who said he had ‘something that should be nurtured’. Fast forward through many youth theatre productions and three years of drama school later, and Armstrong found himself at the Cambridge Theatre in London’s West End, eagerly awaiting his first viewing of Matilda The Musical
‘It got to the end of act one and I was in love with it,’ recalls Armstrong. ‘But then a company doing roadworks outside accidentally drilled through power cords and everything went dark. I was devastated because it was one of the best things I’d ever seen. But I managed to go back to see it the following summer and just loved it again.’
His perseverance continued when it came to auditioning for a part in the show, trying to snag the dual role of Russian mobster Sergei and a children’s party entertainer (while also serving as understudy for beastly headteacher, Miss Trunchbull).
‘I auditioned for the national tour in 2017 but it didn’t work out for me,’ says Armstrong. ‘And I auditioned a few more times, and again it just didn’t happen. But I think it was an age thing, because I auditioned again for this tour and I got it. I knew it would come to me when the time was right.’ Incidentally, the Trunchbull role comes good just a week after we meet, when Armstrong took to the stage for the first time in this coveted part.
That tenacity may not be reflected in everyone, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who, having seen it, didn’t feel the same love for the show. Based on Roald Dahl’s story, with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and book by Dennis Kelly, Matilda The Musical has been pulling in crowds worldwide since its 2010 premiere. The witty, engaging and empowering storyline does some of the heavy lifting, but it’s the musical numbers that thump your heart with their glorious harmonies.
‘There are a lot of offstage vocals, so even if we’re not on stage we’re adding to the sound,’ explains Armstrong. ‘One of my favourite parts is when Matilda is telling the story of the escapologist and we create a whole sound wall backstage. We start in unison and then gradually it builds into this big, beautiful harmonic piece.’ As a baritone, Armstrong contributes a strong foundation to that wall of sound, while songs such as ‘When I Grow Up’ and ‘Revolting Children’ bring the audience to tears and riotous applause.
And we’re not the only ones enjoying ourselves. ‘It sounds awful, but with some shows, when you’re performing them eight times a week, you can sometimes think “here we go again”,’ he admits. ‘But there’s never a moment during Matilda where that’s the case; it’s exciting every single time. And it changes for us adults constantly, because of the variation of young actors on stage.’ The talented children playing Matilda and her classmates change on a regular basis to comply with employment law, keeping the adults, including those taking on the roles of Matilda’s self-absorbed parents, on their toes. The Wormwoods are played on this tour by Adam Stafford and Rebecca Thornhill. ‘It’s lovely because each young actor brings something totally different,’ says Thornhill, ‘and you just bounce off whatever they give you.’ And what about off-stage? ‘Some of them are hysterical,’ she laughs, recalling wing-side banter from the previous night. ‘Some of them are cheekier than others and come out with brilliant stuff.’
‘It keeps it fresh,’ agrees Stafford. ‘I love working with children. I started acting when I was seven, and at nine I did my first film, Peter Pan, with Mia Farrow and Danny Kaye, so it takes me back to being that age. It’s magical for these young actors, particularly a story like this because Dahl empowers children and this lot just lap it up.’ While Stafford and Thornhill may love and admire their co-stars, their characters unequivocally do not, forever taunting Matilda for her bookish ways. What’s it like to play loathsome parents to such a sweet girl? ‘Wonderful! I like to put a spanner in the works,’ laughs Stafford. ‘It’s the best bit isn’t it, being the baddie?’ His partner in crime nods in agreement. ‘Playing the baddie is always fun,’ says Thornhill. ‘And the nicer the show, the nastier you can be.’ Given how morally bankrupt Mr Wormwood is, it seems like a backhanded compliment to say it’s a role Stafford was born to play. But even those close to him could see how well he’d inhabit the part. ‘I got a call from someone in my family who saw the show in London,’ recalls Stafford. ‘And they said “we’ve just come out of Matilda and there’s a part in it that could have been written for you”. So I mentioned it to my agent, and he rang me a week later to say “you won’t believe this: they’re auditioning for the UK tour”. I’d never even seen the show, but as soon as I got the part, I watched it in London and thought it was brilliant. It really captures the essence of Dahl and doesn’t shy away from the dark side or the cheekiness.’
There’s nothing like a musical to set the heart a-soarin’. And Scottish stages are filled with them across 2026. Why don’t you gravitate to this little lot
You’ve read the book and watched the telly series. So why wouldn’t you be heading to see the musical version of Dexter and Emma’s story in One Day (Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Friday 27 February–Sunday 19 April)? Only plausible reason could be that it’s selling out quicker than you can say ‘no spoilers’ (if that’s even possible now with David Nicholls’ original novel). Sharon Rose and Jamie Muscato take on the roles of the star-crossed pair who we meet on every 15 July since the graduation night of 1988 when they first walked into each other’s lives.
Abba, Rod Stewart and Queen all had them, so why can’t the Bay City Rollers get the jukebox musical treatment? Fear not as lovers of the tartan-clad 70s outfit have their wish come true with a full tour of Rollers Forever (Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Wednesday 14–Saturday 17 October; His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, Wednesday 21–Saturday 24 October; King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Tuesday 27–Saturday 31 October). It might be difficult to explain to anyone born this century about the impact these Scottish tunesmiths had, especially on the screaming youths of the day, but they had a truly phenomenal hit-laden period in the 1970s.
Told through the eyes of their son, The Ballad Of Johnny & June (Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Tuesday 28 April–Saturday 2 May; Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Thursday 13–Saturday 22 August) tracks the love story of Johnny Cash and June Carter. It’s a story of big highs and terrible lows filled with a rollicking 30 songs that helped cement this pair as icons for a generation. Christopher Ryan Grant and Christina Bianco take on the lead roles.
Iconic for very different reasons are Elle Woods and her chihuahua Bruiser. Legally Blonde (King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tuesday 7–Saturday 11 April; His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, Monday 22–Saturday 27 June; Edinburgh Playhouse, Tuesday 29 September–Saturday 3 October) follows the tale of an It Girl’s unlikely transformation into a legal ace. Strictly and Pretty Woman (the musical) star Amber Davies is in the lead role for the majority of its UK tour.
Forever associated with smuggling Bonnie Prince Charlie ‘over the sea to Skye’, Flora MacDonald’s story is, typically, little known beyond that. Flora (Eden Court, Inverness, Friday 20 & Saturday 21 March; Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Thursday 26–Saturday 28 March) shows a different side to this reluctant heroine while AJ Robertson and John Kielty deliver the songs that will have us whistling all the way home thanks to their earworm blend of traditional and contemporary.
Legally Blonde
Scotty Armstrong in action as the party entertainer in Matilda and (left) Rebecca Thornhill and Adam Stafford aka The Wormwoods
Bidingtimetheir
Longtime friends George Costigan and Matthew Kelly are the latest duo to tackle the theatrical holy grail of Waiting For Godot. The pair talk to Neil Cooper about their drama school days, working together over the years and why they believe Godot is about all of us
It was George Costigan’s idea that he and Matthew Kelly should do Waiting For Godot together. The pair star as Vladimir and Estragon, the two men anticipating the title character who never comes in Samuel Beckett’s play that revolutionised 20th-century drama. Watching these two very different veterans of stage and screen spark off each other, as they riff on this piece of existential vaudeville in which ‘nothing happens twice’, you can see why it was such an inspired notion.
‘This is a play about love,’ says Kelly of Beckett’s iconic work, in which the everyday chemistry between lifelong friends is laid bare in all its mundane glory. ‘We’ve known each other for 58 years and I think Vladimir and Estragon have known each other for that long, so it’s kind of an ideal time for us to do it. And we might get it right this time.’
Dominic Hill’s new production, which opens at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre prior to dates in Liverpool and Bolton, will be the fourth time Kelly has done the play, with previous stints in 1972, 1986 and 2012. Costigan has only performed it once before, at Manchester’s Library Theatre in 2008. It was a production that left its mark. ‘There was a Saturday matinee where the audience laughed their faces off,’ Costigan remembers. ‘We were following them and finding stuff, because they were in such a state; it took us to a place where we went “is there a gag down there as well?” Come the evening show, we couldn’t wait to get out there, but when we did, zilch. But at the end, they clapped their hands off. They had the most fantastic evening. Just a very different evening to the audience at the matinee. I’ve never been in a play that can do that, so I’m very, very, very, very happy to be doing it again.’
Costigan and Kelly met on their first day studying drama in Manchester more than half a century ago. ‘We get to college and meet everybody,’ Costigan recalls. ‘And there’s this tall bloke, and he’s quite funny and all that. Then you get to the middle
of November in first year, he’s not there. Where is he? What’s happened? He’s only off doing panto with Hylda Baker.’ Both men went on to work at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre during its 1970s heyday. ‘George was there first,’ Kelly remembers. ‘And then, because his company went down to the West End with Willy Russell’s play John, Paul, George, Ringo . . . & Bert, it created a vacuum and they needed actors really quickly. So while they were all living it up, I was in the company which a year later went into the West End with Funny Peculiar, and then we all went our separate ways.’
Costigan and Kelly’s work together since then includes playing Lennie and George in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men, and in Don Quixote, with Costigan playing Sancho Panza to Kelly’s Don Quixote. ‘The relationship that George and I had with Lennie and George is not dissimilar to Vladimir and Estragon,’ Kelly points out. ‘I think it’s how men and women are with each other, trying to pass the time, trying to find ways of letting yourself know that you exist. It’s a humanity play. The more I read it, the more I think it’s a joyful thing, even though it’s heartbreaking.’
Both men acknowledge their differences as actors. ‘The great thing about George is that he’s incredibly honest, he can’t help but tell the truth,’ says Kelly. ‘Which is sometimes unfortunate,’ Costigan chips in. ‘George is much more inventive than I am, so you have to keep up,’ adds Kelly. ‘I get bored easy,’ is Costigan’s excuse. ‘The biggest question about Waiting For Godot is why are people still doing it? And it’s because in terms of human life, it’s timeless,’ says Costigan. ‘It’s no surprise that he’s got a young boy, a big fascist bully and a working-class slave. And then there are these two bums. One of them is a philosopher, the other one is instinctively bright. He’s covered humanity. This is a play about all of us.’
Meet your makers: Margaret-Anne O’Donnell and Gillian Garrity (and clockwise), Alan Cumming, Dominic Hill, Brian Logan, Jackie Wylie, James Brining, Jemima Levick
Today’s Scottish theatre scene is a thrilling and innovative landscape. As we look ahead to another year of high drama, Mark Fisher picks some of the key people bringing exciting new ideas to our stages
ALAN CUMMING
In the pipeline is Avengers: Doomsday and a TV series based on his Club Cumming cabaret night. Then there’s the latest series of The Traitors US. All that is before we even get on to Cumming’s new role as artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
Leading from the front, the Aberfeldy-born star will play Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady; direct Simon Russell Beale in Martin Sherman’s I’ll Be Seeing You; star with Shirley Henderson in a revival of A History Of Paper directed by Dundee Rep’s Andrew Panton; and co-write I Can Die Too alongside its star, Frances Ru elle. Somehow, he also has time to tour a musical version of The High Life for National Theatre Of Scotland. Does this man ever sleep?
MARGARETANNE O’DONNELL & GILLIAN GARRITY
They might not be household names, but increasingly, O’Donnell and Garrity are the forces bringing quality theatre to audiences in Scotland and beyond. Through their Raw Material production company, they’ve been behind everything from the large-scale tour of Death Of A Salesman, starring David Hayman, to the delicate physical-theatre shows of Ramesh Meyyappan.
This year, they’re reviving three hit works: Karine Polwart’s sublime Windblown, Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie’s
irreverent musical Scots, and Rob Drummond and Dave Hook’s rapping history play Wallace. Additionally, they are backing Saint Joan, a version of the George Bernard Shaw play reimagined by the brilliant director Stewart Laing with Adura Onashile. And they also have a hand in the revival of Medea by Bard In The Botanics.
JAMES BRINING
He made his name as a director working with the Glasgow young people’s company TAG and then Dundee Rep before becoming artistic director of Leeds Playhouse, one of England’s major theatres. Back in Scotland, Brining is now in charge of Edinburgh’s Lyceum where he’s thinking big and developing commercial hits. His calling card came last October with a funny and elegant production of Chekhov’s The Seagull, starring Caroline Quentin.
Next on his watch, he has inherited One Day: The Musical from predecessor David Greig: this adaptation of the David Nicholls novel, directed by Max Webster, has ‘hit potential’ written all over it and should have them weeping in the aisles. A er that, Brining is working with Deacon Blue’s Ricky Ross and playwright Gary McNair on the football underdog drama Black Diamonds And The Blue Brazil
The players
JEMIMA LEVICK
Settling into a second year at the Tron, Levick is building on her experience at Dundee Rep, Stellar Quines and A Play, A Pie And A Pint to extend the Glasgow theatre’s reputation for mixing classics with premieres, the familiar with the experimental, and the serious with the comic. Away from the Tron, she recently staged a handsome production of Cinderella: A Fairytale at Edinburgh’s Lyceum.
Now, she’s working with playwright and frequent collaborator Frances Poet on Stand & Deliver: The Lee Jeans Sit-In, a coproduction with National Theatre Of Scotland that recalls the crucial factory strike of 1981 in Greenock.
DOMINIC HILL
In a nice piece of symmetry, the Citizens in Glasgow and Lyceum in Edinburgh are now led, separately, by the two men who used to run Dundee Rep together. Hill’s pro le has been lower than usual because of the Citz’ seven-year refurbishment.
But he returned in style last September with Small Acts Of Love (Frances Poet’s requiem to those killed in the Lockerbie bombing) and then a creepy Beauty And The Beast. A er the upcoming Waiting For Godot, he’ll be staging Denise Mina’s truecrime novel The Long Drop, adapted by Linda McLean.
JACKIE WYLIE
Wylie is leading National Theatre Of Scotland into its 20thanniversary year. In the US recently, she was drumming up interest for the forthcoming revival of The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie in a production directed by Vicky Featherstone. Aiming to appeal to the nation’s many constituent parts, Wylie caters to fans of Scottish literature with that show, while The High Life corners the popular market, Stand & Deliver: The Lee Jeans Sit-In plays to the politically engaged, and Martin O’Connor’s Through The Shortbread Tin asks questions about who we all think we are.
BRIAN LOGAN
Known as The Guardian’s no-nonsense comedy critic, Logan has a day job running the single most proli c theatre programme in Scotland. As artistic director of A Play, A Pie And A Pint, he’s responsible for a phenomenal amount of work: 17 new plays plus one revival between now and June alone. As well as playing at Òran Mór, some of them will help esh out the line-ups in theatres in Aberdeen, Ayr, Edinburgh and Pitlochry. This summer, a er lunchtime dramas by the likes of Eve Nicol and Debbie Hannan, Logan will direct Nay Dhanak’s comedy Cry/Laugh as part of the PPP programme.
IIn her drama student days, Kelly Apter appeared as an extra in a classic soap (Brookside) and an Oscar-winning movie (In The Name Of The Father). Here’s what happened when she gingerly began to tread the amateur dramatic boards many years later
t took me three attempts to walk through the front door. The first two times I saw the lights shining inside the church hall, as people walked purposefully towards the entrance, and hightailed it back to my car. Despite performance being the centrepiece of my life (from childhood groups and a degree in drama, to spending my professional career writing about it), this was a new and slightly nerve-wracking endeavour. When I told my daughter I was thinking of joining an amateur drama group, her response was: ‘But what if they’re terrible?’ I responded that if they were terrible, I wouldn’t go back. And, of course, they weren’t.
Joining any new group can feel like the first day at school, with pre-formed cliques to navigate. But when I finally plucked up enough courage to enter the building where Edinburgh Theatre Arts (ETA) meets and rehearses, I was met by a sea of smiles and handshakes. And once they got stuck into the business at hand (auditions for their upcoming production of Agatha Christie’s Go Back For Murder), it was clear the group had passion and talent in abundance. And why wouldn’t they? One of the great fallacies about amateur theatre is that it’s all wonky sets, bad accents and ham acting, when the reality is that most groups are populated by people with skill and ambition, just no desire to live the unpredictable life of a jobbing actor (and who can blame them?).
