The Skinny December 2021

Deck the halls?

Christmas is (probably) not cancelled!

January 2020

Books

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Art January 2020

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The Skinny's favourite Christmas songs Frightened Rabbit — It's Christmas So We'll Stop The Waitresses — Christmas Wrapping Phoebe Bridgers — Christmas Song DMX — Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Darlene Love — Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) Wham! — Last Christmas Daveed Diggs — Puppy for Hanukkah The Hives & Cyndi Lauper — A Christmas Duel The Pogues — Fairytale of New York Mariah Carey ­­­­— All I Want for Christmas Is You Tyler, the Creator — I AM THE GRINCH RUN-DMC — Christmas in Hollis Leroy Anderson — Sleigh Ride Ariana Grande — Santa Tell Me

Listen to this playlist on Spotify — search for 'The Skinny Office Playlist' or scan the below code

Issue 191, December 2021 © Radge Media Ltd.

December 2021

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Championing creativity in Scotland

Meet the team We asked – What's your favourite source of Christmas arguments?

Editorial

Rosamund West Editor-in-Chief "All. Of. It."

Peter Simpson Digital Editor, Food & Drink Editor "Me, repeatedly insisting that Christmas dinner 'is actually more of a late lunch, around 2, 2.30pm.'"

Anahit Behrooz Events Editor "I am taking the 5th :-)"

Jamie Dunn Film Editor, Online Journalist "What films to watch. My family hates my pretentious suggestions, so we end up rewatching The Muppet Christmas Carol (which is, incidentally, a perfect movies, so I win either way)."

Tallah Brash Music Editor "I hate confrontation, but every year there's always a debate about where we're going for Christmas Day and I am so over it. Definitely my mother's daughter."

Nadia Younes Clubs Editor "Trying to encourage my mother to season food – apparently a ludicrous suggestion???"

Polly Glynn Comedy Editor "There’s something we like to call ‘microwave roulette’ at my parents’ house.

Dinner’s not hot enough.

Put it in the microwave. By the time everyone’s had a go with the microwave, the first one is cold again.

Ad infinitum. "

Katie Goh Intersections Editor "Untangling the lights."

Eliza Gearty Theatre Editor "Blur vs Oasis."

Heather McDaid Books Editor "Who has the coolest jumper."

Sales & Business

Production

Dalila D'Amico Art Director, Production Manager "Deciding who's doing the washing up."

Adam Benmakhlouf Art Editor "Number of dessert variations. Two arguments, one beforehand with me advocating for at least four, then on Boxing Day once it's really obvious that this was far too many for our party of three."

Phoebe Willison Designer "Trying to hide a hangover on Christmas Day and inevitably getting found out."

Sandy Park Commercial Director "My annual attempt at disappearing to the pub on Boxing Day. Or Michael Bublé on repeat."

Tom McCarthy Creative Projects Manager "Me."

George Sully Sales and Brand Strategist "Tom."

Laurie Presswood General Manager "The tangerine race.

Email me if you know what that is."

THE SKINNY

Editorial Words: Rosamund West

A

December 2021 — Chat

t the end of another weird year we’ve been looking back and pondering – was 2021 better or worse than 2020?

It’s a tough call – parts (extended winter, Jan-Apr) have been really terrible, but we have been locked in our houses a lot less since then? Although, while last year intruded more on our personal freedoms, this year has revealed a lot more about the rank corruption, malignant policy design and selfishness of the world in general. It’s probably too close to call?

The world may be on fire, but at least we’ve had live music.

And a whole load of wonderful albums to listen to as we stare at the flames. As is traditional, we have done a lot of polling to mark the end of the year. The music team have been interrogated to discover their favourite releases of 2021, with the top ten each presented here alongside one fan’s passionate argument for its greatness. We’ve also focused more specifically on Scottish music, with an overview of the big events of the year, alongside a rundown of the top ten releases by Scottish artists.

The film team have had their time at the polls, resulting in a top ten of the best films of 2021, with a countdown of the most overlooked films of the year running alongside it. Comedy has conducted a perhaps less scientifically rigorous survey, and put together a list of the funniest things to have happened this year including but not limited to Bo Burnham; an overheard conversation between 14 year olds; a very small coffee table.

The centre spreads are once again pull-out-and-use sheets of wrapping paper designed by supremely talented illustrators Max Machen and Connie Noble. As it is the season of consumerism, we have compiled our usual gift guide asking the team for their recommendations / list of demands. We wanted to move away from focusing on stuff, so this year we asked that everyone

consider ideas of subscriptions, experiences, vouchers that can continue to support small businesses and – not to be too travel influencer – collect memories not things. All with the usual focus on local, sustainable, ethical.

While we were working on this issue, the heartbreaking news reached us of Beldina Odenyo Onassis, Heir of the Cursed’s passing. One of Scotland’s most talented artists, her October SAY Award performance honouring Kathryn Joseph was electrifying – no one who saw it will ever forget it. Her performance online during the dark days of lockdown offered a memory of live music’s beauty, hope and connection. We have collected tributes from those who knew her to honour her memory.

In Art, we meet Howardena Pindell for an interview conducted over voice note, providing an insight into her studio practice, and the last 60 years of making social change as an artist and activist.

At the end of another year where the threats to women and those from marginalised genders’ basic safety have been constantly highlighted, most recently with reports of needle spiking (to go alongside the drink spiking we already had to be constantly vigilant against), we meet some of those working to properly and authentically implement safer space policy in the club scene. Returning to the apocalypse, in Books Katie Goh – author of The End: Surviving the World Through Imagined Disasters – takes a look at how some of the year’s disaster fiction can help us live and find hope in the midst of man-made catastrophe.

Continuing in the theme, our final Q&A of the year embraces the world of pantomime. Turn to the inside back to hear from Scottish panto stalwart Grant Stott, covering our favourite topics of cooking dinner for Billy Connolly, looking up to his dad and fighting Joe Pasquale.

Cover Artist Sophie J Morrison is an illustrator and muralist based in Glasgow. Specialising in digital illustration and painting, she also dabbles in risograph, collage and screen printing and has worked with brands such as Pieute, K2, Doyenne, Open/Close and Gilded Balloon. Sophie’s work takes inspiration from everyday things like food, pattern, structure, nature and the human form. sophiejmorrison.com I: @sophiejmorrison

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Love Bites

Love Bites: Conversations with Exes This month’s columnist reflects on why they’ve felt unlucky in love through conversations with exes Words: Zuva Seven

I

December 2021 — Chat

always believed I was unlucky in love. At 25, I had never had a long-term relationship. I don’t even really know what it is like to be truly ‘partnered’. It doesn’t bother me most days, but it can get a bit old being the constant third wheel to friends who are only ever in long-term commitments.

However, tired of this endless situation, I recently decided to take a break from dating to work on myself by reflecting on the past, specifically old, short-lived ‘relationships’. The people I have dated are not blameless, but I was able to investigate why I’ve attracted the people I have. In this regard, conversations with my ex flings have been illuminating.

One of these men recently sent me a message apologising for taking two months to respond to me. After letting me down, he had archived our conversation, as he didn’t want me to “flip out at him”. This is something I have never done, though if you were to hear it from him, I constantly overreact. Another has messaged me consistently for two years to check in with how my poetry is going, even though I continue to remind him I stopped it in favour of journalism.

Whereas before I questioned why I was unlucky in love, now I cringe at the choices I made, thanking myself for never making it official with any of my exes. I have forgiven myself for fighting for attention from people unable to meet my needs. I thought I had failed by never making things long-term, but failure brought me to the path I am on now, and on reflection, I feel like the luckiest person in the world.

Crossword Solutions Across 1. THE GREAT RESIGNATION 11. ITALY 14. YACHT 15. INCUMBENT 16. TEMPT FATE 17. OPPRESS 18. RITZY 19. PROUD 20. RATED 21. SQUID GAME 23. MAINSTREAM MEDIA 29. EVACUATE 31. ET AL 33. SAFE DEPOSIT 36. SHELTER 37. APOGEE 38. MELATONIN 42. OVER A BARREL 44. ASTRAZENECA 46. MOONSHINE 47. CRYPTO 48. OPTICAL 52. BLIND ALLEYS 54. NORM 55. DECREPIT 57. CONSERVATORSHIP 60. ROBINETTE 62. CRAMP 64. MUMMY 67. RENEW 68. BACKLIT 69. POLARISED 70. DEMOCRACY 71. NAIVE 72. DONDA 73. CAMILLA PARKER BOWLES Down 1. TAYLOR'S VERSION 2. ENCAPSULATE 3. RETREAD 4. AMISS 5. RECORDED 6. SYMPTOM 7. GEEKY 8. ACT UP 9. IN TWO 10. NOMADLAND 11. INTERIM 12. ADAPT 13. YIELD 22. AFTERMATH 24. IN LIEU 25. SASS 26. REFLECTION 27. DESPISE 28. ANTI 30. UNTRAINED 32. TROLLS 34. PROTESTER 35. FAHRENHEIT 39. AT A LOW EBB 40. HAMPER 41. WALL STREET BETS 43. ETONIAN 45. GRINCH 49. CAPITOL HILL 50. BBFC 51. USER 53. LIVE MUSIC 56. DRAWBACK 58. EMPORIA 59. PANACEA 61. NO CAN DO 62. COPED 63. ALL IN 65. MODEM 66. YODEL 67. RUMBA 68. BUYER

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Heads Up

Get in the Christmas spirit with festive musicals, unique markets, and cosy gigs to warm up the cold weeks.

Compiled by Anahit Behrooz Image: courtesy of artist and Tramway

Amartey Golding: Bring Me To Heal Bringing together photography, filmmaking, and traditional handcrafting, Amartey Golding’s new exhibition highlights the generational trauma inherited

by Black people in Britain, and explores how collective healing can take place. Golding’s dreamlike spaces use historical moments to create tipping points that speak to weight of the past and the uncertainty of a shifting future.

Christmas at GFT Glasgow Film Theatre, 11-24 Dec Bring Me To Heal, Amartey Golding Image: courtesy of GFT

Image: courtesy of artist

Heads Up

Tramway, Glasgow, 4 Dec-27 Feb 2022

Photo: Daria Adamitskaya

The Lathums

For more festive cheer, turn to Glasgow Film Theatre, whose festive programme this year is packed with Old Hollywood classics and childhood gems. Highlights include The Shop Around the Corner – the original inspiration behind 90s rom-com You’ve Got Mail – Greta Gerwig’s magnificent Little Women, and Christmas classic (depending on which side of the debate you fall on) Die Hard.

The Shop Around the Corner

Photo: Rick Guest

The Lathums Fat Sam's, Dundee, 3-4 Dec, 7pm Inspired by the likes of The Kooks and Arctic Monkeys, The Lathums’ jangly, noughties-inspired indie from Greater Manchester comes to Dundee for two nights in a row. With a charming, retro vibe, gentle lyrics, and nostalgically catchy riffs, their live shows are somehow perfect for the Christmas season: warm, earnest, and comfortingly melancholy.

Carmen, Bird and Carrot in Association with The Pleasance Image: courtesy of Edinburgh Playhouse

White Christmas

Based on the 1954 film that popularised the beloved festive song White Christmas, this dazzling musical takes place in the aftermath of the Second World War, following two soldiers who take to the stage to make their fortune, and find love with two sisters in the process. With music and lyrics by the great Irving Berlin and sumptuous staging, this is the perfect way to kickstart any dormant Christmas feelings.

White Christmas

Rachel Sermanni

Carmen Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Edinburgh 17-18 Dec, 7:30pm Based on Georges Bizet’s classic opera Carmen, about a tragic romance that unfolds between soldier Don José and the passionate, fickle woman he falls in love with, this spectacular interpretative dance drama is headlined by Royal Ballet prima Natalia Osipova and choreographed by Didy Veldman, resulting in a breathtakingly visual piece.

The Liquid Room, Edinburgh, 10 Dec, 7pm

Summerhall, Edinburgh, 3 Dec, 7pm One of Scotland’s foremost indie-folk singer-songwriters takes to the Summerhall stage for a beautifully intimate show. Having made her name touring and supporting the likes of Mumford and Sons and Elvis Costello, her headline shows have a more meditative, introspective feel, with her new EP tracing her experience of new motherhood and coming of age.

Frazi.er B2B Cynthia Spiering SWG3, Glasgow, 30 Dec, 11pm Image: courtesy of artist

Image: courtesy of artist and SWG3

Elephant Sessions

Photo: Euan Robertson

Image: Courtesy of artist and Generator Projects

December 2021 — Chat

Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh 14 Dec-2 Jan 2022

Rachel Sermanni

Zoe Gibson: Daily Dance No Wrong Notes, Chelsea Frew

Zoe Gibson: Daily Dance Generator Projects, Dundee, Until 19 Dec

Elephant Sessions

Deck the Halls SWG3, Glasgow, 2-24 Dec

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Cynthia Spiering

THE SKINNY

Photo: Reuben Paris

Image: courtesy of artist

Future of Home Custom Lane, Edinburgh, 3-19 Dec Following a critically acclaimed debut at the London Design Festival, exhibition Future of Home curated by Edinburgh-based studio Local Heroes arrives back in its hometown. The exhibition features work by 15 Scotland-based designers and brands all revolving around the idea of the “hybrid home” and the recent need for flexible working, offering a remarkable snapshot of the intersection between design and socio-political conditions.

Heads Up

Future of Home

Healing: Reimaging Futures Image: courtesy of artist Earth Mother, Sky Father, dir. by .

Kordae Henry-Theo Pan, Healing: Reimaging Futures

Rae-Yen Song

Photo: Kristen Brodie

Rae-Yen Song Dundee Contemporary Arts, 11 Dec-20 Mar 2022 The first Scottish solo exhibition by Glasgow-based artist Rae-Yen Song, this considerable body of work comprising sculpture, installation, printmaking, and video is a multi-sensory exploration of memory and identity. Giving a glimpse into an alternate dimension formed by the ancestral past and imagined futures of Song’s family, this dynamic, mesmerising exhibition is an interrogation of what it means to belong.

Brontës

Brontës

CCA: Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, 7 Dec, 7pm This mini, one-evening festival programme by Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival envisions new worlds through the work of five international filmmakers, whose short films offer alternative modes of connection and healing. Interrogating the ways in which we might reimagine our social structures to make way for collective healing, this is filmmaking at its most liberatory and radical.

Leith Witch Market Leith Arches, Edinburgh, 18 Dec, 10am A reconnection with the Pagan traditions of the Yuletide season, this uniquely subversive Christmas market takes inspiration from the cycle of the seasons, eschewing the usual Christmas tat for a celebration of the witchy in the wintery. Have your tarot read, browse through herbalists’ wares, or find unusual, handcrafted gifts from local printmakers, florists, and silversmiths.