ETA has been in existence since the late 1940s and has many an impressive production under its belt. Their repertoire includes everything from Michael Frayn’s Noises Off to Molière’s The Misanthrope, and even a production of Macbeth in Scots. Delivering two shows a year, in the spring and at the Edinburgh Fringe, the 2025 programme was to include the aforementioned Christie and Oscar Wilde’s A Woman Of No Importance. But how to get involved? The reason I found myself standing at their door in the first place was a desire to fuel my own creativity for a change, rather than only writing about other people’s. In what capacity though, I had no idea. Like anything in life, you get out what you put in, so I offered my services to anyone who might need them.
Fast-forward 12 months and I have sourced props, changed sets, helped prompt during rehearsals, taken on a fairly large role during the Fringe, performed in a murder mystery, and am now assistant director on our upcoming spring double-bill. Twice a week I set aside my work and family concerns for a few hours and race off to join in the fun. Only now, I can walk through the door at my first attempt . . .
Edinburgh Theatre Arts performs Looking For The One and The Line That’s Picked Up 1000 Babes at St Ninian’s Hall, Edinburgh, Tuesday 14–Saturday 18 April.
A night at the theatre should always be a magical thing and, across springtime, Scotland hosts a number of dramatic delights. Here is a selection of some glittering stars and dark horses to catch over the next few months All
PRIMA FACIE
And stars don’t come much more glittering right now than Jodie Comer who’s taking a step back from appearing in movies about bikers and zombies to take on the demanding role, one last time, of a barrister at the top of her game who suddenly has to reassess everything after a troubling instance of abuse.
n Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Tuesday 3–Saturday 7 February.
THE EVENTS
Inspired by the killing spree of Anders Breivik in Norway, David Greig’s play was a sensational hit when first performed in 2013. The story of Claire, a vicar who survives a mass shooting of her community choir and attempts to renavigate her way back into a world that has irrevocably altered, is produced here by Wonder Fools.
Each audience is the jury in this immersive theatre piece which covers the slaying of a horrible landlord and the trial of a tenant with mental health issues who had a strong motive for wanting the man to get his comeuppance. But is he actually guilty?
After a successful run at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, Company Of Wolves take Euripides’ Greek tragedy out on the road. Adapted and performed by Ewan Downie, this solo retelling of Dionysos’ myth is dubbed as a ‘hymn of rebirth for our shattered selves’.
n Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Wednesday 4–Saturday 7 March; The Studio, Edinburgh, Monday 9 & Tuesday 10 March; then touring until Friday 29 May.
WOMAN IN MIND
Starring Sheridan Smith, Romesh Ranganathan and Louise Brealey, this is an adaptation of Alan Ayckbourn’s 1985 play about a straitjacketed housewife who revels in a hallucinatory dreamworld after she receives a bump on the head from a garden rake. This dark comedy flies off into fantastical zones.
n Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tuesday 10–Saturday 14 March.
CRIMES OF THE HEART
Grassroots theatre company Strawmoddie have been operating since 2015, producing shows varying from immersive pieces to large-scale ensemble works. They’re doing a spot of Terry Pratchett in the summer, but here they lay on a Mississippi-set Pulitzer-winning noir from Beth Henley about three sisters awaiting news of their grandfather who is edging towards his end.
n Assembly Roxy, Thursday 19–Sunday 22 March.
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Joe McFadden plays Andy Dufresne who receives a double life sentence after the killing of his wife and her lover. While continuing to maintain his innocence, he settles down to focus on surviving the notorious prison that is now his home. A story of friendship, courage, survival and injustice, it showed once again that the original novel’s author Stephen King was more than just a horror merchant.
n Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tuesday 24–Saturday 28 March; His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, Tuesday 7–Saturday 11 April.
Friction factory
TSculptures of jizzing fountains and double masturbatory sex toys are par for the course in the life and work of Peaches. As the upfront Canadian punk artist makes a thunderous return, she tells Fiona Shepherd why we all need a little more lube in our lives
he lthy, gorgeous Peaches last released a new album, Rub, ten years ago but has barely taken a moment since. Although best known internationally for her hot and heavy club music, particularly the surprisingly soundtrack-friendly ‘Fuck The Pain Away’, and gleefully outrageous body positive live shows, the Toronto artist born Merrill Nisker is truly a woman of parts. Unsurprisingly, she was one of the rst women to have her breasts immortalised in 2001 by the late artist Cynthia Plaster Caster. ‘I’m number 11 and 12,’ she says proudly.
Speaking from her longstanding home city of Berlin, this renaissance electro punk outlines a fertile past decade of art activity, from high to DIY, all shot through with trademark Peaches mischief. In Hamburg, she formed a dance troupe called Clusterfuck, specialising in sculptural movement. In Stuttgart, she performed Bertolt Brecht’s ballet chanté Seven Deadly Sins, putting her stamp on the role of Anna I which was originated by Weimar cabaret star Lotte Lenya and later recorded by Marianne Faithfull.
‘It ended up being a Peaches show,’ she says. ‘The theatre were really excited because they thought their older patrons would protest. But actually, these older women came to me a er the show and said: “I never got to show who I am, I never got to say what I wanted and this was really empowering for me.” So it was really exciting understanding that people still have a re in them. It’s a lot di erent from when we were young and what our parents and grandparents would sco at; now I think the older generations are the more punk ones and they’re the ones saying “let’s go”!’
On the subject of righteous ageing, Peaches recently revisited her rendition of Yoko Ono’s legendary performance work, Cut Piece, joined Shirley Manson in covering ‘Why D’Ya Do It’ for a Marianne Faithfull tribute album and proudly wore her Pam Hogg catsuit out and about on hearing of the Paisley fashion designer’s passing late last year. ‘I really, really loved Pam,’ she says. ‘When Pam walked in a room you just felt so alive. Such a beautiful compassionate person with a huge punk heart.’ Arguably her most Peaches move was to mount a large-scale exhibition of new art at Hamburg’s Kunstverein, titled a er her song ‘Whose Jizz Is This?’ The inspiration? A disparaging online review of a sex toy called the Double Masturbator. ‘I am all for people using whatever they need to do whatever they do; it’s not hurting anybody. I was trying to gure out how to do some work and use what I’m all about but without me being there.’ So, of course, the show was interactive, animatronic and a whole lot of fun.
‘I thought about all these sex toys and how they all have the apparatus to get together and have their own life and have sex with each other,’ she continues. ‘So I imagined that they would rise up and say “no more humans, we don’t need you”. We had therapy sessions. The Double Masturbators would talk about being left in the corner, never being washed and thrown around. There was a big fountain called the Whose Jizz Is This? fountain where they were jizzing on each other in a commemoratory sense. It was an allegory of empowerment and taking control.’
Peaches is also feeling allegorical on her new album, another thumping electro dispatch on sexual politics, bodily autonomy and freedom of expression with the typically witty title No Lube So Rude ‘My core is that people need to be who they need to be and nobody has autonomy over that; it’s your own. That goes for abortion rights, that goes for trans rights, that goes for queerness, that goes for marginalised groups. Nobody else can tell you who you need to be. If they need to do that, why? Is it greed, is it power? Makes no sense but it happens all the time.’
Explaining the album title, she says that ‘the world is full of friction and very tense and we need some lube to let us ease into conversations and be able to interact with each other, whether intergenerationally or politically opposed. Lube is not just for menopausal women and it’s not just for gay men who have run out of poppers; it’s good for everybody and it’s also something that you
should bring as an offering in the way you would bring a condom. It’s not something shameful, it’s important, and if you don’t bring it then it’s rude.’
Whether that applies to her forthcoming tour dates remains to be seen but there’s no doubt that Peaches will bring the art party, pulling together her manifold talents for costumery, choreography, prop and set design as well as her mighty pipes. While the signature Peaches sound features a lot of sprechgesang intoning and chanting, she can let rip in a variety of vocal styles: the 20th anniversary tour of her classic The Teaches Of Peaches album included a barnstorming cover of Celine Dion’s ‘It’s All Coming Back To Me Now’. Even more impressively, she’s toured a solo version of quintessential rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar (called, of course, Peaches Christ Superstar) in which she takes on the roles of Jesus, Mary and Judas. Quite an undertaking.
‘That’s my style. I wanted to be a theatre director when I grew up and I wanted to make cool musicals, which didn’t fly very well in theatre school. I didn’t realise I was a musician at that time but once I did then I realised I could be my own director, build my own world and have my own music in it. It always comes from the music first but this is how I like to express myself.’
No Lube So Rude is released by Kill Rock Stars on Friday 20 February; Peaches plays SWG3, Glasgow on Saturday 18 April.
Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet
Fantasy Overture
Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Zemlinsky The Mermaid
Kevin John Edusei Conductor
Makoto Ozone Piano
Gillian Moore Presenter
NAMI
It’s quite the about-turn to pivot from cupcakes to dumplings but the sisters behind Mimi’s Bakehouse have proved their skills extend beyond patisserie. With a smart new interior and an ex-Ka Pao head chef, Nami brings something fresh to Leith. Cocktails, developed with Three Marys, have an Asian-inspired twist: a Gochujang Margarita is punchy and the Japanese Negroni (stirred with sake) might just become your smooth new favourite. The big flavours extend to the menu with miso grilled fish, shiitake dan dan noodles and moreish Korean fried chicken. Reasonably priced and family friendly, Nami fills a gap on The Shore. (Ailsa Sheldon) 63 Shore, Edinburgh; namiedinburgh.com
North star
Caithness: perhaps not the first name that springs to mind when you think whisky. That’s partly thanks to the good folk of Wick, who took to the polls back in May 1922. This wasn’t to elect an MP; instead, a decisive 62% voted to prohibit the sale of alcohol. Wick would remain dry for 25 years until, at the fifth time of trying, a majority voted to overturn the booze ban in 1947.
The town’s Pulteney Distillery finally came out of mothballs in 1951. Yet, for more than 60 years after, it remained the county’s only whisky distillery. But in recent times, there’s been something of a renaissance. In Thurso, the Wolfburn name was revived in 2013 and now produces a range of single malts. North Point at Forss was born out of the pandemic, launching its Dalclagie single malt in 2023. And at John O’Groats, the stylish 8 Doors opened in 2022, with a range of bottlings while they wait for their own malt to mature.
Stannergill is the newest kid on the block, the creation of Martin and Claire Murray from Dunnet Bay Distillers, producers of the successful Rock Rose gin. They’re crafting whisky at Castletown Mill, just two miles from their gin HQ at the opposite end of Dunnet Beach. The mill’s journey from sorry dereliction to top-tier destination certainly hasn’t been easy, but after a multi-million pound restoration and the removal of 39 tonnes of pigeon poo, its transformation is almost complete.
Paul McLean chats to Stannergill cofounder Martin Murray about dreaming big, luring whisky tourists north and creating opportunities for locals
‘It was such a big project that if you looked at it from the start and thought of everything you had to do to get to the end, you wouldn’t do it,’ admits Martin. ‘But if you break it down into milestones, it makes it a lot easier.’
The distillery’s shop and Grain Store Restaurant soft launched in late 2025, with distilling and tours earmarked to start this spring (along with a ground-floor bar and producers’ markets in the outdoor courtyard). A crowdfunder launched in November to build maturation warehouses on site has already reached its target.
For Martin, sustainability is a guiding principle. As well as using local materials and tradespeople where possible, Stannergill plans to only use barley from within a three-mile radius and will operate electric steam boilers that tie into renewable electricity from the grid. ‘We want to be zero emissions from heat,’ he says.
It’s all a long way from the Caithness couple’s initial goals for Rock Rose. ‘Our plan was just to create two jobs: one for me and one for Claire, so we could raise the kids here,’ explains Martin. But they hit the gin boom right at the start. ‘By chance, we also built our gin distillery on the North Coast 500, which wasn’t a thing at that time. It was just convenient for us because it was a kilometre from our house.’ When the NC500 launched, the business took off and changed the couple’s thinking about what was possible.
Stannergill’s arrival heralds an important addition to what is now a five-stop coastal whisky trail in the county. The challenge is to lure whisky tourists north from their traditional stamping grounds. ‘We want people to come and stay in Caithness, eat in Caithness, buy gifts in Caithness. It’s trying to create less of a quick stop on the way to Orkney and a bit more of a destination in its own right.’
Cooperation between distilleries is also vital, he believes. ‘There’s no reason why five or six whisky distilleries can’t survive up here and make this a really good destination to come and visit. . . you can get too hung up on competition rather than seeing the bigger picture.’
With hospitality and distilling apprentices on board and a head chef tempted back home from Skibo Castle, providing jobs and leaving a legacy are now driving factors for the Murrays. ‘It’s only as you get older with a family that you realise all the kids are moving away through lack of opportunity. So now, for me, this is all about the opportunites it brings for others. That’s what I’m passionate about. If it helps them stay in the county that they love and want to live in, that’s brilliant.’
Jo Laidlaw rounds up the new openings that ruined your Eat & Drink team’s attempts at a dry January
While the turn of the year is traditionally a quieter time for openings (sadly, the same can’t be said for closures), there are plenty of newish spots to catch up on. Glasgow’s love affair with the slice shows no sign of fading; there’s a new Sear’s Pizza in Skirving Street, plus murmurs that Pizza Pilgrims are planning their first Glasgow branch on West Nile Street. Moving along the culinary, if not the geographical, highway brings us to Focaccia, a cracking new sando spot from the people behind brunch destination Pulp. Sticks’n’Sushi’s particular brand of Nordic/Japanese fusion landed in George Square in December, while Edinburgh-based Sri Lankan street-food vendors Kochchi have made the move over the M8 to Ruthven Lane.
Edinburgh’s news is bar focused. The Fort Bar sees Pilot, Moonwake and Barney’s come together, reviving the much-missed Village to pour (natch) their own brews; Nobles (recently taken over by Bellfield) have announced a new in-house food offering too. We can’t wait to see what The Cocktail Geeks are doing with the old Under The Stairs, where Sköll & Hati promises to merge Norse mythology with food and drink. Meanwhile, the team group chat has been focused on Yaran, a new Frederick Street BYOB that gets double thumbs up for their Afghan dishes.
Finally, we want to acknowledge the death of John Quigley, latterly of Red Onion, and one of the chefs who laid the foundations for Glasgow’s vibrant food and drink scene. We send our condolences to his family, colleagues and customers.
Sticks’n’Sushi
Renovation rescue: (anti-clockwise from top left): Stannergill Distillery; Claire and Martin Murray with distillery dog Mr Mackintosh; The Grain Store Restaurant; Castletown Mill pre-restoration
FOOD MARKET BROWN’S OF LEITH
Tinned fish is the new cool: do keep up. Brown’s Of Leith opened late November and behind the big blue doors of a former engineering works on The Shore, a new style of eating and drinking is unfolding. Brown’s is a flexible space, with food vendors, creative workshops and room for fresh ideas and collaborations, conceived by GRAS Architects (the guys behind Custom Lane, just across the Water Of Leith).
We’re no strangers to multiple operators sharing a venue; both Edinburgh Street Food, Bonnie & Wild and The Pitt do it very well. But Brown’s feels different. The former warehouse retains an industrial charm (old piping and high ceilings will do that), with beautifully polished metal bars and tables echoing the building’s history. Thick curtains cosy up the space and there’s ample seating, some at big communal tables.
Vendor-wise, first up is Haze, from the family behind Timberyard and Montrose, serving coffee and pastries in the morning and simple tasty snacks, mostly on toast, later in the day. There’s a wide selection of up-market tinned fish, but also burrata, carlin pea hummus and wild boar saucisson. The wine list favours the natural and interesting, and they do an excellent Negroni too. Seafood slingers Shucks have been brought in from the cold of ShrimpWreck, their Portobello beach shack, offering fresh briny oysters with a slug of Woven whisky (also a resident business), fat juicy Thai mussels with sourdough, and a few Porty favourites such as the lobster roll. Their Portobello neighbours Civerinos join them here too, with thin and crisp New Haven (Connecticut) style pizzas, a delicious departure from their usual slices. It’s cut to share but you may not want to. Brown’s is a diverse offering that really works: a relaxed, welcoming space that’s a brilliant addition to the food-loving, creative community in Leith. (Ailsa Sheldon) n 4–6 Shore, Edinburgh; customlane.co/browns-of-leith; average price around £12 for a main dish.