Having played their first ever gig at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut earlier this summer, local indie rock outfit Brontës are already making impressive waves in the Glasgow music scene. This month, they’re set to make their headline debut at Broadcast, bringing their deliciously grungey sound and infectious live energy to the stage.

Image: courtesy of Leith Witchcraft Market

Image: ReCompose

Broadcast, Glasgow, 11 Dec, 7pm

Samedia Hogmanay Fiesta La Belle Angele, Edinburgh, 31 Dec, 11pm

Samedia

Dried flower pentagram wreaths by Nymeria Bloom

All details were correct at the time of writing, but are subject to change. Please check organisers’ websites for up to date information.

Miss World

WILF

Miss World: Sofia Kourtesis Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, 16 Dec, 11pm

City Lights The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2-23 Dec Image: courtesy of The Scottish Gallery

Photo: Laurence Winram

Grey Wolf Studios, Glasgow 2-4 + 9-11 Dec Photo: Brian Sweeney

Photo: Tiu Makkonen

Grey Wolf Festive Pop Shop

WILF East End Press

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 8-24 Dec

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Looking to the Castle, Michael McVeigh

December 2021 — Chat

Ring in the new year in style with this all-night party at La Belle Angele hosted by acclaimed clubnight Samedia Shebeen. Blending Afrobeat tunes with Arabic and Latin influences, and featuring gorgeous, immersive set design and décor throughout, this is the perfect way to escape into another world in the first few hours of 2022.

December 2021

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THE SKINNY

Photo: Craig McIntos Free Love

Also back this year are all the usual Boxing Day blowouts. Take your pick from Helena Hauff at The Liquid Room, Optimo (Espacio) at The Mash House, and Slam at La Belle Angele in Edinburgh; Subculture’s Boxing Day Special at Sub Club in Glasgow; Nightwave at Club 69 in Paisley; or Gary Beck at King’s Dundee.

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Blawan

December 2021 — Events Guide

seven years in the game with a Bristol showcase at Sneaky Pete’s on 20 December, featuring sets from Batu, Yushh and Cando. And if you’re desperate to escape your family on Christmas Day, Headset’s annual Christmas Day bash returns to The Mash House, following last year’s absence.

Raveloe

Photo: Marie Staggat

Photo: Kasia Zacharko Batu

Clubs It’s birthday season and festive season for Scotland’s promoters this month. First up, Pulse proves that you’re never too old for a two-dayer by celebrating 12 years with two parties, both headlined by Blawan, at The Bongo Club in Edinburgh on 4 December and La Cheetah Club in Glasgow on 5 December.

Headset joins in the birthday celebrations later in the month, marking

Russell Stewart

Photo: Jodie Bartkiewicz

Photo: Marilena Vlachopoulou VLURE

Music Like the past few months, there’s more than enough gigs worth getting excited about across Scotland this December. Firstly, following the release of her gorgeous new single Catkins last month, Motherwell singer-songwriter Kim Grant, who performs under the moniker Raveloe, plays her debut headline show at The Glad Cafe this month (2 Dec). There’s also singer-songwriter talent to be found early in the month at Edinburgh’s Summerhall (3 Dec) and Aberdeen’s Lemon Tree (4 Dec) as Rachel Sermanni plays consecutive dates.

On 9 December new promoters Showout Events bring a night of hip-hop, rap, drill and grime to Glasgow’s Room 2, with Mic Righteous and Chef both playing, while the same day finally sees psych rockers Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs bring their massive 2020 album Viscerals to Scotland with the first of three dates at Edinburgh’s Summerhall before they play Glasgow’s St Luke’s (10 Dec) and Aberdeen’s The Lemon Tree (11 Dec). That weekend is a busy one across the rest of the central belt too with the Scottish Jazz Weekend at Edinburgh’s Assembly Roxy (10-12 Dec); Swim School play The Mash House (11 Dec) and Modern Studies play Sneaky Pete’s (12 Dec) or catch them the night before at Glasgow’s The Glad Cafe. That weekend in Glasgow be sure to also catch the soulful Russell Stewart at The Poetry Club (10 Dec), post-punk skronkers Kaputt at Stereo (10 Dec) and indie-rock trio We Were Promised Jetpacks at QMU (11 Dec), before things come to a pre-Christmas head with VLURE at Glasgow’s King Tut’s (19 Dec) and Retro Video Club at Edinburgh’s The Caves (22 Dec).

Which leads us neatly onto Christmas gigs. Starting with a double whammy, Lost Map Records bring their Christmas HUMBUG! shows to both Edinburgh and Glasgow with Callum Easter playing Summerhall (3 Dec) and Herbert Powell playing Mono (4 Dec). On the same day in Aberdeen, it’s the return of the AGP Christmas Gig at The Tunnels featuring The Vegan Leather, Declan Welsh and The Decadent West, Dead Pony and more. Born out of lockdown, on 15 December Fresh Tracks are hosting a festive Songwriter Circle at Glasgow’s Cottiers Theatre with performances from the likes of David Scott, Becci Wallace, Rosie Bans and Colonel John McMustard.

The following night, Edinburgh will welcome a Christmas Concert to Stockbridge’s St Vincent Chapel with music from Gaze is Ghost, Rue Marie and Navali, while Fistymuffs’ Festimuffs II will take place in The Banshee Labyrinth.

Neu! Reekie! go all out for their Snowballer at Leith St Andrews Church on 17 December where you can expect performances from Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Clarissa Woods and Kathryn Williams, who by that point will even have a Christmas record out (Midnight Chorus arrives on 3 Dec). And capping off the festive gigs this year, in Glasgow Tommy Reilly hosts his seventh All Star Christmas gig at The Blue Arrow (23 Dec), raising money for Tiny Changes and Macmillan Cancer Support. [Tallah Brash]

Photo: Rory Barnes

What's On

THE SKINNY

Photo: David Moffat Optimo

Tron Theatre

Film In this ever turbulent world, there’s something comforting about returning to the same old Christmas movies over and over again. There are the unimpeachable classics (It’s a Wonderful Life, The Shop Around the Corner); the modern classics (The Muppet Christmas Carol, Elf); the ones with a satirical edge (Gremlins, Die Hard, The Nightmare Before Christmas); and the ones that are actually terrible, but still inexplicably popular (White Christmas, Home Alone).

All of the above are screening at least once at Glasgow Film Theatre, Filmhouse, DCA or Cameo this December. What we want to shout out here, however, are the more imaginative Xmas selections. We’re delighted that both Filmhouse and GFT have promoted Greta Gerwig’s Little Women to annual festive rotation. It’s also lovely to see Sean Baker’s electric comedy Tangerine and Todd Haynes’ lush romance Carol queering up Christmas with their screenings at Filmhouse.

Someone at the GFT clearly loves The Bishop’s Wife, a rather obscure Cary Grant film that gets wheeled out there each December. I’m also drawn to Remember the Night (Filmhouse), which features Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray four years before they steamed up the screen in Double Indemnity.

For full screening details, see the cinemas’ websites.

There are non-Christmas gifts at GFT in the form of two must-attend preview screenings of Paul Thomas Anderson’s loosey-goosey coming-of-age romance Licorice Pizza on 35mm (28 & 29 Dec). Rep-heads should be sated by a pair of gem-like Yasujirō Ozu films at GFT – The Flavour of Green Tea over Rice (5 & 7 Dec) and Early Summer (12 & 15 Dec). Filmhouse, meanwhile, are rounding out the year with a Wong Kar-wai retrospective – masterpieces Chungking Express (10-12 Dec), Happy Together (20-22 Dec) and In the Mood for Love (27-29 Dec) are among the line-up.

The final film festival of 2021 will likely be the Catalan Film Festival. It’s bringing a carefully curated taster of Catalan cinema old and new, feature-length and short, to venues like CCA Glasgow (2-3 Dec), Filmhouse (2-5 Dec) and DCA (10-11 Dec). Anyone in need of some sunshine should inject these films directly into your veins; full details at catalanfilmfestival.com.

GFT are also hosting a pay-what-you-can screening of Ben Sharrock’s bittersweet comedy Limbo (9 Dec) in partnership with Safe in Scotland. Not only is it one of the films of the year (The Skinny’s film writers certainly think so – see page 30), its compassion for the plight of the refugees trying to make a home in this country will only be more poignant given the tragic deaths of 31 asylum seekers as they attempted to cross the Channel in late-November. [Jamie Dunn] Theatre It’s December, which can only mean one thing. Love ‘em, hate ‘em or simply love to hate ‘em, pantos are all over the country this month. The famous King’s Theatre Panto in Edinburgh makes a triumphant return this year in the form of Sleeping Beauty, featuring pantomime stalwarts Allan Stewart and Grant Stott as Queen Mary and the evil Carabosse (until 16 Jan). Glaswegian queen Elaine C. Smith is stepping back onto her home turf’s King’s Theatre stage this month, to take on the role of fairy godmother in Cinderella (until 2 Jan). Expect belly laughs and a stellar performance from one of the best dames in the business. Of course, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a pantomime in Glasgow with a Weegie twist, and this year the Òran Mór are staging Cinderella 2: I Married A Numpty (until 31 Dec). Check it out for a slightly less family-friendly, but definitely wickedly funny, alternative to the mainstream panto.

The winter season is traditionally a lovely time to take any kids in your life to the theatre, and there are lots of magical shows this month bound to entertain no matter your age. White Christmas: The Musical is a guaranteed fun and familyfriendly night out at the Edinburgh Playhouse (14 Dec-2 Jan). Also in Edinburgh, children and young people’s company Lyra are staging their first Christmas show Once Upon a Snowstorm at their multi-arts venue ArtSpace in Craigmillar (15-31 Dec). Olive The Other Reindeer at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre is a slightly more rowdy-sounding children’s show about a rebellious reindeer who is determined to — 12 —

Tangerine

Photo: Lewis Hayward

Photo: Ben Collins

December 2021 — Events Guide

Carol

Animal Farm are just pipped to the post for the biggest birthday of the month, celebrating 17 years with a huge line-up at Sub Club on 27 December, headed up by Clara Cuvé and Wallis. But, celebrating the big 2-0, it’s Jackhammer who wins the birthday prize and they’ll be celebrating at The Caves in Edinburgh on 29 December with Ben Sims, Altern8, Leeroy Thornhill, and more.

For those looking for a pre-NYE warm-up, there are two very different parties taking place the night a’fore in Edinburgh and Glasgow. If you’re looking for a more intimate affair, Club Sylkie’s Gay Hogmanay at Sneaky Pete’s should suit you, but if big room techno is what you’re after it won’t get any bigger than Nina Kraviz and Frazi.er at The OVO Hydro – that’s right, the bloody Hydro!

Finally, we’ll be able to bring in the bells in an actual club again this year, so prepare yourself for entry queues, drinks queues, toilet queues, and taxi queues; but also have a lovely time dancing to good music! Our top pick is Optimo (Espacio) at Room 2 in Glasgow, which also features a live performance from Free Love. [Nadia Younes]

Chungking Express

THE SKINNY

Photo: Victoria Begg Dundee Rep

get rid of Santa’s ‘naughty list’ (14-24 Dec). For a Christmas classic, don’t miss Scottish Ballet’s The Nutcracker, playing at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre (1-31 Dec) before touring elsewhere.

A Christmas Carol might be the ultimate Christmas story, and that could be why there’s not one but two versions of it taking place on Scottish stages this year. After successful runs in 2014 and 2018, the Citizens Theatre is returning with its acclaimed production of Charles Dickens’ classic, this time at the Tramway (3-24 Dec). Dundee Rep have got together with musical theatre writers Noisemaker to create a brand new musical version of the tale, directed by the Rep’s Artistic Director Andrew Panton (until 31 Dec). In Edinburgh, The Lyceum and Catherine Wheels Theatre Company are putting on Rob Alan Evans’ new play, Christmas Dinner. Its about a stage manager called Lesley who expects ‘not to have a Christmas this year’ – until a troupe of festive spirits suddenly burst from the theatre’s costume closet. It sounds like a fun, fresh and slightly different Christmas show. [Eliza Gearty]

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At the shore, everything touches, 2021, Tako Taal

December 2021 — Events Guide

Photo: Paul Storr Withered Hand at Summerhall

Poetry If you’re in the mood for a big Christmas night out, poetry style, Edinburgh’s Summerhall has got you covered. Cold Turkey’s Nut Loaf: Kae Tempest, Hollie McNish, Michael Pedersen and Withered Hand (10 Dec) will be a night of firecracking poetry and music featuring some of the UK’s best and brightest performance poets, who have a barrelful of awards between them. Tickets are £16.50, which, for three hours of pure, unadulterated poetic and musical entertainment, is a bargain.

If you’re not yet ready for the crowds, but fancy an experience that isn’t staring at a Zoom screen, then poet Annie Muir has you all set with her new podcast, Time for one Poem. In each episode, Annie invites one poet to come and talk about how they got into poetry, but also invites one Glasgow-based poetry sceptic into the space to explain why they didn’t. The trio then takes one poem and tries to come to an understanding of it. Upcoming December poets include Rowan McCabe, Afshan d’souza-lodhi, Theresa Muñoz, Gboyega Odubanjo, and the late Callie Gardner.

Not a usual addition to this column, but a special exception for an upcoming submission deadline. VISIBLE is looking for poetry and prose for its debut publication, with a deadline of 20 Dec for its launch in Jan 2022. VISIBLE creator Lucy Arthur is looking for poetry inspired by the writer’s experience of living with an invisible disability.

Technically these are two November releases, but for those of you on the hunt for poetic Christmas presents, look no further. Red Squirrel Press has just released Helen Boden’s A Landscape To Figure In, while Bloodaxe has published a translation of Joan Margarit’s Wild Creature (translated by honourary president of StAnza Festival, Anna Crowe). [Beth Cochrane]

The fearful part of it was the absence, Joey Simons

Image: Courtesy of the artist

▷▥◉▻, 2021, Rae-Yen Song

Photo: Jack Wrigley

Image: Courtesy of the artist

Art It’s December, so as well as the exhibition openings this month, there are some fairs and markets happening around, too. While we’re not quite at pre-pandemic art Xmas art parties yet, there’s still a good whack of gallery activity happening in the next few weeks.

Cooper Gallery launches the openings with their new show, Sit-In #2: To Be Potential from Friday 3 December. It’s continuing their series The Ignorant Art School: Five Sit-Ins Towards Creative Emancipation. This time, several different group and histories of alternative structures of education are part of the exhibition, bookings available online.