CAFÉ
QUEENS DINER
Queens Diner sits halfway up the incline that connects Battlefield to Shawlands. With big windows looking onto the old Victoria Infirmary (currently shrouded in scaffold secrecy and threatening to be turned into flats), it’s a postcard pretty diner where nostalgia is key. Carpeted seats evoke the old Glasgow subway carriages while Irn-Bru floats and strawberry milkshakes overflow with daft amounts of whipped cream. Bottomless filter coffee is served in snazzy branded mugs and there’s even a classic two-entrance split between the sit-in side and the (keenly priced) takeaway bit.
This is a place for mid-morning and early afternoon with brunch and lunch menus merging into one. Huevos rancheros are a merry hotchpotch of good stuff, with fritters holding both their crunchy exterior and little explosions of sweetcorn inside, and sliced chorizo blackening at its edges. There are bagels, there are waffles, there are hashes. There’s a nod to Glasgow’s chicken parm moment with a chicken parm sub, featuring a thick, sweet marinara, and a thin, tightly breadcrumbed cutlet, both as they ought to be. Should a sandwich be so overflowing and messy that cutlery is mandatory? That’s for others to decide. Suffice to say, portions are very solid. As afternoon darkens, things lose their place a little: a short period of evening opening is currently taking a break but hopes are high for a new evening menu coming soon, with burgers, meatloaf and salads adding to the appeal of this classic neighbourhood diner’s solid foundations. (David Kirkwood) n 50 Battlefield Road, Glasgow; queensdiner.com; average price £20 for one course plus a side.
Ask EADith
Got a food dilemma? Need a killer rec to seal the deal? Or just want the inside track on Glasgow and Edinburgh’s eating and drinking scene? Then why not probe EADith, our Eat & Drink team’s ever helpful agony aunt. This month, EADith advises a reader on how to eat healthily while firmly closing the door on denial
Dear EADith
I’ll be coming out of my booze-free January soon and I’m sure to be desperate for a glass of vino somewhere in Glasgow, preferably with natural, low-intervention wines available. I’ve also resolved to cut down on the meat this year, so a veggie-focused place would be handy, too.
VinoVal
Dear VinoVal
Firstly, congrats on getting through January without wine. That’s not something I’ve ever quite managed, despite my best intentions (and I once tried to get Mr EADith to reduce his meat intake only to find his pockets full of beef jerky). Glasgow has some great options for natural wining and dining, including Made From Grapes on Nithsdale Road, Brett and sister venue The Caravan Shop at Kelvinbridge, or Gloriosa near Kelvingrove. But for sheer wine choice with a wholly meat-free experience, Sylvan on Woodlands Road gets my nod.
Owners Colin Campbell and chef Jake Martell set up shop in the old Grassroots store after working together at The Hug And Pint and at a residency in the Southside’s Glad Café, so they know a thing or two about wine and veggie dining (they’ve also just opened a sister wine and beer shop in Battlefield). Sylvan is a lovely spot in which to hang out: Scandiesque with a warm, stripped-back and nicely worn-in feel. You’ll find plenty of fascination on the wine front, with nearly 100 bottles of lowintervention, organic and biodynamic European wines. There’s plenty by the glass too; give one of their orange wines a whirl.
Food is an enticing menu of clever, globally inspired vegetarian small/ medium plates, with most suitable for vegans. Dishes feel simple yet are beautifully balanced, attractively put together and pack in the flavours. There are wine-side snacks such as padron peppers, or olives with dill and garlic, plus bigger offerings including stunning smoked tomatoes with yoghurt and chilli butter or a delicious chunk of fried goat’s cheese elevated by an earthy beetroot chutney. Delicious dining and drinking with no denial, indeed. (As told to Jay Thundercliffe)
Sylvan, 20 Woodlands Road, Glasgow, sylvanglasgow.com; average price £32 for two courses.
Creative folks reveal their top watering hole SINGER SONGWRITER LOU MCLEAN
When I was writing my debut album, Outline Of A Girl, I took inspiration from work songs and notably the stories and songs of the Newhaven fishwives. I spent time wandering around the harbour and seafront, and formed some of the tunes by the harbour in the sunshine. I started popping into The Old Chain Pier. It’s a great pub right on the waterfront: cosy, nice food, great beers and absolutely stunning views out onto the Forth. A good spot for cute wintertime dates, takeaway beers in the summer or maybe even writing your album.
Outline Of A Girl is released digitally on Friday 13 February; Lou Mclean’s workshop and performance tour stops off at Duncan Place, Edinburgh, Saturday 21 February; The Johnston, Kirkcudbright, Saturday 28 February; Govanhill Baths, Glasgow, Saturday 7 March; Fire Station Creative, Dunfermline, Saturday 14 March; Mclean plays a full live show at Leith Depot, Edinburgh, Thursday 3 April; picture: Jannica Honey.
TipList
Sunday roasts
Our TipLists suggest the places worth knowing about in different themes, categories and locations. Sunday roasts have become a quiet phenomenon recently, an easygoing, relatively cheap way to wave goodbye to the weekend with pals. After heroically sacrificing our Sundays, here are the team’s faves
Edinburgh Glasgow
ARDFERN
10–12 Bonnington Road, ardfern.uk
As you’d expect from a Roberta Hall-McCarron venture, the roast here is a cut above: glorious thick slices of beef rump cap, Yorkshire pudding stuffed with ox tongue, cubes of hash browns, glistening roasted carrot, hispi cabbage and rainbow chard. A roast for a special occasion.
HAWKSMOOR
23 West Register Street, thehawksmoor.com
The interior is reminiscent of a well-heeled 1920s New York steakhouse but, joyfully, you don’t have to earn like a Wall Street banker to enjoy the roast. Prime cuts of meat, doused in rich gravy, served with classic sides; it’s a great way to sample their dry-aged beef without the hefty price tag.
THE RAEBURN
112 Raeburn Place, theraeburn.com
For big groups and those with kids, the roomy dining space here is a strong option. Plenty of gravy coats generous slices of sirloin (cooked to your preference) with big uffy Yorkshires, honeyroasted carrots and crunchy roasties. Chicken supreme and nut roast options are also available.
ROSELEAF
23/24 Sandport Place, roseleaf.co.uk
In terms of Sunday roast atmosphere, the Roseleaf has nailed it. Welcoming is an understatement at this neighbourhood pub. Purists might be disappointed that the beef comes fully cooked in the middle, but there’s no denying the trimmings are exactly as they should be. A top contender for vibes alone.
THE SPANISH BUTCHER
58a North Castle Street, spanishbutcher.com/edinburgh
Surrounded by Spanish classics isn’t the obvious spot for a quintessentially British roast, but The Spanish Butcher serves a banger. It’s helped by Galician beef (high-fat and avoursome) and an Iberian understanding of avour (lavish with the salt and hot on the coals). Each slice has a salty, savoury edge and a super tender middle. (Johanna Derry Hall, Paul McLean & Suzy Pope)
THE BUTCHERSHOP BAR & GRILL
1055 Sauchiehall Street, butchershopglasgow.com
The Butchershop’s ‘weighty steakhouse occasion dining’ vibe leads into a two-course Sunday situation. For the main, potatoes are beautifully seasoned and each diner gets their own little jug of a remarkably dark, glossy gravy to coat roast beef, cut thick and cooked as you like it.
CHINASKI’S
239 North Street, chinaskisglasgow.com
Chinaski’s ies under the Sunday roast radar, yet is perhaps the best overall combination of cooking, price and atmosphere in town. Beef is pink, thin and warm, you get loads of chunky carrots and parsnips (lovingly cooked in stock, cloves and star anise) while a preposterously large Yorkshire pud brings joy.
THE CORONA
1039 Pollokshaws Road, corona-bar.com
The Corona is an old-fashioned and much-loved neighbourhood pub that does a Sunday roast, rather than a reimagined take on the old-fashioned boozer that de nes itself by its Sunday roast. Football on the telly, a crackling replace, great value. At under £20, it’s hard to fault.
THE LOVEABLE ROGUE
333 Great Western Road, theloveablerogue.co.uk
The original Kelvinbridge bar-restaurant has been joined by two others (East End and Southside), so most Glaswegians have easy access to their excellent Sunday roast. There’s a wee bit of theatre too: all the trimmings for the quality Speyside beef, including addictive brisket mac and cheese, come heaped on a chopping board.
GLASCHU RESTAURANT & BAR
32 Royal Exchange Square, glaschurestaurant.co.uk
When you’re full of roast, you’re going to want a nice quiet sit-down somewhere cosy with a glass of something lovely.
Hendrick’s Gin Brand Ambassador
Calum Fraser has thoughts
THE CAPTAIN DARLING
16–18 Hamilton Place, Edinburgh, thecaptaindarling.com
A relative newcomer to Stockbridge, this is the latest offering from Òir Group (the team behind Lucky Yu and Bodega). A community-focused brasserie, The Captain Darling is a warm and welcoming spot which is child and dog-friendly. A perfect venue for slow Sunday vibes.
THE OX
49–51 London Street, Edinburgh, theoxedinburgh.com
The Ox is noted for its friendly team and consistently strong food. Simple, straightforward and honest, they’re rightly proud of their Sunday roast. It’s a busy service though, so if you can’t get a seat, check out their £1 oyster offer on Friday evenings.
PORTER & RYE
1131 Argyle Street, Glasgow, porterandrye.com
Serving Glasgow for over a decade, Porter & Rye do Sunday right. Their own roast has been a staple since they opened their doors: beef’s the only option but you won’t be complaining when it’s this good. Enjoy with a Bloody Mary, something from their excellent wine list or a top-tier cocktail.
Housed in a private members club, the large upstairs dining room is open to the public and has an opulent feel. The food is equally classy and ideal for a great Sunday lunch, with appealing options (chicken supreme, coley, etc) beyond the terri c rump roast. (David Kirkwood & Jay Thundercliffe) IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
The Captain Darling
Ardfern The Loveable Rogue
SECOND LINE RECORDS
Wedged between brunch restaurants and boutique lingerie, Alan and Carolyn Bonnyman of Second Line Records last year filled the final lacuna of Hyndland’s high street with the one facet of West End living it was missing: vinyl jazz, blues and soul. After collaborating with Glasgow Jazz Festival, the shop has quickly embedded itself in the city’s scene, hosting Tiny Desk-style gigs with local musicians including 2025 Scottish Jazz Album Of The Year award winner, Matt Carmichael. Whether you have an obscure Chet record in mind or a resolution to expand your musical horizons this year, be-bop down to the Bonnymans’ shop. (Evie Glen) n 133 Hyndland Road, Glasgow; secondlinerecords.com
travel & shop
WanderList: Seville
Fleeing the cold, grey British winter, Megan Merino jets off to Seville for a break that has it all (including actual sunshine)
There are a few key things I’m looking for in a winter getaway: a vitamin D boost, flights of a cheap and short nature and, of course, lots of culture. With its budget airline travel routes, temperature highs of 25 degrees, abundance of tapas bars, brightly coloured handpainted tiles and a faint clip-clop of flamenco dancers wherever you turn, the Andalusian capital of Seville firmly ticks all boxes.
Start with a quick journey from the airport into town (shuttle buses or taxis are both reasonably priced). Once you’ve arrived, the city is easily navigated by foot. Begin with a stroll along Jardines De Murillo, a gorgeous stretch of gardens backing onto the Alcázar Palace (we’ll get to that later). Carry on until you hit the University Of Seville campus then head across the road to Plaza De España, a semi-circular building fusing Moorish tiling with baroque and renaissance architecture, originally built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition.
Head back along the river and you’ll quickly arrive in the Casco Antiguo area where, after seeing the towering gothic Seville Cathedral and its impressive bell tower (also in a Moorish style), grab a bite at Bar Casa Morales for some authentic tapas. If you’re still peckish, hop next door to the fish-forward Freiduría La Isla for some calamari and other sea-dwelling delights. After
some more exploring, Las Teresas is another great watering hole option nearby, nestled into some very narrow streets with sweet local boutiques and tablaos (where flamenco is traditionally danced). Then see out the evening with a local vermouth, wine and/or Cruzcampo (all of which cost around €2.50).
Enjoy a restful night’s sleep, then it’s Real Alcázar time. When it comes to visiting this historic royal palace, tickets must be purchased well in advance. The silver lining? Once inside, you can stay as long as you like. As you wander around the seemingly endless courtyards and gardens, stop to read a book (or do as I did and listen to the entirety of Rosalía’s recent Lux album) as there are plenty of benches from which to take in your vivid surroundings. Once you’ve had your fix, grab a city bike and take to Seville’s lovely cycle paths as you head along the Guadalquivir River and across the Triana Bridge to the tile-making district. Old factories with tile signage line small, cobbled streets, alongside shops selling a range of ceramic goodies. Learn their history inside Triana’s Ceramic Centre before heading into Mercado De Triana for lunch. Pull up a chair at a vendor of your choice and then all that’s left to do is sink into the buzz of market dining.
turismosevilla.org/en
my favourite holiday
Bold comic Rosa Garland invites you to enter the bog in her latest show about sexuality, desire and slime. Here she recalls a memorable bromantic sauna experience in Finland
Picture the scene: you’re walking through an industrial car park late at night. You think you might be murdered, but just before you decide to turn back, you see some twinkling fairy lights in the distance by the water. You found it! Helsinki’s free community sauna. An hour later you’re a couple of tinnies in, sitting in a scorching wooden hut, your butt sliding around in everyone’s sweat. You head outside, bare feet in the snow, to dunk in the harbour where a hole has been hacked in the ice that covers the water. You manage to stay in for about two seconds without departing this mortal plane. You head over to a bench and sit naked under the stars with your friends, while one of them plays a guitar on a chain. A Finnish man shows you some of his handmade axes. Life is good. That’s my main beautiful memory from a bromantic holiday a few years ago with my friend Henry. I’m psyched to be heading back to Helsinki this year with my show, Primal Bog, for a women and non-binary focused clown festival, and you bet I’ll be straight back to the Sompasauna. Finland rules!
Rosa Garland: Primal Bog, Summerhall, Edinburgh, Thursday 12 February; The Old Hairdresser’s, Glasgow, Wednesday 11 March; picture: Corinne Cumming.
on your doorstep
Love is in the air so Isy Santini has three great outdoor destinations sure to impress your Valentine
SEACLIFF STABLES
Couples with a love of adventure can enjoy a romantic horse ride through the East Lothian countryside. If you and your partner have some riding experience already under your belt, Seacliff Stables also offer beach rides, where you can feel the wind in your hair as you take in the awe-inspiring vastness of the North Sea.
n seacliffstables.co.uk
GALLOWAY FOREST PARK
Bundle up warm, pack a Thermos and blanket, and head to one of the 16 forests that make up Galloway Forest Park, one of the only dark sky parks in the UK. With no light pollution, the full beauty of the night sky is on display for you and your beloved to stargaze to your hearts’ content. See stars reflected in the deep waters of Loch Trool or watch them twinkle above the treetops.
n forestryandland.gov.scot/visit/forest-parks/gallowayforest-park
TREEHOUSES AT LANRICK AND LECKIE
Why not use Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to get away from it all and spend some true quality time with that special someone? Complete with sauna access, twin sites Lanrick and Leckie offer luxurious treehouse hideaways for two, on the border of the gorgeous Trossachs National Park. Plus, if you’re thinking of popping the question any time soon, the treehouses are also available as wedding venues.
n lanricktreehouses.co.uk; leckietreehouses.co.uk
Lanrick Treehouses
WHERE Unforgettable Is Made
Wedding Open Day 12 - 4pm | Sunday 1st March 2026
Discover everything you need for your dream wedding at our Venue and Suppliers Showcase, featuring our full venue set up, alongside a curated selection of trusted local wedding suppliers.
marineandlawn.com
Moral fibres
Woolkind founder Laurence Di Sotto talks ethics, sustainability and bold creations with Isy Santini
Ex-accountant Laurence Di Sotto has been a knitting enthusiast ever since his grandmother taught him as a child. But in the wake of covid, an idea began to crystallise: a sustainable knitwear brand where anyone could buy quality made-to-order garments. In 2023 Woolkind was born and has been steadily growing ever since, with its new studio opening in September last year.