Also from 3 December, writer Joey Simons’ new show The Fearful Part of it Was the Absence opens in Collective. The exhibition is a sociopolitical and poetic enquiry into Glasgow’s ‘periodic eruption and absence of rioting’, with new writing, film and drawings by Simons and the photographer Jack Wrigley.

On Saturday 4 December, the new show in Tramway opens, Bring Me To Heal by Amartey Golding. In this work, Golding applies healing and restorative principles of a Rastafarian upbringing to the historical violences that exist in his Anglo-Scottish and Ghanaian ancestry, through film, photography, and an ornate and intricately designed centrepiece made from hand-knotted human hair.

On 11 December, DCA opens the first solo Scottish solo shows for artists Rae-Yen Song and Tako Taal. Song’s show is titled ▷▥◉▻, and using a complex large scale sculptural installation gives viewers a glimpse of an alternate dimension, shaped according to the ancestral logics and imagined futures of Song’s family, which serves simultaneously as spectacle, memorial and refuge.

Taal’s At the Shore Everything Touches is set in her family’s home village in The Gambia – Juffureh. Across film, collage, painting and archive materials from Taal’s own personal photographs and documents, this new body of work centres on Juffureh, its geography, historical significance as a trade post and fort during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the ways in which its histories are used and instrumentalised in the present day.

On the weekend of 11 and 12 December Gather Studios, Grey Wolf Studios and Rumpus Room will all host markets across the city. See their respective socials for the exact sweet treats and refreshments that will be on offer, as well as time, date and location. [Adam Benmakhlouf]

November 2021

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5 Meet the Team — 6 Editorial — 7 Love Bites — 8 Heads Up 11 What’s On — 16 Crossword — 61 Music — 62 Film & TV — 64 Books 65 Comedy — 66 Listings — 70 The Skinny On… Grant Stott

Features 19 The team have voted on their Albums of the Year – here are the top ten, PLUS a look back on a transitional year for Scottish music, including our Top Ten Scottish Albums of the Year.

28 A collection of tributes to Beldina Odenyo Onassis, aka Heir of the Cursed, whose tragic passing last month rocked the Scottish music scene.

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30 Our team’s picks of the Best Films of 2021 alongside our top Underrated Films of 2021.

33 It’s been pretty bleak at times, but we’ve pulled together to collate the Funniest things of 2021.

34 Two separate pages of pullout-and-use Wrapping Paper by talented illustrators Connie Noble and Max Machen.

40 We’ve compiled a staff-picked Gift Guide of things, places and experiences to help you shop local this festive season.

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48 We meet some of those working to properly and authentically implement safer space policy in the club scene.

50 We talk to Julia Ducournau and Agathe Rousselle about Titane’s tender core.

52 We chat to Ben Harrison, Marina Barham and Abdelfattah Abusrour about CCA’s Bethlehem Cultural Festival.

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56 Howardena Pindell gives an insight into her studio practice, and the last 60 years of making social change as an artist and activist.

58 Frankie Elyse on Polka Dot Disco Club and diversifying Dundee’s club scene.

On the website...

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56 Image Credits: (Left to right, top to bottom) Courtesy of Lizzie Reid; courtesy of The SAY Award; Rolf Konow; Channel 4; Max Machen; Bethany Grace; Sophie J Morrison; Titane; courtesy of CCA; Kasia Kozakiewicz; Garth Greenan Gallery; Daniel Anderson

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Our Great Scots playlist of 2021’s best Scottish music, our Books of 2021 round-up, reviews of the new Arca, Laura-Mary Carter and Nils Frahm records, a track-by-track from LOTOS, AND episode one of our new clubs podcast, Clubbing Together...

December 2021 — Contents

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54 A look back on 2021 through a literary apocalyptic lens.

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December 2021 — Chat

Across 1. Phenomenon of UK workers quitting en masse due to COVID-19 – The Big Quit (3,5,11) 11. Winners of UEFA Euro 2020, which is a football thing that happened apparently (5) 14. Fancy boat (5) 15. Currently in office (9) 16. Do something risky (5,4) 17. Subjugate – exploit (7) 18. Swanky – upmarket (5) 19. Chuffed – dignified (5) 20. Assessed (5) 21. Korean Netflix survival drama (5,4) 23. Collective term for the most-watched news conglomerates – same damn airtime (anag) (10,5) 29. Get out (8) 31. And others (2,2) 33. Box for valuables, e.g. at a hotel (4,7) 36. British homelessness charity (7) 37. Highest point – climax (6) 38. Hormone linked to regulating our circadian rhythm (9) 42. Helpless – at someone's mercy (4,1,6) 44. One of the brands of the coronavirus vaccine (11) 46. Illegally distilled alcohol – nonsense (9)

47. Shortened form of the term for digital currencies (6) 48. Relating to vision (7) 52. Dead ends (5,6) 54. ___ Macdonald, deadpan Canadian comic (d.2021) (4) 55. Worn out – neglected (8) 57. Britney Spears was freed from this legal arrangement in 2021 (15) 60. President Biden's middle name – to be inert (anag) (9) 62. Muscular discomfort (5) 64. Embalmed and bandaged dead body – sometimes spoopi (5) 67. Update – resume (5) 68. Illuminated from behind (7) 69. Divided into extremes (9) 70. Socially equitable system of government (9) 71. Gullible (5) 72. Name of Kanye West's 2021 album (5) 73. She described president Biden's televised fart as "long and loud and impossible to ignore" (7,6,6)

1. (Swift's rerelease) – try vainer solos (anag) (7,7) 2. Summarise (11) 3. Go back over (7) 4. Not quite right – awry (5) 5. Filmed – saved (8) 6. Sign (7) 7. Nerdy (5) 8. Fail to work properly – misbehave (3,2) 9. Halved (2,3) 10. Winner of Best Picture at the 2021 Oscars (9) 11. Meantime (7) 12. Acclimatise (5) 13. Surrender – haul (5) 22. Fallout (9) 24. Instead (2,4) 25. Cheek (4) 26. Meditation (10) 27. Loathe (7) 28. Against (4) 30. Inexperienced (9) 32. Soulless internet jerks (6) 34. Activist (9) 35. F (10) 39. In a bad place (2,1,3,3) 40. Impede – basket (6)

41. Name of the Reddit subforum many consider responsible for 2021's Gamestop stock short squeeze (4,6,4) 43. Alumnus of an elite English public school – twat (7) 45. Basically a tall green Scrooge (6) 49. District of Washington D.C. where the January 2021 riots occurred (7,4) 50. UK's film certification and censorship board (init.) (4) 51. Operator (4) 53. Listening to tunes but, like, in person.

With people playing instruments and everything (4,5) 56. Disadvantage (8) 58. Shops – air poem (anag) (7) 59. Cure-all (7) 61. "I'm unable to enact what you're asking of me" (2,3,2) 62. Managed (5) 63. Betting everything (3,2) 65. Magical internet box (5) 66. Mountain shout-sing – delivery company (5) 67. Traditional Cuban music genre (5) 68. Consumer (5)

Turn to page 7 for the solutions — 16 —

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December 2020

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December 2020 — Chat

Crossword

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THE SKINNY

Lists, gifts, the end of days

December 2021

A

s we reach the end of another weird-slashmildly apocalyptic year, we observe our own particular traditions by looking back on the cultural highlights 2021 has brought us and creating an idiosyncratic gift guide.