Di Sotto was determined that Woolkind would be as sustainable as possible, no matter the cost. ‘The world’s so full of cheap crap,’ he says. ‘For me, it’s about creating a business that’s long term and doesn’t hurt things in the process.’ Though he originally wanted to source all of his materials locally, he found that the few remaining spinners in Scotland buy all their wool from China. ‘I just wasn’t comfortable with this. How do I know that people are being treated properly?’ After a year of searching, he found a sustainable wool supplier, the 350-year-old Italian family business, Lanecardate. Di Sotto is also proud to say that no plastic or polyester is found anywhere in Woolkind’s knitwear, not even the labels.
Woolkind also boasts two ready-to-wear collections. The signature collection is defined by colourful shapes of all sizes. ‘When we thought about our customer base, it was people who feel underrepresented by the rest of the fashion world, so our team came up with this idea of shapes and colours. It’s all about you being an individual.’
The Off Kilter collection, on the other hand, has a more personal origin. ‘I was born in Scotland but I’m thirdgeneration Italian, so I’ve always been attracted to this idea of Scottish but not Scottish. Off Kilter is my play on that.’ The collection takes traditional Scottish designs and plays with them. ‘A lot of Scottish designers are very inspired by nature, but I live in Edinburgh so I like a bit of boldness. It’s a bit more modern, a bit more contemporary, a bit more fun.’
4a Thirlestane Lane, Edinburgh; woolkind.com; instagram.com/woolkind; pictures: Daniel Rannoch.
shop talk
MIND TO MATTER CERAMICS
Interior designer Ese Johnson has turned his hand to the potter’s wheel, creating eye-catching frills, chains and culturally inspired designs. From African motifs on lamps to Grecian vases, his pieces tell stories of trauma, connection and identity through visually striking contemporary pottery. n instagram.com/mindtomatterceramics
DOODLES
A ceramic journey wouldn’t be complete without a stop at Doodles, Edinburgh’s oldest pottery-painting studio. After choosing from a selection of ceramics, paint your heart out and they will fire your design so it lasts forever. With group options for all ages and a BYOB
Morrell goes potty for ceramics studios
policy, it’s a great excuse to grab a brush and your favourite tipple before savouring a creative moment with friends.
n 27–29 Marchmont Crescent, Edinburgh; doodlesscotland.co.uk; instagram.com/ doodlesceramicsworkshop
KIM PLIMLEY
Kim Plimley creates small-batch ceramics in her Glasgow studio to stunning effect. With contrasting crackle-glazed quaichs, reminiscent of the rugged Highlands, and beautifully blended greens in her Seagrass collection, these unique pieces make a quietly captivating statement.
n kimplimley.com; instagram.com/kim.plimley. ceramics
Rachel
Kim Plimley
MANIPULATE
Another year and another excellent line-up for Edinburgh’s extravaganza of visual theatre, puppetry and animated film. For 2026, there’s representation from countries such as Czechia, Norway, Latvia and, of course, Scotland. Pictured is The Raft Of The Crab from circus artist Ninon Noiret, a deeply personal piece about illness and recovery which incorporates innovative puppetry, contemporary dance, spoken word and Chinese pole. (Brian Donaldson) n Various venues, Edinburgh, Wednesday 4–Tuesday 10 February.
going out
“
Every time I go back, I get more scared
Making movies under the gaze of an oppressive regime is not for everyone. To start our coverage of this year ’s Glasgow Film Festival, director Hassan Nazer talks to Zara Janjua about the pressure of covert filming in his native Iran and the power of metaphor in getting his message out into the world
Hassan Nazer leans back, lifting his bronze mask award like it’s a dinner plate. ‘I picked up my first Bafta in the same hotel I was dropped off outside when I first arrived in Glasgow,’ he says, nodding towards the Bafta Scotland Best Feature Film trophy for Winners (2023). He’s speaking from his home office in Aberdeen, where a poster blending Scarface and The Godfather hangs beside him, and awards casually line the shelves behind. ‘When I came off the bus from London, I saw this building, this Hilton hotel,’ he recalls. ‘I never imagined I’d be back at that same place, 25 years later, collecting a Bafta.’
At 18, Nazer put women on stage for the first time in his home town, just outside Tehran. It was enough to get him red-flagged and his uncle smuggled him out of the country soon after. Before Scotland served him with a route into cinema, it dished up kebabs. In Glasgow, Nazer studied English by day and worked fast food by night at the fabled Diablero on Pitt Street, feeding clubbers spilling out of noughties haunts like The Shack and Trash. ‘There must have been like 200 people coming out at the same time,’ he laughs.
He moved to the north-east to study film and, along the way, transformed an antique shop into a restaurant. Café Harmony now serves Iranian and Mediterranean food, and for years the food industry has quietly bankrolled his films. It’s something he’s openly proud of. He admits to having asked AI what it knew about him, only for it to answer: ‘If you want to find Hassan, you can pop into Café Harmony.’
His new film, Without Permission, which has its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival, heralds years of graft honed into a distinct style. It follows a director making a film with children about love, while carefully subverting authority. And, like much of Nazer’s work, it’s autobiographical. Denied approval by Iran’s Ministry Of Culture, he shot the film quite literally without permission, presenting it as a documentary built
around a deceptively simple premise: a director interviewing children. ‘I rolled my camera without even having a script,’ he says. The interviews are real, with the parents watching closely from another room. He chose remote mountain locations for their secrecy, backing up footage daily in case he was caught. Suspicion is baked into every frame. ‘The third eye is always watching you, and you might not know who they are.’
As a viewer, you’re certainly unsure initially whether you’re watching fiction or documentary. ‘Actually, it was intentional,’ he replies. The film opens with uncertainty: sound without image, an interrogation played out on a blank screen. It’s designed to place the viewer inside his experience, to create ‘some doubt and feeling of what I had to go through’.
Iranian cinema, he explains, runs on metaphor: ‘You can say something and mean something else.’ Metaphor allows for multiple meanings, which is essential when navigating censorship. But Nazer insists those restrictions also force creativity. In Winners, he couldn’t show the face of acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who was playing a taxi driver, because he had been banned in Iran, as had his film Taxi So, Nazer adapted. ‘I thought, I’m going to show him from behind to create this doubt.’
The cost, however, is personal. ‘Every time I go back, I get more scared,’ he admits, because meaning can always be weaponised. His films have been officially selected for the Academy Awards, but prestige offers no protection. ‘The censors don’t care about the awards,’ says Nazer. ‘They care about what I’m saying in the film.’ The more visible the work, the greater the risk: keeping a low profile can be self-preservation.
Next, Nazer is shifting continents again as director on Farida: The Girl Who Beat Isis, a UK-Germany co-production, which begins shooting in Morocco from March. It tells the story of Farida Khalaf, a Yazidi girl abducted when her village was attacked in 2014, and is co-written by Lauren Hynek, a screenwriter behind Disney’s 2020 live-action adaptation of Mulan. This means that, at least for a while, you may be less likely to bump into Nazer in Aberdeen, socialising at Café Harmony.
Without Permission screens at GFT, Glasgow, Tuesday 3 & Wednesday 4 March.
glasgow film festival
Nathan and Ben McQuaid are the writer/directors of comedyhorror Welcome To G-Town, which has its world premiere at Glasgow Film Festival. For G-Town read Glasgow in this Shaun Of The Dead-style update of genre classics, as a trio of locals discover that tartan-clad aliens are operating out of the city centre. Fresh from completing their media studies degrees at Stirling University, the McQuaid brothers talk to Eddie Harrison about horror inspiration, sliming their cast and close encounters with disembodied voices
“
You’re premiering your first feature film within six months of graduating. How did that happen?
Nathan: We were at Stirling for four years where we were taught how to make documentaries but there was also a great film society where we learned to make drama films. We met Graham Hughes, a Glasgow filmmaker, and we’d seen films he’d made like Death Of A Vlogger. We reached out to him with a short we’d made called Ginger Nut, and he got back in touch a few months later. We naively said our plan was to make feature films and he kindly took us under his wing. We wrote a one-page outline for him and then a draft with the aim of starting production when we graduated.
With aliens disguised in gift-shop tartan, this feels like a very Scottish alien invasion story. What inspired you cinematically?
Nathan: The 70s version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers was an influence, plus Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste, which taught us that anyone can make anything from anywhere: if Peter Jackson can do it in New Zealand, anyone can do it. Bill Forsyth’s That Sinking Feeling showed us that you can do it in Glasgow, too.
Ben: We wanted it to be big and splattery and fun, like in Bad Taste, but also a film that people in Glasgow could watch and recognise as theirs, and have that same kind of a youthful energy to it as That Sinking Feeling. We definitely were nervous about the political aspect; like we wondered if anyone would take offence. Once the office set was all decorated in tartan, and we saw the Scottish/alien costumes, we realised that we couldn’t back away from what we’d written.
Low-budget filmmaking is a notoriously taxing pursuit. How was your shoot?
Ben: We shot for 12 days . . . one of the challenges was that we were making a horror film in the summer, so our access to night-time shooting was limited. The good thing was that the streets were empty and we didn’t get much harassment. When we were shooting outside Central Station, we used a long lens on the camera and shot from across the street; we just told people we were taking shots of the building for a documentary. I don’t think anyone who saw us connected the dots.
We felt like we were talking to Hal from
Nathan: The only time we got caught out was on the platform at Bellgrove railway station after the last train had gone and we heard this big booming voice asking what we were doing. The voice came from this little metal box with a light on it: we felt like we were talking to Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
How did you find your cast?
Nathan: We got lucky with our main three, Danny McAllen, Ruben Ross and Stan Ross. They’d never seen each other and the first time they actually met was going out for drinks before the shoot. We wanted them to like each other. Our whole cast was incredible, they were up for anything. Sometimes we’d have them standing in the rain or covered in slime. We had Mark Dallas in an alleyway at 3am and we had this big bucket of slime that got chucked over him . . . he was a real trouper.
How did post-production go?
Ben: We realised on the first day that the footage files were way too big for our laptops and, since a big part of our ethos was getting other people involved, Graham suggested an editor called Nina Barrett. She’d edit it together and send us the footage and we’d give notes. It was a very collaborative experience because we’d never worked with professionals who understand film on a deeper level.
Was getting Welcome To G-Town to Glasgow Film Festival always your goal?
Nathan: Glasgow Film Festival was always going to be the best outcome for us. We see films at the festival every year and also our cast and crew is based in Scotland. The timeline was so tight for us, to wrap in August and be ready for the GFF submission in October, so we wanted a big celebration. We’d feel pretty silly if a film called Welcome To G-Town premiered in Spain . . .
This year’s Glasgow Film Festival features Sailm nan Daoine, a documentary that captures a creative conversation between filmmaker Jack Archer and Rob MacNeacail. Archer follows the Carlops creative on a pan-Gaelic journey, awakening communities to liturgical Gaelic singing and engaging with practitioners in the Hebrides.
For Archer, MacNeacail’s accessible approach to psalm singing has been a fresh means ‘for more people to get involved in passing on this tradition’. But with Gaeldom’s ongoing minoritisation, ‘singing the psalms shouldn’t be taken for granted’, he says. The film showcases MacNeacail bringing new radicalism to the artform, following in the footsteps of Hebridean composer Calum Martin. Also featured, Martin has piqued unlikely audiences too. ‘Radiohead recently played one of his recordings to 20,000 people at the O2 Arena,’ notes Archer.
Tender scenes capture MacNeacail with his Borders-based group, spreading Gaelic to new communities and opening eyes to contemporary issues. ‘There’s also a lot of discussion on issues such as the housing crisis, survival of the language and impact of over-tourism,’ says Archer.
The film sets its music within a wider, cross-cultural symphony, taking MacNeacail across the water to Lewis and Ireland. ‘Rob has an incredible voice which people are really mesmerised by. To be able to film a congregation in Back [on the Isle Of Lewis] singing the psalms was a huge privilege.’ The director hopes for a good run in Scottish and Irish cinemas this year as well as festival screenings. ‘It would be particularly nice to bring the film to the communities we filmed in,’ admits Archer. (Marcas Mac an Tuairneir) GFT, Glasgow, Sunday 1 & Monday 2 March.
Set up
festival
Another strong Glasgow Film Festival programme is upon us with top-notch retrospectives, thrilling new movies and inventive animations. Here’s a septet of highlights from opening night to the closing gala
EVERYBODY TO KENMURE STREET
Chilean-Belgian director Felipe Bustos Sierra made his name on these shores with Nae Pasaran in 2018 and he’s back with a documentary which focuses on the Pollokshields community who came to the aid of two Sikh men who were removed from their homes by immigration o cers. A tting lm with which to open this festival.
GFT, Wednesday 25 & Thursday 26 February.
LATE FAME
A former video archivist for Scorsese, Kent Jones made the 2015 documentary Hitchcock/Tru aut and here he adapts a posthumous novella by Arthur Schnitzler. Greta Lee and Willem Dafoe star in this tale of a poet who receives a dose of recognition at the tail end of his career.
Directly translated as Living National Treasure, this drama directed by Lee Sang-il centres on a renowned kabuki actor who nds himself mixed up in tensions and violence between rival yakuza groups. Based on a 2018 novel which stretched to 800 pages, the original cut of this lm was four hours long before being successfully trimmed to a mere 175 minutes.
Starring the always wonderful Eddie Marsan and Éanna Hardwicke (Roy Keane in Saipan), this thriller tells the true story of the 2004 multi-million pound robbery of the Northern Bank in Belfast. It was a case that had repercussions for the peace process in Northern Ireland and was, as the title says, no ordinary heist.
GFT, Sunday 1, Thursday 5 March.
DUCK SOUP
The Marx Brothers tore up the rule book once again with their anti-war (or pro-war, it’s hard to tell) take on two da nations at loggerheads. This 1933 movie also features the iconic and much copied ‘mirror’ sequence. While the current US president claims that Citizen Kane is his favourite movie, you have to wonder if he was inspired more by the maddening chaos of Duck Soup
GFT, Monday 2 March.
ALLAH IS NOT OBLIGED
Based on Ahmadou Kourouma’s award-winning novel, this animation follows the story of a ten-year-old orphan from Guinea who tries to track his aunt down in Liberia before being thrust into tribal warfare.
GFT, Thursday 5 March.
CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’
James McAvoy’s directorial debut revolves around the bizarre true story of two Dundonians who pretended to be an American rap duo in order to have some fun in LA until it all got a bit out of hand. This closing gala event should be a riot.
GFT, Sunday 8 March.
COMEDY MY COMEDY HERO DANIEL FOXX
Edina Monsoon from Ab Fab, the Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2 and Jennifer Saunders herself: three gay icons, one extremely silly woman. It takes a lot of star power to pull off the gay icon hat-trick. I think the first time I ever laid eyes on Jennifer was in her and Dawn’s parody of The Lord Of The Rings. It was 2002 (I would have been eight) and I was absolutely kicking my feet with glee.
I couldn’t believe my eyes: these two women, complete with fake feet and wispy beards (Jennifer in a full prosthetic Gandalf face), tearing apart the movie I’d just seen at the cinema. It was utterly ludicrous and my first introduction to sketch comedy, something which would end up becoming my full-time job.
So many sketches of the 80s and 90s don’t stand up to a rewatch today, but French & Saunders buck that trend. Their film parodies would be right at home among all the most viral TikTok and Instagram reels of recent years. What they made was sharp and catty but always done with a loving wink to the actors they were rinsing. From the incredible eyebrow choreography and giant stuck-on breasts of their Titanic parody to Saunders’ ultra-sincere take on Meryl Streep in the Red Nose Day satire of Mamma Mia!, I often genuinely find myself forgetting who is the original cast and who is Jennifer in yet another wig.
part that made me fall in love with her immediately. She
I saw a quote by Jennifer recently that said ‘I’m not afraid to look ridiculous . . . to make someone laugh. That’s not embarrassment, that’s freedom.’ And it’s that willingness to be totally grotesque but with the most deadpan commitment to the part that made me fall in love with her immediately. She taught me that sometimes the highest form of art is to be totally, unapologetically silly.