Our Music team have been polled to find out their top albums of the year, international and also specifically Scottish. Our Film team have voted for their favourite releases, as well as rounding up the underappreciated gems 2021 has delivered. In Comedy, we have a selection of the funniest events of the year, ranging from the release of Bo Burnham’s Inside to a particularly small coffee

table someone saw on Twitter. Our centre pages contain two pull-out-and-use spreads of speciallydesigned wrapping paper, by illustrators Max Machen and Connie Noble, while our gift guide focuses on supporting small businesses with experiences, subscriptions and vouchers as well as things you can buy.

Never straying too far from that overwhelming sense of apocalyse we’ve all been experiencing, Books explores 2021 and looks to the future through the lens of the disaster fiction which has been released this year. It’s a more hopeful read than that description may suggest – season’s greetings!

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THE SKINNY

Best Albums of 2021 We polled our music writers to find out what albums they were obsessed with in 2021, ending up with over 200 to pore over.

Fortunately, there were more than a few records most of us could agree on, resulting in our 2021 top ten albums of the year, covering everything from hip-hop and pop to ambient orchestral jazz, post-punk and more Music

Words: Music Team

If, like me, you’d dismissed Lil Nas X in 2018 purely because Old Town Road was a little too country, I implore you to give his debut record MONTERO a whirl. Not just because it’s way less country than that single might foretell, but because it’s a mighty and vital pop-rap album that gives the zeitgeist a rhinestonestudded lapdance.

Stacked with addictive beats and earworm melodies, MONTERO is a captivating album full of muscle and tenderness.

It has all the bombast you’d expect from an established rapper, but with unapologetic queerness at its core. From the chart-topping, trumpet-laden INDUSTRY BABY, to the soulful SUN GOES DOWN, or the plaintive VOID, MONTERO sheds its bravado as it progresses, turning inwards. Lil Nas X muses on success, love, loss and being a gay Black rapper in an industry with a less than welcoming track record.

To his credit, Old Town Road is now the longest-charting number one single in Billboard’s history, which is no surprise given his proven virality and pop culture savvy on social media.

We’re well past his first rodeo; his fans are legion, and now he has Elton John, Miley Cyrus and Megan Thee Stallion as guests on his firecracker debut. Yee haw. [George Sully]

#9: Black Country, New Road – For the First Time

17 Sep via Columbia Records welcometomontero.com

Photo: Maxwell Grainger

December 2021 – Feature

Photo: Charlotte Rutherford

#10: Lil Nas X – MONTERO

‘Just to think I could’ve left the fair with my dignity intact and fled from the stage with the world’s second-best Slint tribute act’. With a single self-deprecating line, Black Country, New Road lead singer-songwriter Isaac Wood sums up what his band’s debut album For the First Time is all about. BC, NR’s debut is a millennial take on Slint’s classic Spiderland with a healthy dose of the musical experimentation of their close allies Black Midi, but with an ironic twist of middle-class satire akin to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

There are so many reasons why For the First Time shouldn’t work, however, the album escapes ridicule for its, at times, ridiculousness because Wood is such a compelling classic literary focaliser, traversing a mad modern world in which everything is references, drugs, failed romances, privileges and confusing social media. Wood’s hugely talented band are seemingly willing to go to hell and back with him to show his character’s ever-changing shifting mental state, especially on the album’s climax Opus, coming across as a more sinister or mischievous Arcade Fire. Assisted by Andy Savours’ fantastic production, For the First Time feels simultaneously classic and contemporary and unlike anything else this year. [Adam Turner-Heffer]

5 Feb via Ninja Tune blackcountrynewroad.com

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THE SKINNY

Photo: Jordan Hemingway

7 May via Warp

4 Jun via Dirty Hit

squidband.uk

wolfalice.co.uk

Music

Photo: Holly Whittaker

#8: Squid – Bright Green Field

#7: Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend

Squids are renowned for being smart creatures. Remember Paul, the football score-predicting octopus? Much like their namesake, then, Brighton-based Squid’s first full-length possesses intelligent commentary and savvy thought processes.

Take the band’s decision to shun their breakout hits of 2019, Houseplants and (arguably Paul’s favourite) Match Bet, with neither making the album. Or their insistence to avoid standard indie labels, instead sidling up alongside Aphex Twin and Flying Lotus on iconic electronic staple Warp.

The record is equally surprising. Narrator might open with an early Foals riff but soon escalates into eight-and-a-half manic minutes of drummer Olly Judge and Martha Skye Murphy wailing into oblivion. Documentary Filmmaker continues to push to the point of discomfort; guitars poke and jibe, vocals screech and horns blare. But it’s standout Paddling that transports you back to that blistering live performance on Later... with Jools Holland during that fuzzy interim earlier this year where bands popped up in remote settings without any kind of audience interaction. In this case, the fivesome, illuminated by strobe lighting, thrash it out in the basement of a multistorey car park.

Standard Squid territory then.

Unrelenting and top of their class, the band remain deepsea explorers of genre and genius. [Cheri Amour]

When Gorillaz were nominated for the Mercury Prize for their self-titled debut in 2001, Damon Albarn promptly withdrew the album from contention, claiming that winning it would have been akin to “carrying a dead albatross around your neck for eternity”. With Blue Weekend, Wolf Alice provide a powerful counter-argument; it seems as if clinching the prize in 2018 for Visions of a Life (ironically, now the weakest of their three albums), they’ve been freed up to experiment more, to follow their noses creatively.

Matty Healy of Wolf Alice’s Dirty Hit labelmates The 1975 often talks about “creating as you consume” and Blue Weekend is a rock record for the playlist age, a kaleidoscopic effort that encompasses everything from soaring balladry (The Last Man on Earth) to furious punk (Play the Greatest Hits), with room in between for the grungy 90s crunch of Smile and the atmospheric contemplation of No Hard Feelings. This is the sound of a band fully growing into themselves, and proof that, subjective as they might be, major prizes can be fuel for the creative fire as much as they are exercises in back-slapping. [Joe Goggins]

From the opening riff on lead single Be Sweet, it was clear that Michelle Zauner’s third album as Japanese Breakfast was going to be a very different affair. Stepping away from explorations of very personal pain and grief on her first two records, Jubilee is an album all about harnessing and expressing joy.

Released just a few months after her memoir, Crying in H Mart, there’s a real sense of Zauner getting back to herself on Jubilee. Album opener Paprika thrusts us into Zauner’s new sonic world, full of lush, grandiose strings and percussion, as she asks ‘How does it feel to be at the centre of magic?’

Jubilee isn’t an album entirely devoid of any sadness, though, with Zauner channeling different characters to explore themes of longing and loneliness. On Kokomo, IN she sings from the perspective of a teenage boy ‘passing time just popping wheelies’ and reminiscing over a past relationship; on Posing in Bondage she embodies the persona of someone ‘done up and drunk’ longing for their partner’s affection.

With Jubilee, Michelle Zauner breaks into new territory sonically and lyrically, while solidifying her expertise in character profiling, and it’s her most vibrant work to date. [Nadia Younes]

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December 2021 – Feature

Photo: Peter Ash Lee

#6: Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee

4 Jun via Dead Oceans japanesebreakfast.rocks

December 2021

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THE SKINNY

Photo: Eric Welles Nyström

Photo: Greg Lin

26 Mar via Luaka Bop listentopromises.com

Music

#5: Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders London Symphony Orchestra – Promises While it could easily have been a case of ‘too many cooks’, Promises showcases the best of electronic, jazz and classical. Sometimes through interplay between the styles, sometimes through an unadorned solo, but despite being the work of dozens, the hive-mind is strong here.