Daniel Foxx: How Lovely, Glee Club, Glasgow, Tuesday 24 February; Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh, Wednesday 25 February; picture: Matt Crockett.
VIC ’ S PICKS
BBC broadcaster, author, actor, musician, DJ and List columnist, Mr Galloway flicks through some music listings to choose his top February gigs in variously sized rooms and across different genres . . .
Every now and again, it can be quite cathartic to be viscerally blasted by a performance and have those pesky cobwebs blown from the brain. For such an experience in early 2026, let me point you towards electro-punk freakshow Ho99o9, the New Jersey duo who started in 2012 and have somehow harnessed an unholy mix of Death Grips, Bad Brains and Young Fathers in their sound. With a live show to match, their industrial noise-rap will definitely take no prisoners at The Garage in Glasgow (Wednesday 4 February) as they pulverise you with tracks from recent Tomorrow We Escape album. Having witnessed their full-frontal assault before, I can guarantee a wild night out for all the family. See you in the pit!
For a far more gentle affair, one of Scotland’s most beloved bands, Belle And Sebastian, embark on a year of celebrations as they perform their now classic first two albums Tigermilk and If You’re Feeling Sinister in their entirety. No longer the indie-pop shamblers of yore, these days they increasingly resemble a slick, well-oiled pop machine with a growing list of accomplished albums in their back catalogue. However, it was those early records which set the template and cast a spell, enticing us into their metaphorical musical bedsit. See them start the campaign at Troon Concert Hall (Thursday 19 & Friday 20 February) and expect whimsical memories and an impeccable replay of two genuinely beguiling albums from (gulp) 30 years ago.
Mike Skinner aka The Streets reignites his pavement prose once again at Edinburgh Corn Exchange (Wednesday 18 February) and Glasgow Barrowlands (Thursday 19 February) as he wheels out his rabble-rousing anthems to partygoers of a certain age . . . even if PeptoBismol and paracetamol are as hard as the drugs get these days. His documentation of UK club life, dead-end jobs, come-downs, comeons and heartbreak has always been brutally honest, but also poetic and playful. With classic tracks from A Grand Don’t Come For Free and Original Pirate Material still resonating with listeners, only a fool would miss out. So ‘Dry Your Eyes’ mate, and get along to a show.
Listen to Vic Galloway every Monday night on BBC Radio Scotland or anytime on BBC Sounds; Vic pic: Gareth Goodlad.
Belle And Sebastian
future sound
The musical generation gap has been thoroughly smashed by the advent and omnipresence of streaming, with kids happily accessing the sounds of their elders as never before. Teenage sister act The Cords, comprising singer/guitarist Eva Tedeschi and older sibling Grace on drums, have taken it a step further. They are happy to indulge their parents’ tastes but have done their own digging on the 80s DIY indie sounds.
Speaking from their Inverkip home, Grace indicates a wall of records just out of shot. ‘A love for music has always been in the family,’ she says. Eva chips in: ‘BMX Bandits were always playing, The Pastels as well. But I found Shop Assistants myself; I’d heard of them and then I became obsessed with them.’
So seamless is The Cords’ evocation of the C86 indie aesthetic, with their jangling buzzsaw guitars, Moe Tucker-style tubthumping, twee but irresistible melodies, and insouciant girlish vocals, that they have been adopted by the very musicians they revere. Their rst ever gig in September 2023 was with The Vaselines and they both confess that the starry-eyed highlight of their career to date was headlining two launch events for Grant McPhee’s indie oral history book Postcards From Scotland, with members of BMX Bandits, Shop Assistants, The Fizzbombs and Jesse Garon And The Desperadoes joining them onstage.
Their self-titled debut album, released last autumn, is a vibrant testament to just how well versed they are in bygone indie whimsy, from the thrashing jangle and pert drumming of ‘Fabulist’ to the breathless grunge pop of ‘Yes It’s True’, which is just a tambourine shake away from Lush. The rst song they ever wrote, ‘Just Don’t Know (How To Be You)’ is a plaintive indie pop jam, opening a portal
Our column celebrating new music to watch continues with sibling duo The Cords. The Tedeschi sisters tell Fiona Shepherd about early music lessons and mixing with Scottish indie royalty
back to The Primitives. ‘But there was stu in between that was really wonky,’ admits Grace.
By this point the siblings had over a decade of playing experience in some form or other. Grace was rst to take up the baton, attending drum lessons from the age of six. ‘I got a toy drum kit for Christmas one year and I was never o it, so my parents thought they’d get me drumming lessons.’ Not to be outdone, four-year-old Eva had a stab at guitar but ‘gave up a er a while because it was hurting my ngers. Then I started drumming when I was also six because I wanted to be like Grace.’
Eva switched back a couple of years ago, enjoying an epiphany with electric guitar, and The Cords were birthed, named a er their favourite fabric. Keeping it in the family, dad is manager and mum is driver. The sisters also credit Carla J Easton as their mentor (‘we wouldn’t have any idea what we were doing if it wasn’t for Carla’) and are lavish in their praise of Simon Liddell, Easton’s partner in Poster Paints, and Chvrches/The Kills drummer Jonny Scott who coproduced the album. ‘They completely understand what our sound is and they make it work,’ says Grace.
Keeping with the intergenerational indie love-in, The Cords will support The Charlatans on tour in the spring, and are already looking to their next album. ‘It’s going to be more punky,’ reckons Grace. Before then, they have an upcoming gig at Mono, the Glasgow indie mecca which is practically a second home to the band, so o en have they graced its stage. ‘Everyone was laughing that we’re playing there again,’ says Eva. ‘But we just love it.’
The Cords play Mono, Glasgow, Thursday 12 February.
MUSIC
SCOTTISH OPERA: THE GREAT WAVE
Next time the little blue wave emoji pops up on your screen, it’s worth taking a moment to ponder its origins and how it could possibly have come to inspire an opera. In a sense, it’s not the wave itself which is behind Scottish Opera’s latest commission, The Great Wave, but the lives of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai and his daughter Oi, using his world-famous woodblock print, ‘The Great Wave Off Kanagawa’, as the lens through which to tell their story.
Music comes from Japanese composer Dai Fujikura with words by Scottish librettist Harry Ross. ‘We’d been working together for 20 years,’ says Ross, ‘and were wondering what’s next. Dai and his wife had just seen the British Museum’s 2017 exhibition of Hokusai’s work and she said his story would make a brilliant opera.’ Research and the pandemic resulted in a bit of a hiatus, but now receiving its world premiere in Scotland is a piece which is driven by Hokusai’s love of his work, his endless motivation for doing his very best and for pushing boundaries. The show also touches on his quirky sense of humour, long life and the unusual arrangement of his artist daughter coming to live with him in her 40s to manage his struggling business affairs.
Part of the sound world created is by traditional Japanese instruments, including the historic shakuhachi flute. ‘The opera is led by the music,’ says Ross. ‘It’s all about texture, which lends itself to opera . . . in one scene, for instance, there’s a very quiet conversation between Hokusai and Oi. She’s making him some citrus tea and when you listen to the music, you can almost taste the tea.’ (Carol Main)
In possession of an infectious smile, Michael Keegan-Dolan beams across the Zoomiverse from Chile. In demand worldwide, as a choreographer and teacher, the Irishman is no stranger to travel. But, having run Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre from 1997 to 2015, and been associate artist at Sadler’s Wells and the Barbican for years, these days you’ll mainly find him in Kerry running his company, Teac Damsa. So although he’s speaking from South America, it’s clear his heart resides 7000 miles away.
‘It really helps take you out of your head and more into your body,’ says Keegan-Dolan of life in west Kerry, a place with more than its fair share of coastal beauty. ‘The landscape is so majestic, so real. It’s like an opera: the weather, the people, the music, the stories and mythologies. I think it’s a very good thing for a choreographer to be amongst that.’
Described as ‘part-ceilidh, part-gig, part-dance show’, Mám (meaning ‘mountain pass’) was the first piece Keegan-Dolan created after the move to Kerry. Premiering in 2019, it was nominated for an Olivier Award and became a hit with audiences and critics alike. Performed by 11 dancers, the work also features concertina player Cormac Begley and Berlin-based music collective Stargaze Ensemble.
‘Seeing the musicians is important,’ says Keegan-Dolan. ‘Cormac and his ancestors are from west Kerry, so when he plays it opens a portal, a cultural line going way back. And Stargaze are really open to experimentation. Often musicians are put in a theatre pit because we want them out of sight so we can look at the images. But I like to see the musicians through the dancers; it’s a kind of union that says something about harmony and oneness.’ (Kelly Apter)
Get yourself away from the central belt and out into various parts of Scotland where the cultural landscape is just as rich and varied. Among upcoming highlights are a new light and sound extravaganza, the latest stop for a touring film programme, a silent era genius getting an alt-rock makeover, an entertaining speculation about two Scottish icons, and book festivals galore
ABERDEEN
GRANITE NOIR
While Scotland dominates this tenth anniversary of Granite Noir (the likes of Mina, McDermid and Cleeves are all present and correct), the crime writing festival spreads its geographical wings to include Canada’s Shari Lapena and Iceland’s Eva Björg Ægisdóttir.
n Various venues, Tuesday 17–Sunday 22 February.
BERWICK
LITANY FOR THE BORDER
This is a new light and sound commission by artists Gareth Hudson and Toby Thirling, with music from composer Eleanor Cully Boehringer as choreographed beams of light shine across the River Tweed. n Various venues, Saturday 7–Sunday 22 February.
DUNDEE
JAPAN FOUNDATION TOURING FILM
For over 20 years, this touring programme has been bringing top Japanese cinema to cities across the UK. Stopping off in Dundee this time around, films include Blue Boy Trial, Teki Cometh and The Last Blossom n DCA, Friday 20 February–Sunday 22 March.
GREENOCK
BEACON BOOK FESTIVAL
A brand new literary event comes to Greenock featuring a weekend of bookish delights. Among those taking part are Louise Welsh, Kirsty Logan, The Bookshop Band, Justin Currie, Ely Percy, Damian Barr and The Hebridean Baker.
n Beacon Arts Centre, Friday 20–Sunday 22 February.
KIRKCALDY
WHEN BILLY MET ALASDAIR
Alan Bissett takes on the dual roles of two Scottish cultural behemoths, speculating entertainingly on what could well have happened when Billy Connolly attended the launch of Alasdair Gray’s 1981 masterpiece, Lanark
n Adam Smith Theatre, Friday 27 February.
PERTH
RED
NOTE ENSEMBLE
In Deconstructing Pierrot, composer Laura Bowler joins Red Note to re-examine and re-interpret the poems of Albert Giraud, while repurposing material from Arnold Schoenberg.
n Perth Theatre, Saturday 7 February.
PITLOCHRY
WINTER WORDS
Alan Cumming hosts his second Winter Words festival at Pitlochry, and it’s a doozy. Among those appearing are Michael Pedersen, Amy Liptrot, Jen Stout, David Eustace and Nicola Sturgeon, while the man himself provides the tunes with a DJ set. n Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Thursday 12–Sunday 15 February.
ST ANDREWS
TAE SUP WI’ A FIFER
James Yorkston hosts another cracking bill, this time featuring Katherine Priddy, Len Pennie and Andy Irvine.
n Byre Theatre, Saturday 21 February.
STIRLING
REM
X BUSTER KEATON
The fine folk at Silents Synced pair another classic movie with rock music to conjure a unique screen experience as REM’s mid-90s albums provide the soundtrack to Buster Keaton’s 1924 comedy triumph Sherlock Jr
n Macrobert Arts Centre, Thursday 5, Sunday 8 February.
The Bookshop Band (and bottom from left), Litany For The Border, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, Blue Boy Trial, When Billy Met Alasdair
Rose Byrne shines as a resentful mother and psychotherapist on the edge in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. Emma Simmonds rates the Australian’s performance as a career high in a film that makes some bold choices
Laying the trials of motherhood bare in unflinching, unapologetic and blackly comic fashion, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is the second feature from American writer-director Mary Bronstein (whose last film was the 2008 mumblecore Yeast). It’s marvellously entertaining, squirm-inducing and stylistically daring, acting as the perfect platform for courageous, career-best work from star Rose Byrne.
Byrne plays Linda, a Montauk-based psychotherapist who is single-handedly dealing with a daughter (played by Delaney Quinn) whose eating disorder has resulted in her having a feeding tube fitted. Linda’s absent ship-captain husband Charles (Christian Slater) is checking into their worsening situation by phone, with an air of permanent irritation. When the ceiling in their apartment collapses, the pair move into a skeezy motel where Linda’s mental health begins to deteriorate further; she starts drinking and smoking heavily, gobbles up junk food and befriends the motel’s dark websurfing superintendent James (rapper and Rihanna’s otherhalf A$AP Rocky), with a view to scoring drugs.
Linda has a hilariously antagonistic relationship with her own therapist (former talk show host Conan O’Brien, absolutely killing it comically), who works in the same building as her and is visibly exasperated by and even downright hostile towards her. Bronstein appears as another of Linda’s adversaries, Dr Spring, who is caring for Linda’s daughter and tells parents in her support group that their children’s circumstances are not their fault, while strongly conveying to Linda that she needs to do much better. We feel how galling it is for Linda to be patronised and judged by her fellow medical professionals. Patti Cake$ star Danielle Macdonald plays one of Linda’s patients, Caroline, a new mother whose mental health crisis somewhat mirrors Linda’s own, and whose actions add to her load.
We’ve seen an escalation in depictions of messy, out-oftheir-depth and resentful mothers in recent years, going back to the horrors of We Need To Talk About Kevin in 2011, with films and shows that disabuse us of those saccharine, Insta-promoted notions of perfect parenting such as Tully, Motherland and The Letdown increasingly the norm. If I
Had Legs I’d Kick You also bears comparison to last year’s less successful Nightbitch, which dealt with the con dencecrushing loss of abandoning a career to raise a child, in outlandish and tonally haphazard style.
By contrast, this is a lm that knows emphatically what it is, totally comfortable in its own discomfort as it shows the disproportionate domestic burden that commonly falls on women, even when both parents are working. If the scenarios depicted are sometimes extreme and the cascading nature of the catastrophes is deliberately farcical, this still seems like widely recognisable stu .
Bronstein’s decision not to show the face of Linda’s child in their interactions is a bold, initially discombobulating one, but it pays dividends in a lm that unashamedly makes this about the mother’s experience and her harried, exhausted existence, encouraging us to really see the impact on her as each fresh crisis hits.
It also takes an imaginative approach to depicting Linda’s increasingly suicidal despair. A fantastical lens is applied to the gaping, oddly inviting hole in Linda’s apartment ceiling
that she becomes xated on and that haunts her thoughts, showing it as something that she wants to crawl into, or that she is willing to swallow her up. Byrne demonstrated her dramatic prowess way back in a breakthrough role in TV’s Damages but the Australian-born star is probably best known for her superlative comedic work (in lms such as Bridesmaids, Bad Neighbours and Spy, alongside TV’s Physical and Platonic). Here, she thrives under the intense scrutiny of extreme close-ups and the fact we are e ectively chained to her character’s perspective, however hard things get.
It’s Byrne’s most impressive role to date, one that requires her to delve deep into Linda’s shattered psyche, while employing comic air to convey disbelief at her spiralling circumstances. Although the lm is intelligently scripted by Bronstein, Byrne takes what could have been a highly dislikeable, unforgivably reckless character and renders her compelling, relatable, funny and sympathetic. It’s the mark of a truly great actress.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is in cinemas from Friday 20 February.
film of the month
EDINBURGH
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ART
DAISY RICHARDSON: WE WERE ALL MADE IN BURNING STARS
Daisy Richardson’s ‘Meteor Reflection’ shows a glass of water against a flat grey-brown background, with what looks at first like a little waterborne arthropod swimming across its surface. The clue of the title, however, helps us to realise that this is not a shrimp or a pond skater, but the reflection of a burning meteor overhead. This is one of the exciting things that abstract art can do: pare away detail until we’re left with a set of elementary features that can send interpretation skating off in radical directions, to the miniature or the sublime, the humble or the destructive.
A painter and sculptor, Richardson works with the legacies of surrealism while bringing in allusions to geology and geological time, atomic and microscopic geometries, and the voids beyond human understanding. Her current show at Beacon Arts Centre features paintings, drawings and collages on paper, many set in what seem like stripped-out or ruined domestic interiors, replete with minimalist tables, chairs, taps and storage units. Strange monoliths float in the centre-ground or engulf items of furniture. A cupboard is overgrown with columns and spires of basalt; a kitchen faucet clings to the fragment of a star floating through nothingness.
Paul Nash, Meret Oppenheim and René Magritte are all touchstones for the artist. The use of vanishing-point perspective to articulate bare architectural forms and spaces is a little Giorgio de Chirico, and also alludes to renaissance artists such as il Sassetta and Fra Angelico. The effect of all this is to suggest a kind of nagging apocalypse anxiety, an intimation of great forces that might erase or fracture the structures and objects that order our lives. In an age of ecological destruction and crumbling international order, this has a subtle geopolitical resonance, but in good surrealist style the work skirts around any specific topical reference. Strange and rewarding stuff.
(Greg Thomas)
Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, until Saturday 14 February.
THEATRE TOP HAT
In a world filled with conflict and confusion, it seems almost impossible that little pockets of charm such as Top Hat survive. Created in an arguably simpler time, this fun tale of mistaken identity started life as a cinematic blockbuster in 1935. And while it’s hard to imagine anyone cutting a rug with quite the same dash as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, this exuberant cast give it a go.
Shaped around several of Irving Berlin’s most famous songs, including ‘Let’s Face The Music And Dance’, ‘Puttin’ On The Ritz’ and ‘Cheek To Cheek’, the storyline cries out for sharp comic timing and all the lead actors oblige. Visiting London to make his West End debut, Broadway star Jerry Travers falls for Dale Tremont, a woman staying in the hotel room below him. But through a series of misunderstandings, she thinks he’s theatrical impresario Horace Hardwick, husband to Dale’s close friend Marge. It takes the entire show for these two lovebirds to untangle that mess, with comings and goings reminiscent of a French farce.
Berlin’s songs are as delightful today as when they first hit the silver screen almost a century ago. Performed with gusto by a 16-strong ensemble (all dressed to the nines), each musical number takes us back to the golden era of Hollywood musicals, when tap dancing was the only game in town. Audiences raised on high drama, cliffhangers and plot twists may find Top Hat’s merry delicacy lacking in punch. But there’s no shortage of wit in the hands of these superb actors, including James Clyde (who threatens to steal the show with his portrayal of Horace’s long-suffering butler, Bates) and Sally Ann Triplett as the spendthrift Marge. (Kelly Apter)
King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tuesday 3–Saturday 7 February; His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, Tuesday 10–Saturday 14 March; reviewed at Edinburgh Playhouse; picture: Johan Persson.
art of the month
SOur Shared World is a diverse and experimental delight as over 100 artists respond to a universal message in differing ways. Claire Sawers admires this often majestic celebration of printmaking
tanding in front of a joyous, turquoise, abstract screenprint called ‘January’ in the dreich month of that same name (a time renowned for the starting of new hobbies and art projects), who wouldn’t be moved to grab a leaflet about Edinburgh Printmakers and all the courses they run? These include letterpress evenings for beginners, collagraph masterclasses and kids printing workshops with Lego blocks, seeing as you ask.
‘January’ is a wonderful, aqueous pattern of blues and greens, scattered with pops of pastel pink rhombuses and slim orange shards. This is by Edinburgh-based printer and painter Matilda Bryce, one of 124 artists who responded to Edinburgh Printmakers’ theme, Our Shared World. Like everything else on show, it’s for sale, so ‘January’ could hang on your wall year-round. The Own Art 0% finance scheme applies here too, for anyone left skint by the calendar’s opening five-week squeeze.
A total of 280 studio members make work in the former North British Rubber Company factory in Fountainbridge, now one of Europe’s largest printmaking workshops. Our Shared World is Scotland’s biggest celebration of printmaking, where stone lithographs, etchings, woodcuts, Toyobo prints, collages and screenprints explore the realities of co-existing with each other and the places we occupy. It’s a loose brief and for some that means studies of nature. Eiko Yamashita’s ‘Cliff Off The Arbroath 1’ is a majestic, chiseled pink rockface; John Grey’s ‘Loch Lomond From Conic Hill’ is a monochrome view of calm waters; and Helen Kennedy’s ‘Watchfulness, Firth Of Forth, Shag’ is a solemn, pleasingly minimal, black and white etching of a long-necked waterbird. Tiny, detailed examinations of moths, lichen and jellyfish (by Douglas Reed, Alison Grant and Nicky Sanderson respectively) make for serene peeks into rural life, while ‘Bingo (Portal)’ by Josh Murfitt brings us back into Edinburgh and a dilapidated bingo hall with graffitied shutters pulled down.
Besides local environments, others turn their gaze more globally. Alastair Kinroy’s woodcut ‘Identity Concerns Us’ shows coastguards rescuing a crowded dinghy, with a row of feet dangling perilously into the waves, while Kevin Maringer’s ‘Kevin, New York, Migrant’, on bamboo washi paper, is the Anglo-German artist’s take on his five years living as a migrant in America. Hazy clouds float around a Namibian woman with upwards-sculpted dreadlocks and thick necklaces in Isobel Work’s photo ‘Himba Lady Smoking Herself With Cleansed Herb’, and precisely overlapping rectangles explore depths of colour in Rhona Taylor’s ‘Blue Fragments’. Alchemy and experimentation share the same world within this diverse, enjoyable group show.
Our Shared World, Edinburgh Printmakers, until Sunday 15 March; gallery picture: Alan Dimmick.
Share and share alike (from top):
Eiko Yamashita ‘Cliff Off The Arbroath 1’, Alastair Kinroy ‘Identity Concerns Us’ and Kevin Maringer ‘Kevin, New York, Migrant’
THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE
Mona Fastvold, co-writer of The Brutalist and director of The World To Come, is at the helm of this eccentric and uncompromising musical. It opens our eyes to the eponymous trailblazer, the little-known founder of radical religious movement the Shakers, who Fastvold has enticingly described as ‘one of the first American feminists’.
Born in 18th-century Manchester into humble circumstances, Ann is played with apposite intensity by Amanda Seyfried, sporting a somewhat uncertain Mancunian accent. We see Ann suffer the death of four children before being struck by a religious epiphany. Basing her belief system around abstinence from sex, this newfound spiritual leader emigrates to America with her followers to spread the word. Christopher Abbott plays Abraham, Ann’s sexually frustrated husband, Lewis Pullman is her devoted, true-believer brother William, while Thomasin McKenzie and Stacy Martin play acolytes.
Fastvold is brilliant at giving us the context for Ann’s religious convictions, showing us the trauma she endures and the likely explanation for her visions. And yet she’s also portrayed as someone whose motivations appear predominantly pure, and whose ideas about gender and racial equality are ahead of their time.
Co-scripted with Fastvold’s partner and director of The Brutalist, Brady Corbet, this is a film that is emphatically not for everyone; narratively unconventional and long, it also features scenes of significant misery. However, it is strikingly well-executed. The musical format is a fitting choice for a movement whose religious convictions and sense of community were expressed through ecstatic song and dance. The songs blend seamlessly into the action and score (Oscar winner Daniel Blumberg is behind the music), while the film also benefits from beautiful choreography and committed performances. Ultimately, it’s hard not to be in awe of what Fastvold has achieved here. It’s a real one-off. (Emma Simmonds) In cinemas from Friday 20 February.
THEATRE THE GAZE
The Gaze began as a staunchly autobiographical invocation of its creator Himadri Madan’s relationship with her own body under a patriarchal gaze. Through collaboration and conversation, it subsequently evolved into an exploration of that oppressive gaze when it becomes internalised and repeated through social graces, mythology and, in this theatrical context, performance.
A thin gauze which separates the stalls from the stage foregrounds the distance between Madan as a performing spectacle and the audience as her distracted onlookers. Yet Madan disrupts this relationship by inviting viewers behind the gauze into a red draped, electric-candlelit boudoir. Handwritten signs instruct the audience to actively engage with the exhibit. The resulting split between those who follow and those who apprehensively ignore the signs cleverly turns the audience’s gaze inwards. Afterwards, visitors are instructed to take their seats for the performance.
Madan is an Indian classical dancer rehearsing in front of an imagined audience while questioning the traditional ‘boy meets girl, tale as old as time’ narratives she enacts. Embodying the role of Draupadi (a feminist figure of the ancient Sanskrit epic, Mahabharata) she begins to unravel patriarchal mythologies and confront the shame they foster. These themes are poignant and far-reaching yet with the entire work lasting less than an hour, their exploration seems rushed. Part immersive exhibition and part play, with a concluding panel discussion in the vein of an encore, The Gaze feels hindered by its multi-pronged structure and short running time, which leaves its thematic possibilities only partly realised. (Evie Glen)
The Studio, Edinburgh, Saturday 28 February; reviewed at Tramway, Glasgow; picture: Susan Hay.
MUSIC BIFFY CLYRO
Has Edward Elgar ever been played at this volume? Perhaps ‘Nimrod’ blasting from the Hydro speakers is simply a harbinger of the onslaught to come. The headlines on Biffy Clyro’s Futique tour have all been about bassist James Johnston’s abrupt hiatus in order to deal with addiction and mental health issues, the first time this tight trio has been sundered since their teens. The good news is that they sound as potent as ever with Naomi Macleod deputising calmly and comfortably on bass, with additional guitar, keyboards and strings populating a stage set of German expressionist levels, angles, drapes and silhouettes.
Variety, as much as volume, is the spice of this setlist with the band vaulting from ear-splitting new track ‘A Little Love’ via the mainstream rock of ‘Hunting Season’ to the ferociously curt punk holler of ‘That Golden Rule’ and the glam stomp of ‘Who’s Got A Match?’ Happily, the strings are loud enough to take their proper place in the mix. A Biffy set might range all over the map, but precision is key on multi-part epics such as the gleeful sludge raid in ‘Wolves Of Winter’, the mighty ‘Mountains’, and the, well, biblical ‘Biblical’.
Ballads, from the sweetly melodic ‘Space’ to the grand guignol ‘Goodbye’, are sprinkled liberally throughout, providing a breather for the audience as much as the musicians who scurry into position from song to song. ‘Black Chandelier’ combines a lusty singalong with muscular playing while ‘Machines’ is stripped back to acoustic guitar and violin. They end with a salvo of their very best, including the celebratory metal of ‘The Captain’, the pointed drama of their punk Pink Floyd moment ‘Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies’, and the cleansing catharsis of ‘Many Of Horror’ ringing to the rafters. (Fiona Shepherd)
Reviewed at OVO Hydro, Glasgow; picture: Cameron Brisbane.
FILM TWINLESS
In the wake of his twin brother Rocky’s death, Roman (Dylan O’Brien) is bereft. He is grieving the person who knew him best, while those around him provide constant reminders of everything Rocky was and he isn’t: popular, smart, witty. He finds himself at a support group for people who have lost a twin and there he meets Dennis, played by writer and director James Sweeney. The two click instantly and there’s a sense that perhaps each is using the other to replace the twin they’ve lost.
Twinless begins as a quirky dark comedy, with sharp back-and-forth dialogue and dry millennial humour, but Sweeney’s sophomore feature is far more than meets the eye. It’s difficult to talk about a film where the big plot twist occurs around the 20-minute mark but, suffice to say, this isn’t just another off-kilter tragicomedy: Twinless morphs into something much bleaker and far more compelling.
The sudden shift to psychological thriller is guided by Sweeney’s deft performance. Dennis is intelligent and charismatic, and we see immediately why Roman is drawn to him, but there’s a pathetic, needy quality lurking beneath the surface. Meanwhile, O’Brien imbues typical straight guy Roman with an earnest sweetness that becomes the film’s emotional anchor. With such well-rounded characters, it’s difficult to label anyone a true villain.
Indeed, one of Twinless’ greatest strengths is that it never lets our sympathies settle in one place. Every secret, every betrayal, is tinged with grief. Beyond the genre-bending and black humour, it ultimately remains a story about loss. (Isy Santini)
In cinemas from Friday 6 February.
OTHER THINGS WORTH GOING OUT FOR
If you fancy getting out and about this month, there’s plenty culture to sample such as a comedy show about divorce, the directorial debut of a Hollywood star, a musical about a miserable creature and the return of a beloved theatre company
ART FELICITY HAMMOND
We’re in last chance to see territory here for this London-based artist’s show which uses the many landscapes associated with AI to map how digital photographic material makes its journey from mineral to pixel.
Stills, Edinburgh, until Saturday 7 February.
THE NORTHERN ISLES
This exhibition explores the artistic legacy and living creative culture of Orkney and Shetland, and brings together more than 30 artists connected to the archipelagos, by birth, home, residency or artistic pilgrimage.
Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, until Saturday 28 February.
COMEDY SCHALK BEZUIDENHOUT
The South African comic returns with his most personal show to date. Hey Hey Divorcé tracks how he rebuilt his life after a marriage breakdown and offers an honest set where he gets paid rather than lining a therapist’s pockets.
The Stand, Glasgow, Sunday 15 February; The Stand, Edinburgh, Tuesday 17 February.
FILM
THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER
Marking the directorial debut of Kristen Stewart, this is a portrait of a woman brought up in an environment torn apart by violence, who escapes through competitive swimming, sexual experimentation and addiction, before finding freedom in writing.
In cinemas from Friday 6 February.
WHISTLE
Starring Dafne Keen, Michelle Fairley and Nick Frost, this is about a group of high school misfits who come across an ancient Aztec death whistle. Bad stuff happens when they try to get a sound from it. Cracking tagline, too: ‘don’t blow it’.
In cinemas from Friday 13 February.
KIDS
THE GREAT GRUMPY GABOON
Jay Capperauld’s musical adventure returns, written in collaboration with children’s author and illustrator Corrina Campbell, and inspired by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s very own musicians.
With a new album out now, entitled Again, For The First Time, this Norwegian singer, songwriter and producer is currently on a roll, with fans of Mazzy Star and Weyes Blood expected to lap this up.
Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Thursday 12 February.
THE BEACHES
This Canadian band are fronted by the Miller sisters and used to be called Done With Dolls. A great name but their current moniker suggests a more mature side to their post-punk indie rock musings.
Barrowland, Glasgow, Tuesday 17 February.
THEATRE
BIRDS OF PARADISE
Comedian Rosie Jones joins the acclaimed theatre company for their new show, (We Indulge In) A Bit Of Roll Play. In this look at sex and disability we meet Ben as he navigates his parents and harbours a secret or two.
Whistle (and bottom from left), The Great Grumpy Gaboon, The Northern Isles, The Chronology Of Water, Iris Caltwait
staying in
QUEEN OF CHESS
‘There’s the pure mental ability needed to understand chess and there is the personality required to become good at the game. Women don’t have either of these sides.’ Thus sprach a male dinosaur shown in this documentary which follows Judit Polgár, a 12-year-old Hungarian girl who set out on a path to prove such misguided fools wrong. Then in 1994, aged 18, she took on Garry Kasparov, one of the top players of all time. Could the unthinkable happen? Don’t google it, just watch Queen Of Chess. (Brian Donaldson) n Netflix, Friday 6 February.