Variations around the central harpsichord motif create a meditative experience as the movements blur into each other and out of time. Sanders dominates the early sections with his yearning, mournful sax, before letting in Sam Shepherd’s drone.

He pops back for some wordless gabbling in the fourth

movement, offsetting the occasionally stark instrumentals with warmth and intimacy. In the sixth movement, a gorgeous cello solo, elegiac and reticent to begin with, is joined by a full string section for the album’s most uplifting moment. Alongside synthesised bird noises, Sanders gives a final, full-throated sax run in the seventh movement, leaving the final ten minutes to be buoyed by a murmuring organ and more ethereal strings.

The dream logic ebbs and flows; the intergenerational, inter-genre conversation weaves a silken tapestry; always in motion, impossible to capture in any one moment. As we’re buffeted along by the winds of fate in a chaotic world, at least we’ve got a beautiful soundtrack. [Lewis Wade]

Photo: Nathan Keay

Photo: Pooneh Ghana

10 Sep via Sub Pop

drycleaningband.com

chairkickers.com

#4: Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg

#3: Low – HEY WHAT

As Drew Barrymore definitely originally brought to wider attention, the phrase ‘cellar door’ is said to be one of the most beautiful phrases in the English language. However, the true euphonic pinnacle surely has to be this sentence coined by Dry Cleaning’s Florence Shaw: ‘The last thing I looked at in this hand mirror / Was a human arsehole’. The way she draws out the final two words – melismatic if Shaw had any concern for notes or melody – is indicative of her anti-ASMR, deadpan humour, mundane non-sequitur language that pulls the rest of her band’s fluctuating, tangled post-punk along. Shaw’s lyrics atom bomb the idea that songs should be critically analysed as wholes: try figuring out the meaning of verses here, even how one sentence connects to the next. You could pore over it forever. Teach this in Higher English.

Shaw’s delivery of her poetry of the everyday is the star. Even her insults are superior: ‘That silly woman’s done a too-straight fringe’, ‘You’re a spoon, pal’, ‘You actually smell like garbage’. New Long Leg is 2021’s artistic conveyance of malaise – not as sadness or depression, or anger, but of deadening, mind-numbing sameness. ‘Do everything, feel nothing’. It’s so much fun.

[Tony Inglis]

‘It’s not the end, it’s just the end of hope’, Low declared on 2018’s masterful, still shocking Double Negative. The slowcore duo had reinvented themselves to fit the desolate mood of the world at the time. The world has only gotten darker since. HEY WHAT, the spiritual sequel to Double Negative, captures this new reality and finds communal comfort on the other side.

The white-hot panic and despondency of the last record is present in their use of distortion and feedback, but they’ve learned to work within the noise rather than become buried under it. Clean hymnal vocals ground us in even the noisiest moments, and warm washes of ambience bring welcome breathing space. These are songs that survey the rubble to find light, connection and even hope amid the murk.

The songs on Double Negative often disintegrated in front of us. On HEY WHAT they persist – even reach out and beg us to sing along at times.

Humans are natural, stubborn adapters. We often keep going even when we’re aware of the futility. For all its wild experiments and harsh textures, HEY WHAT is the sound of the dust settling, of the sun coming back over the horizon, of days like these. [Skye Butchard]

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December 2021 – Feature

2 Apr via 4AD

THE SKINNY

Photo: Olivia Richardson

22 Oct via Fiction Records selfesteem.love

#2: Self Esteem – Prioritise Pleasure

Music

When Prioritise Pleasure was released, Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Esteem, took to social media to share a photo of the tracklist with the comment: “it’s yours now” and a red heart emoji, feeling at once freeing and hugely emotional. While Taylor’s debut, Compliments Please, was a rush, the sound of an artist finally standing under the heat of her own spotlight, Prioritise Pleasure is so much more; perfectly-paced, powerfully cathartic, funny and hugely relatable, it’s the most glistening pop record of the year.

Filled to the hilt with punch-the-air bangers (Fucking Wizardry, Prioritise

December 2021 – Feature

Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is a phrase that most of us have probably uttered this year, as reclusiveness and quiet find new currency. Fresh from successive lockdowns and two shit years, frank conversations about mental health are the new vogue, and introversion is suddenly not as difficult to live with as it once was.

In this vein, Little Simz addresses the tension that she feels between ‘Simz the artist or Simbi the person’ – the expectations placed on her as she rises to rap star fame, and her conflicting anxiety and introversion. Broken up by several musical interludes voiced by The Crown’s Emma Corrin, the album’s pacing resembles a play, or a hero’s journey, where our protagonist battles to reconcile her two sides.

Inflo’s production deftly draws out the the album's rich internal life, slipping from Introvert’s ostentatious military fanfare opener to glitchy grime-inspired bass on Rollin Stone and a blasé afrobeat cool on Point and Kill. This shifting backdrop frames a uniquely confessional style for Little Simz that seeks to exorcise old demons – namely her absent father, a feud with her sister, and

a niggling feeling that, coming from the ‘ends’, she doesn’t deserve her successes.

Little Simz’s anxiety isn’t just personal, but a symptom of the endemic racism that impacts the mental health of Black people globally. The opening track references apartheid, gentrification, and ‘the blood of a young messiah’ (alluding to George Floyd’s murder). On Little Q, Pt. 2 she raps with striking empathy about the boy who stabbed her cousin and put him in a coma, touching on the weight of internalised racism in the line: ‘I could have been the reflection that he hated’.

As an antidote to such heaviness, Little Simz celebrates Black excellence. She replaces tired stereotypes on Woman with a shout-out to the global diaspora, rapping ‘melanin dripping’ with evident pleasure before belting out the clarion call, ‘All I see is Black stars and I friggin’ love it, yeah, yeah / Time’s up, tell the people that we comin’, yeah, yeah’. It’s time for Black people, and especially Black women, to have their time in the sun, and Little Simz is lapping it all up, introvert and all. [Becca Inglis]

3 Sep via Age 101 littlesimz.com

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Photo: Nwaka Okparaeke

#1: Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

Pleasure), bass that slaps (You Forever, Moody), rollicking drums (How Can I Help You), crushing ballads (I Do This All the Time, The 345) and lines like ‘To even get near to me / Was some fucking wizardry’ and ‘I just wanna let you know there’s a point in you’, Prioritise Pleasure is for anyone who’s ever doubted themselves. It's for anyone who’s not felt brave enough; for anyone who’s been harassed; for anyone who’s not been taken seriously; for anyone who’s found themselves in a toxic relationship; for anyone who’s had their heart broken; for anyone who’s made mistakes; for anyone who’s felt like they’re not enough. It’s yours now. [Tallah Brash]

THE SKINNY

Music

December 2021 – Feature

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THE SKINNY

Music

Image: Courtesy of the SAY Award Mogwai win The SAY Award

A Transitional Year We take a closer look at Scotland’s transitional year in music, celebrate our favourite Scottish releases and pay tribute to those we’ve lost

December 2021 – Feature

Words: Tony Inglis

T

he last gig reviewed by The Skinny before lockdown locked in – at least, the last gig that wasn’t Callum Easter under a bridge – signed off: “Here’s to the next one – whenever it is.” How special it is to begin a look back on Scotland’s musical year 2021 knowing that the next one eventually arrived, and many more since.