POETIC LICENCE
Mohammed Moussa believes the fragmented and urgent nature of poetry resonates with meaning more than other forms of writing. He tells Allan Radcliffe that verse is the ideal method to express the horror of Gaza
As titles go, The Face Before You is direct. Confrontational even. The subtitle (To Write Poetry On Genocide) is even less equivocal. Mohammed Moussa, a Palestinian poet born in the Jabalia refugee camp, has been chronicling life in Gaza under Israeli occupation and under siege since well before 2023. But his work as a writer, podcast host and journalist has taken on a renewed sense of urgency since the 7 October attacks by Hamas and the brutal, genocidal war waged by Israel on Gaza’s Palestinian population over the past two years.
In this new collection, across more than 100 poems, Moussa touches on many aspects of life in Gaza, documenting the devastation wrought by displacement and bombardment, often moving in a few lines from large political questions to intimate experience. He has written that at times he feels ‘anger towards language’, and yet, in the face of unimaginable suffering in his homeland, Moussa continues to write. ‘When I refer to anger towards language in the context of genocide, I mean the frustration that arises when one attempts to convey the meaning or articulate the atrocities occurring in one’s city, yet failing to do so,’ he says. ‘Poetry serves as a means of expressing myself to the external world, akin to taking a shortcut, unlike prose. I believe that poetry has the potential to resonate with people more deeply than other forms of writing, perhaps due to its urgency and fragmentation.’
Moussa, who is a founder of the Gaza Poets Society which offers opportunities to emerging voices, acknowledges there have been instances where his poems have travelled, even when he, as a Gazan, could not. ‘I do not write for a particular reader,’ says the now Turkey-based poet. ‘I feel that poetry itself fulfils this role, guiding me to the reader when they find themselves within my words. Thus, I perceive the journey of the poem as more significant than that of the poet.’
While the writing in The Face Before You is disarmingly sharp and unsentimental, it is not devoid of hope and joy, as in the poem ‘The Path Towards Liberty’. Moussa speaks categorically about the need to retain a positive outlook for a better future. ‘In my poems, hope will always persist, serving as a window through which I can view the world beyond, reminding myself, and the reader, that change is possible one day, especially if we take meaningful action to ensure that this occupation comes to an end.’
The Face Before You is published by Leamington Books on Wednesday 25 February.
LISTEN BACK
We’re audiophiling over the letter O for our latest alphabet-themed album recs
Some music demands your full attention, but albums like Loidis’ One Day (2024) seem more interested in hovering on the edge of your consciousness, its four-four insistence inducing the locked-in ow state of a high-level athlete. Unimposing though it is, this glitchy electronica is tactile enough to engage, loaded with heavily processed vocal samples, ambient squirms and o beat found sound. Neither mellow nor hyperactive, the pace set by Loidis is all its own.
The vaunted history of Postcard Records as Scotland’s rst bona de DIY label is fading from collective memory, but its back catalogue will always be cherished by indie rock a cionados. A real gem is Josef K’s The Only Fun In Town (1981), a post-punk barnstormer adorned with rapidly shi ing time signatures, hyperliterate lyrics and endorphin-rush guitar playing. Despite a band name referencing Kafka’s terminal gloom, theirs is a sound zzing with the vigour, joy and intensity of talented upstarts charting new territory. (Kevin Fullerton)
Other O listens: Odelay by Beck (1996), Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides by Sophie (2018), One Two by Sister Nancy (1982).
ALBUMS
GOGOL BORDELLO
In this Q&A, we throw some questions about ‘firsts’ at debut authors. This month, we feature Larissa Pham, author of Discipline, the thrilling tale of a young writer touring her (get this) debut novel and who risks being drawn back into the orbit of a troubling figure from her past
What’s the first book you remember reading as a child? My mother, a voracious reader herself despite English being her second language, raised me on British children’s literature. The rst books I remember reading are The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Five Children And It, and The Chronicles Of Narnia
What was the book you read that made you decide to be a writer? I read Tamora Pierce’s Song Of The Lioness trilogy when I was eight years old and it awakened something in me; it was the rst book series I fell in love with as an independent reader and I still admire Pierce’s work to this day.
What’s your favourite first line in a book? This is cheating, but the last line of the prologue to Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited has lived in my head ever since I read it: ‘I had been there before; I knew all about it.’ What an incredible way to set up a novel!
Which debut publication had the most profound effect on you? Here’s two: I really loved Edinburgh by Alexander Chee and Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. Two perfect novels which I encountered at the perfect age (my early 20s).
What’s the first thing you do when you wake up on a writing day? Start the kettle for hot water for tea.
What’s the first thing you do when you’ve stopped writing for the day? If it’s a short writing morning: lunch. If it’s a full day of dra ing: a walk or a yoga video.
In a parallel universe where you’re the tyrant leader of a dystopian civilisation, what’s the first book you’d burn? I don’t think we should burn any books.
What’s the first piece of advice you’d offer to an aspiring novelist? Keep writing and keep reading. I can’t overstate how important it is to read as a writer, whether it’s classics or contemporary literature. Read to discover your own taste, to re ne your understanding of cra and form, and to keep your creativity alive and engaged.
Discipline is published by Serpent’s Tail on Thursday 5 February; picture: Sylvie Rosokoff.
Taking a cosh to those January blues, New York’s self-styled gypsy punks scissorkick their way into 2026 with new album We Mean It, Man!, the latest blast in their incendiary blend of underground anarcho-rock, euro-techno and Ukrainian folk. Formed in the nineties by Romani spearhead and punk provocateur Eugene Hütz alongside like-minded souls, Gogol Bordello wield righteous fury, turning wry humour and maniacal energy into a lightning rod for immigrant fans from all corners.
Hütz remains the band’s talisman and most recognisable asset. Born on the outskirts of Kyiv, his musical and ideological influences were forged on a nomadic journey that began in the Carpathian Mountains and ended on the front steps of CBGB. Lionised in his homeland, Hütz has built Gogol Bordello around a relentless message of resistance and rage against Russia’s attempt to ‘create a false mythology for Ukraine’, his own refugee story penetrating into the band’s famed live performances. This record aligns with those same instincts but pulls in noted post-punk producers Nick Launay and Adam Greenspan (Idles, Amyl And The Sniffers) who steer the band into new territory without losing their core individuality or bite. The album also features ‘Solidarity’, a recent collaboration with Bernard Sumner, a nod to the visibility and reach Hütz enjoys both as activist and Ukraine’s stateside protest icon. Under current conditions, having Gogol Bordello in situ feels like enough of a ‘fuck you’ to deserve renewed attention, so right-wing dickheads had better beware. We mean it, man. (Gary Sullivan)
We Mean It, Man! is released by Casa Gogol on Friday 13 February.
my perfect podcast
po stsacd op• dcasts •
Which podcast educates you? Gone Medieval with Matt Lewis. He knows pretty much everything about all of history and presents it like an easily digestible food: a bit like a really good soup. Fact soup.
Which podcast makes you laugh? There’s the big one, O Menu with Ed and James. Their Robert De Niro one was just laugh out loud. He’s a notoriously reticent interviewee, of course, and didn’t really know what the show was, but strangely they managed to get him to talk about all kinds of stu . Plus you could feel them squirm a bit at the start and we’re squirming with them. The Squirm is actually a really good name for a podcast.
Which podcast makes you sad or angry? Any podcast where dolphins get injured.
Which podcast is your guilty pleasure? I really don’t go for all the ‘guilty pleasure’ stu . If I wanna listen to something I do. But mainly I don’t.
Tell us someone who currently doesn’t have a podcast but totally should. And why do you think their one would be amazing? CMAT. She’s smart and funny. I can see her with a Saturday night TV show like Cilla used to have. She’s that good. And is also a guest on The Harry Hill Show
In this column, we ask a pod person about the ’casts that mean a lot to them. This month, it’s Harry Hill, the legendary surreal comedian and all-round entertainer who is dipping his toes into the pod game with, would you believe, The Harry Hill Show in which he chats all manner of nonsense to top guests such as John Cooper Clarke, CMAT and Nish Kumar who like Pet Family Liza lot budgerigars
Pitch us a new podcast idea in exactly 80 words Trees. Each week, our hosts Liza Tarbuck and supervet Noel Fitzpatrick meet a celeb and their pets. There’ll be a lot of dogs and cats, naturally, but also the odd curveball: Trevor the tortoise, a 30-year-old parrot called Susan and two budgerigars called Ant and Dec. Could they be cousins? What the owners want to know is does JK the Jack Russell have a longlost sister out there? Is his grandma still alive? Have they always been Essex-based?
New episodes of The Harry Hill Show are available on all the usual platforms every Monday.
album of the month
Gorillaz successfully balance weighty subject matter and a whopping line-up of guests artists on new album The Mountain, transforming grief into a musical celebration of loss, says Danny Munro
Gorillaz’ ninth studio album begins in Varanasi, a sacred northern Indian city synonymous with mortality, frequented by one million Hindu pilgrims each year. It is here, by the banks of the Ganges, where Damon Albarn came to scatter his father’s ashes. Just ten days a er Albarn’s father passed, Jamie Hewlett, cofounder of the band and the artist responsible for the design of its virtual members, also lost his father. Rather than suppress their grief, Albarn and Hewlett decided to embrace the Indian custom of mourning outwardly, using The Mountain as an opportunity to celebrate the lives of those no longer with us.
It’s a dramatic prelude to an album that gets o to a particularly stirring start. Proceedings begin with a largely instrumental title track, featuring contributions from Grammy-nominated sitar player Anoushka Shankar and classical autist Ajay Prasanna. It’s a nod to Albarn’s father, Keith, who drew inspiration from Hindu art throughout his life. The piece builds gradually to a rather moving crescendo on which Albarn can be heard repeating the line ‘all good souls come to rest’.
As you might expect from a Gorillaz album, no note is held on to for too long, and the downtempo atmosphere is consistently interspersed with eeting moments of vibrant positivity.
‘The Manifesto’ is one of the highlights of album number nine, on which we’re introduced to emerging Argentine rapper Trueno. The 23-year-old’s high-tempo raps are propped up by a posthumous contribution from Proof, of rap group D12. It’s a touching re ection of the way The Mountain seeks to celebrate both the people who have come before and those we are yet to meet. The record is littered with collaboration, featuring no less than 24 guest artists. Be it new blood like the soulful Jalen Ngonda, familiar faces such as Yasiin Bey or the impeccable tones of 92-year-old Bollywood icon Asha Bhosle, we hear ve di erent languages and almost too many styles to count.
There are multiple posthumous appearances, including Bobby Womack, who made such a meaningful contribution to Gorillaz’ 2010 release Plastic Beach, and De La Soul’s David Jolicoeur. Mark E Smith sounds particularly enchanting, repeatedly crying out ‘Delirium’ on the track of the same name that sounds as though it came straight from the Plastic Beach sessions. Of course, not everything comes o . With as much experimentation and fusing of sounds as there is on modern Gorillaz albums, some moments fail to leave much of a lasting impression, such as the stripped back Idles collaboration ‘The God Of Lying’, which feels like something of a missed opportunity. But on the whole, the di erence between The Mountain and some of Gorillaz’ recent projects is that the team-ups seem laser focused. While at times it felt as though the band had taken a scattergun approach to selecting featured performers on Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez or Humanz, each guest appearance on The Mountain appears carefully considered. Rather than search for the most unique superstar crossover possible, Albarn and co look to have meticulously recruited each artist to serve a speci c purpose on an album that deals with weighty themes. The Mountain
PODCASTS A MOMENT WITH MURPHY (Audio Always)
GAMES TERMINATOR 2D: NO FATE (Bitmap Bureau)
Given the popularity of the films on which they’re based, there’s a surprising dearth of decent Terminator games. The most recent release, 2019’s Terminator: Resistance, was a po-faced, janky effort set in the series’ near-future timeline and it barely made a ripple. Hoping to fill the void is UK developer Bitmap Bureau with this heartfelt and very brief love letter to James Cameron’s classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Featuring gloriously reverential pixel art and stunning renditions/remixes of Brad Fiedel’s memorable soundtrack, Terminator 2D: No Fate is a fond tribute to the amusement arcades of the 1990s with levels inspired by scenes from the film. On normal difficulty, players are restricted to a time limit and ‘lives’, faithfully echoing the traditions of the time. Set across the film’s sprawling events, the game swaps between playable characters including Sarah Connor, John Connor (whose futuristic weaponry is the most fun to use) and, in a cute cameo, Arnie’s revamped T-800. Hazards alternate between humans and robots, environmental obstacles, and frequent boss fights. Accompanying the original music is a mix of contemporaneous techno, including a few appropriately propulsive tracks that sound right out of the 90s experimental demo scene.
Unlike actual arcade games of the era, Terminator 2D: No Fate is a fair experience although it’s possible to dial down the difficulty in order to see the whole story play out. While the whole thing is a blast to play, it’s an extremely short game, with a high-score table, branching narrative and harder difficulty settings offering at least some replay value. (Murray Robertson)
Out now on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X.
c dop•stsa c asts•
Cosiness and trauma make slightly uneasy bedfellows in this robustly delivered but tweely packaged podcast from illustrator and author Kerri Cunningham. She’s best known for her Murphy’s Sketches website (the name comes from her eldest son) through which she shares drawings, poems and crafted gift items for sale. It would be cynical to say the site taps into the enormous and growing market for ‘mum content’ (Cunningham has also raised huge amounts of money for charity with her work). And yet the ‘mumosphere’ is a market, and parent-centred problems and tragedies are a currency, as evidenced by the five-plus minutes of adverts hooked onto each podcast episode. There will be people who are put off altogether by the packaging; the cloying, Meghan Markle-esque language of taking ‘moments’ and ‘pauses’, the pastel branding and the poetry that opens and closes each episode. But that would be to miss out on the depth of the content that Cunningham reaches with her guests. She is an unintrusive interviewer and lets her interviewees guide their own narratives. In the first episode, ‘A Moment For Rosie’s Story’, this results in a startlingly harrowing description from guest Sophie about her experiences of her baby dying, and the aftermath of bringing up her other children while the whole family grieves. Sophie’s telling is tender, wise and generous, offering the sort of intimate candour that women may once have shared face to face in those other belittled ‘women’s spaces’: coffee mornings. Similarly, in episode two, Harriet Brettell offers a brisk, detailed navigation of the difficult process of obtaining neurodivergence diagnoses and education, health and care (EHC) plans for her children. Is it a shame that these important issues are trussed up in pastels and labelled ‘moments’? Or should we accept that in the world we live in now, this is simply the way people connect? (Lucy Ribchester) New episodes available every Monday.
BOOKS HESTER MUSSON
The Night Hag (4th Estate) lllll
We meet the titular subject of Hestor Musson’s second novel, pitched as a historical mystery, in the opening pages. It sets the tone (more thriller than mystery) from the off. It’s the dead-body hook of the crime genre, only in this case it is a terrifying night-mare (the hyphen indicating the mythological hag of sleep paralysis) that pins protagonist Lil to her bed until she is ‘on the very edge of sanity’.
No wonder Lil has nightmares. She is the daughter of a famous late 19th-century London medium, a mother who has her channeling spirits, ‘entertaining’ gentlemen and oozing ectoplasm from her early teens. Now 28, and an archaeologist working with mentors Nils and Effie, Lil remains tormented. She is spirit-sceptic, writing desperate, breathless letters to mysterious psychiatrist Lachlan, seeking a cure, or a rational explanation, for what we now call PTSD.
The bulk of the narrative unfolds in fictional Scottish hamlet Pitcarden, where Lil and Nils establish a dig, ostensibly looking for bronze age artefacts. Lil’s nightmares intensify. Meanwhile, and not incidentally, Effie is dying in Edinburgh. Things grow ever more gothic: barren landscapes, portentous weather, superstitious locals who gurn and fear the return of the ‘Pitcarden curse’ and its murderous hag (the dichotomy of hag as demon or goddess is both theme and metaphor throughout).
This Scotland-based author’s story gallops along, as quick and fevered as Lil’s thoughts. Terrible secrets are unearthed, along with cursed treasure. We are guessing to the end whether supernatural forces are at play. The prose is dense, and at times overwritten, yet the puzzle-box plot and constant misdirection expertly mirror Lil’s mental state. She resolves into a redoubtable hero, valiantly fighting the hysterical Victorian archetype that confined ‘difficult’ women. Propulsive and immersive, this is a cracking read and a confident step up from Musson’s epistolary debut, The Beholders. (Ellie Carr) n Published on Thursday 26 February.
ALBUMS BUCK MEEK
The Mirror (4AD) lllll
There’s a school reunion vibe about Buck Meek’s fourth solo album (and his second with major label 4AD) as he joins longtime producer James Krivchenia and welcomes a cohort of regular collaborators, friends and family members along for the ride. The latest from Big Thief’s co-founding member bears the hallmarks of a relaxed experiment after a long campaign with his rent-paying band, who released their sixth studio album late last year. It’s arguably a Big Thief album in everything but name (Adrianne Lenker even shows up on backing vocals), except perhaps in the consciously narrow focus of its ambition.
Relationships are the central theme here; not the first flush of love, but the contentedness of routine living (‘I try to write to contain my life/ to love my wife,’ trills Meek in ‘Demon’). Although dipping its toes in metaphysics, Meek’s lyrics have a lightness of touch. His 70s rock’n’roll posture adds some edge to the twee pitch of his vocals, with tones of Lennon and Clapton breaking through with the air of a crate digger riffling through his record collection.
‘I’ll try to write a song that is not for others’, he sings on ‘Heart In The Mirror’, which gets to the essence of this insular collection. These are time and motion studies of Meek’s humdrum existence told in winsome style, breezing by inconsequentially. An amuse-bouche, then, but nonetheless a pleasant addition to Big Thief’s knotted world of diversions and side projects. (Kevin Fullerton) n Released on Friday 27 February.
Eventbrite Tickets:
Poster by Alice Pelan
Catch Up
Claire Sawers kicks off 2026 with her pick of what’s hot on the box right now, bringing us a beauty industry sci-fi/ horror mash-up, boyband intrigue, spy shenanigans and a steamy global smash that’s got everyone talking
Best to wait till the kids, or gore-averse viewers, are in bed before streaming The Beauty (Disney+). This glossy, dark thriller brings ashbacks of The X-Files crossed with The Substance. Based on Jeremy Haun and Jason A Hurley’s comic book series, Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall play FBI agents brought in to investigate an alarming STD, which rst makes you stunningly beautiful and youthful, then may or may not cause you to explode. Ashton Kutcher is deliciously cast as the suave psychopath behind the multi trillion-dollar corporation producing the new wonder drug, with Isabella Rossellini underused as his wise, fabulously wardrobed and pro-natural ageing wife. Proli c producer Ryan Murphy brings gross-out, zombie horror edge to this scalpel-sharp take on our super cial society, where young women aspire to be models not journalists and big pharma wields dangerous power. It might be sci- , but the digs at octogenarian presidents, island-owning villains and spaceshiploving clowns don’t seem that far-fetched in the current climate.
When the whims of sociopathic men strike terror in our hearts, it’s time to retreat: to the safety of the cottage. Rachel Reid’s queer romance books were a cult hit long before the steamy TV adaptation of Heated Rivalry (Sky Atlantic) stirred up a global obsession. It features two hot, rival ice hockey players competing publicly, while having a secret a air for eight years. Watching tough-bro norms fade and a tender bond (among other things) grow between closeted protagonists Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov (the Keanu-like Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, doing an impressive Russian accent) is utterly gorgeous telly. Its success lies not just in all the fabulous pouting and abs (although they de nitely sweeten the deal) but in the fantasy storytelling. There’s no misogyny or homophobic rejection here, just Mills & Boon or shōjo manga-style wish ful llment. This is male desire through a female lens, where consent, vulnerability and emotional honesty win the trophy.
Three-part documentary Take That (Net ix) follows the British boyband from being marketed by their manager to perform for schoolkids by day and gay clubs by night, to notching up eight number ones in the 90s, long hiatuses and triumphant comebacks. We watch Gary Barlow slave over the songwriting, council house kids Mark Owen, Jason Orange and Howard Donald dance their socks o and struggle to nd their place in the hierarchy, and that public feud between Barlow and Robbie Williams. It’s hugely enjoyable, especially if you were there the rst time around, with archive material including nostalgic Top Of The Pops footage and glorious latex photoshoots, plus revealing chats with all. Like many Net ix celeb docs, you do wonder, however, if more episodes would lead to a more satisfying unpacking of the many big topics glossed over.
For those le thirsty a er the nale of The Night Manager (BBC One) aired ten years ago, season two has nally arrived. A er catching his old nemesis Richard Roper (played by Hugh Laurie), spy Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) has been living the quiet life in London, doing a low-octane MI6 job. But when a disciple of Roper’s starts causing trouble, that’s enough to lure Pine back into the danger zone. This new villain is the charismatic Teddy Dos Santos, played beautifully by Diego Calva. The original series was based on John le Carré’s intricate, gripping espionage novel, but following his death in 2020, season two is written by le Carré fanboy David Farr, who grew up watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy on TV with his dad in the 70s. All the late author’s tropes are honoured, so expect plenty of arms smuggling, sti upper lips, suspect British government involvement and glamorous locations (lots of Colombian colour this time). Le Carré’s hyper male-centric world gets some choice updates too, including a more sexually uid Pine.
SAWERS ALSO SAW . . .
Mermaid Tales: Isle Of Skye on BBC Alba: ‘Quirky Gaelic travel doc’
Steal on Prime Video: ‘Tense fintech drama’
Under Salt Marsh on Sky Atlantic: ‘Offbeat Welsh murder mystery’
Hot shots: Take That (and clockwise from below), The Night Manager, Heated Rivalry, The Beauty
PODCASTS
JOSH WIDDICOMBE’S MUSEUM OF POP CULTURE (Keep It Light Media) lllll
Generation Xers will likely get the most out of this new podcast from Josh Widdicombe in which the comedian dives very deeply indeed into the world of popular culture. While similar shows might dedicate a 20-minute bonus to some passing 80s fad, Widdicombe has no qualms about spending four whole episodes (195 minutes) on the rise and fall of Noel Edmonds, with a lengthy aside on his parasitical relationship with one-time compadre Mr Blobby.
Thankfully, diversions are plentiful and they always spark off in interesting ways. The Edmonds story also examines the history of Simon Cowell and the fascinating rise of breakfast TV. Later parts consider the fractious tale of legendary music moguls Stock Aitken Waterman, with related tangents exploring the actor (and John Waters’ muse) Divine, Margaret Thatcher and a hilarious deliberation on the drinking habits of 80s pop trio Bananarama.
Widdicombe is an avuncular host with plenty of research at his fingertips, and he’s joined for each story by a comedian friend such as Tom Craine and former Pappy’s sketch group member Matthew Crosby. These co-hosts act as interrogative audience surrogates, keeping Widdicombe on track. Copious audio clips really help to illustrate some of the more bizarre moments from our recent history, not least a series of particularly outré pronouncements from Edmonds in his longforgotten 2009 faux-Partridge show, Noel’s HQ. Later episodes promise dives into the Spice Girls, The KLF, Ghostwatch and David Hasselhoff, and if the early instalments are anything to go by, Widdicombe’s real achievement is turning pop-cultural overfamiliarity into something newly strange, funny and faintly unsettling once again. (Murray Robertson) n New episodes available twice weekly.
ALBUMS OSCAR LAVËN
Elegant Calamity (Thick Records NZ) lllll
It must have been quite a night when New Zealand saxophone star Oscar Lavën brought his Elegant Calamity Orchestra into Wellington’s intimate Bedlam & Squalor venue to record this exuberant, exhilarating music. Although he concentrates on tenor saxophone here, Lavën is adept across the whole woodwind family and just as likely to be found performing Vivaldi and Telemann on bassoon as he is playing jazz of all suits, from New Orleans-style through to big band, be-bop and beyond.
The make-up of his orchestra reflects his wide range of work, with strings joining reeds, brass and a five-piece rhythm section. The musicians are encouraged to express themselves in an ensemble sound that slips easily from rambunctious to romantic. The opening ‘Trong Park’ begins with a foghorn-like blast before breaking into a grooving rhythmical canter that supports and drives a big brassy melody. Solos of fire and creativity on trumpet, tenor sax, piano and percussion set the standard for the remainder of this album. Then, following a second track that draws joyous inspiration from Dizzy Gillespie’s Afro-Cuban adventures, the lovely tango-flavoured ‘Butterfly’, which was composed by Lavën’s mum, offers gorgeous melodic reflection and a cello solo of singular potency.
Lavën himself introduces the energetic African groove of ‘Pharoah Blue’ with a throaty, virtuosic improvisation that hints at tenor titan Pharoah Sanders and there’s something of Duke Ellington’s ‘East St Louis ToodleOo’ in ‘Tall Poppy Stomp’ with its wah-wah trumpet and richly voiced reeds. While these influences and others pertain (Charles Mingus could be the orchestra’s guiding spirit), there’s also much that bears Lavën’s own maverick stamp. Like its predecessor, Questions In Red, which featured Lavën in quintet mode, this is an effusive endorsement of New Zealand’s music scene. (Rob Adams) n Out now.
OTHER THINGS WORTH STAYING IN FOR
A packed month of things to do indoors or consume on your travels include a delicate album dedicated to a composer’s father, a video game set in the mean streets of Japan and a new comedy thriller from the creator of a beloved Irish sitcom
ALBUMS
MUMFORD & SONS
In collaboration with The National’s Aaron Dessner, Prizefighter took just ten days to write, producing a collection that the Mumfords feel is personal, instinctive and communal. n Island, Friday 20 February.
DREXLER
Scotland-based Hong Kong artist Adrian Leung (aka Drexler) created Olympia-5 in response to his father’s serious illness. With conversations across continents feeling clinical, he began sending improvised piano recordings instead, a different way of offering comfort and connection.
n Self-released, Monday 23 February.
BOOKS
RHIANNON LUCY COSSLETT
Dubbed ‘a beach read with a brain; tender, provocative and relatable’, Female, Nude revolves around Sophie, a painter, who is holidaying with friends in Greece, knowing that this might be the last time they hang out as single women.
n Tinder Press, Thursday 12 February.
FRANCIS SPUFFORD
Author of the Booker-longlisted Light Perpetual returns with the 1939-set Nonesuch, as an ambitious young woman working in finance suddenly discovers the power to change the course of history.
n Faber, Thursday 26 February.
GAMES
YAKUZA KIWAMI 3
The story of Kazuma continues as he keeps fighting to protect those he cares about. Amid the bustling streets of Okinawa and Tokyo, the game’s combat aims to take brutal brawling to a new level.
n Sega, Thursday 12 February.
PODCASTS
THE CRIMES OF MARGO FRESHWATER
Aged 18, Margo Freshwater fell in with a much older man, and together they blazed through a crime spree that ended with her being sentenced to 99 years for murder. This pod tells the full terrible story of their crimes.
n The Binge Crimes, new episodes weekly.
TV
MICHAEL JACKSON: THE TRIAL
In 2005, the world descended on Santa Maria, California, when the King Of Pop faced molestation charges. This four-part documentary features contributors who have never spoken about the trial before.
n Channel 4, Wednesday 4 February.
SMALL PROPHETS
From Mackenzie Crook comes this comedy series about an eccentric (Pearce Quigley) whose wife has been missing for seven years. When he stumbles upon the ability to predict the future, it gives him some hope.
n BBC Two, Monday 9 February.
HOW TO GET TO HEAVEN FROM BELFAST
Derry Girls’ creator Lisa McGee returns, bringing us an eight-part comedy thriller about three friends investigating the mysterious death of a former school pal. Sinéad Keenan, Roisin Gallagher, Emmett J Scanlan and Ardal O’Hanlon all feature in this.
n Netflix, Thursday 12 February.
Small Prophets (and bottom from left), Drexler, How To Get To Heaven From Belfast,Yakuza Kiwami 3
back
THE Q& A WITH JESSICA HARDWICK
Scottish actor Jessica Hardwick stars alongside Idris Elba in the second season of hit thriller Hijack, with the action moving from plane to train this time around. She also plays an enigmatic teacher in Gifted, a show about a bunch of kids in Edinburgh who realise they have special powers. Here, she takes on our hard-hitting Q&A and talks otters, sharks and ghostly goings-on
What’s the punchline to your favourite joke? He had no body to go with.
If you were to return in a future life as an animal, what would it be? An otter. They look like they have the most fun.
If you were playing in an escape room name two other people (well-known or otherwise) you’d recruit to help you get out? Nick Mohammed as he’s good at solving puzzles. And Jennifer Saunders to keep it silly when things get too tense.
When was the last time you were mistaken for someone else and what were the circumstances? More times than I’m comfortable with I’ve been mistaken as a salesperson when shopping. Most of the time I bashfully correct them but sometimes it’s easier to just go along with it and pretend I work there.
What’s the best cover version ever? ‘Respect’ by Aretha Franklin.
Whose speaking voice soothes your ears? Stephen Fry.
Tell us something you wish you had discovered sooner in life? To trust that you’re enough and not to shape yourself into what you think others want you to be.
What tune do you find it impossible not to get up and dance to, whether in public or private? ‘No Diggity’ by Blackstreet and Dr Dre.
Describe your perfect Saturday evening? Pizza and a film or a games night with pals.
If you were a ghost, who would you haunt? Danny Robins. I’m a huge fan of the Uncanny podcast. He’s always saying he wishes he could experience a haunting to know if ghosts are real, so I’d try and get the word out through him.
If you could relive any day of your life, which one would it be? I think maybe one of those snow days at primary school when you got the day off and went sledging instead.
What’s your earliest recollection of winning something? The ‘effort prize’ in primary school: I’ve always been a bit of a try hard!
Did you have a nickname at school that you were ok with? No, but I always wished I did. I did have one that I hated but it’s probably too rude to put in print. Let’s just say it was a ‘creative’ variation on my surname.
If you were to start a tribute act to a band or singer, who would it be in tribute to and what would it be called? Dolly Parton, with a full band of female musicians, called The Dolly Birds.
When were you most recently astonished by something? Daily. The world is pretty astonishing.
Which famous person would be your ideal holiday companion? Daisy May Cooper. We’d get nothing done and possibly get arrested but it would certainly be memorable.
As an adult, what has a child said to you that made a powerful impact? My niece once told me she was ‘a little scared’. I think everyone gets scared, no matter what age we are, and actually it’s good to tell people. That always makes it less scary.
Tell us one thing about yourself that would surprise people? I love shark films.
When did you last cry? When I burned my arm cooking on Christmas Day.
What’s the most hi-tech item in your home? My breadmaker.
What’s a skill you’d love to learn but never got round to? Playing the guitar.
By decree of your local council, you’ve been ordered to destroy one room in your house and all of its contents. Which room do you choose? Probably the bathroom. It needs redoing anyway so that would definitely get the ball rolling.
If you were selected as the next 007, where would you pick as your first luxury destination for espionage? Iceland. I’ve always wanted to see the Northern Lights and I love good knitwear.
New episodes of Hijack’s second season are available every Wednesday on Apple TV; all episodes of CBBC’s Gifted are on BBC iPlayer now; picture: Stewart Bywater.
hot shots
1 2 3
Some nifty footwork can be expected at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre courtesy of Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana (3 & 4 February). Set to a Cuban-style take on the classic Tchaikovsky score, this out-of-season extravaganza has Clara getting ready to celebrate Christmas with her family before venturing out to defeat the Rat King.
Who wouldn’t be outraged when a piece of cake is stolen? Written by Julian Gough and illustrated by Glasgow’s Ross Collins, When Tad Kicked Vlad (10 February) features such an incident which results in a global cycle of violence that returns a full year later back at Tad’s house. Will the little guy break this chain of pain? Course he will.
Karmadonna splatters into Glasgow Film Festival’s FrightFest strand on 7 March but we thought it might be humane to provide an early warning. Created by Aleksandar Radivojevic, co-writer of 2010’s controversial and generally loathed A Serbian Story (google it at your peril), this psycho-horror is, as they say, not for the faint-hearted.
PICTURE: TRISTRAM KENTON
Use your contactless card or device to Tap On and Tap Off trams to the Six Nations
You must Tap On and Tap Off to only pay the cheapest adult daily city zone fare, otherwise an airport zone fare will be charged.