We were there for Kathryn Joseph’s set at the Edinburgh International Festival in August – how apt that a Scottish artist who can deliver such gravitas should be the first act to grace the magazine’s online ‘live music’ section in 17 months. “The drizzle dancing around the edges of the outdoor pavilion we’re in is the most perfect backdrop, making for a wholly overwhelming moment, music and weather colliding so exquisitely it’s hard to put into words,” we wrote. “The fact it’s the first gig back for many in attendance just adds to the mood which hangs heavy in the air, like a tear duct on the verge of bursting. The first round of applause, cheers and whoops that soar around the enormous polytunnel hit hard.”

Readers of The Skinny many times over will hopefully have felt that same rush of emotion, whether it’s in a dark, cramped, sweaty basement or as mud squelches on to the soles of shoes through the grass at a festival. Even being in the depths of The Boogie Bar at TRNSMT in Glasgow Green felt like a gift… sometimes. From Jupiter Rising to The Great Western, the return of festivals, and live music in general, warrants a collective sigh of relief after such an uncertain time. The field as it presents itself has been tricky to navigate for organisers, promoters and artists alike.

It’s important to note too that some of you may be reading all this with a sense of trepidation.

“TAAHLIAH represents an exciting future for the sound of Scottish music” — 26 —

Not everyone has been able – or has wanted – to make it back to a gig. Even with the rigorous and innovative planning many festivals committed to undertaking, as reported by The Skinny back in June, it remains true that the bulk of responsibility not to put other people’s health at risk sits currently with individuals through mask-wearing, regular testing and vaccine passports. For those who are uncertain or vulnerable, it may be a while yet until there’s a level of comfort around returning to venues, and ultimately that is up to control over the pandemic more than anything promoters and organisers can feasibly do.

But doesn’t it feel good to shout about your favourite band announcing a Scottish date on their tour, to see your calendar fill up and your Monzo balance dwindle? It feels like not even a day goes by without another potential ticket-purchasing scenario presenting itself. For venues that will be a lifeline, even with schemes and organisations like the Music Venue Trust having been there to advocate for small concert spaces through the pandemic.

THE SKINNY

“The return of festivals, and live music in general, warrants a collective sigh of relief after such an uncertain time”

As voted for by The Skinny’s music writers, in reverse order, here are our top ten Scottish releases of the year. #10: Teenage Fanclub Endless Arcade [30 Apr, PeMa]

#9: Stanley Odd Stay Odd [12 Apr, Handsome Tramp Records] #8: Eliza Shaddad The Woman You Want [16 Jul, Rosemundy Records/Wow and Flutter] #7: Mogwai As the Love Continues [19 Feb, Rock Action]

#6: Lizzie Reid Cubicle [10 Feb, Seven Four Seven Six] #5: CHVRCHES Screen Violence [27 Aug, Glassnote Records]

#4: Arab Strap As Days Get Dark [5 Mar, Rock Action]

#3: TAAHLIAH Angelica [28 May, untitled (recs)]

#2: Proc Fiskal Siren Spine Sysex [24 Sep, Hyperdub]

#1: Hamish Hawk Heavy Elevator [17 Sep, Assai Recordings]

theskinny.co.uk/music

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December 2021 – Feature

Image: Jess Shurte, Edinburgh International Festival Kathryn Joseph

The Skinny's Scottish Albums of the Year 2021

Music

Of course, the feeling that the world is circling a plughole can’t be fully dispelled these days, as one positive is negated by something else utterly terrible. Brexit leaves Scottish acts – musicians from all over the UK – in a state of flux, with touring likely to be considerably affected by its constantly evolving – and excruciating – impact.

It’s a widely-reported issue, but one that remains seemingly of little concern to the majority of people outside the music and creative industries.

Despite the impact of the pandemic, Scottish music continued to make strides in 2021. The country’s most outstanding new releases have been a mix of the fresh and vibrant and old heads.

Nowhere is this juxtaposition greater exemplified than in The Skinny’s Scottish albums of the year list adjacent. The grandiose chamber pop of Hamish Hawk’s Heavy Elevator sits at the top, but below, superb young artists like Eliza Shaddad and Lizzie Reid sit next to elder statesmen of the scene Arab Strap and Teenage Fanclub. TAAHLIAH represents an exciting future for the sound of Scottish music. Her Ayrshire-hailing hyperpop rave graced TRNSMT (yes, the highlight of the aforementioned Boogie Bar!) and she is leading a cohort of women and non-binary artists, from AiiTee to Hen Hoose, who have thrived recently.

Contrastingly, long-time institution Mogwai released As the Love Continues, to acclaim, to a

UK number 1, a Mercury Prize nomination, and to a SAY Award win. It seemed something of a transitional year for the award (mirroring the year in music itself), and so a legacy act receiving the main gong alongside a new prize – The Sound of Young Scotland, awarded to LVRA – specifically designed to highlight the future of Scottish music perhaps leaves scope for the award to extend itself in 2022.

For example, Scotland’s excellent and burgeoning experimental music scene is rarely represented. Take Kay Logan, a producer and musician who has worked under numerous names and guises and with multiple varied acts, who creates constantly hard-to-pin-down music.

Perhaps too late for end of year lists to catch, she released the album Here In My Scheme, Here It Ends on Lost Map with Kieran Thomas, Romeo Taylor and Billy Gaughan as Herbert Powell, their playful, misdirecting cult art-rock group. Possibly apocryphal stories revolve around their existence, but what is factually accurate is that this record is the perfect crossover between Scotland’s weird underground and something more accessible. It would be good to see those from that community given their due.

One of Scottish music’s undersung communities did get greater exposure in 2021. Scottish rap and hip-hop have been belting at the door to be taken seriously for years. Through the likes of young artists, such as Nova and Bemz, and the inaugural Scottish hip-hop and grime music conference HANG, it’s finally garnering wider appreciation. Launched by the Scottish Alternative Music Awards (which themselves will have happened by the time you read this), the event wasn’t just about pushing genres that are prevalent and yet unheralded in Scotland, but also to showcase the diversity of collectively-minded Scottish musical talent. As Sami Omar, founder of Scottish grime platform Up2Stndrd, told The Skinny back in July: “We like to promote multicultural dominance in Scotland so it’s all about that and using hip-hop and grime as a language to break those barriers.”

It’s only a start, but to those coming to the scene anew, it will be less of a surprise that there are artists making rap music in Aberdeen and Dundee.

An end of year round-up perhaps should end on a positive note. But it seems fitting to make it a moment of remembrance as, amid the vast tragedy of the pandemic, Scottish music endured more personal tragedies. Just last month came the sudden news of the death of Beldina Odenyo Onassis, known by her stage name Heir of the Cursed. Condolences rolled in across social media for Odenyo Onassis, an established name in the scene, but one that still had much to continue to do within it. The latter description can also be applied to the loss of SOPHIE, back at the beginning of 2021. Much has already been written about her passing, including an elegant tribute in these pages. SOPHIE was a titan of music, and the fact she hailed from Scottish shores – even if a degree of mystery was central to her appeal – is something we should be hugely grateful for. Her influence and legacy will be felt across music as other artists come and go. It’s heartbreaking to lose two such talented and beloved music makers and performers. It’s a significant testament that their mark upon Scotland’s music will be remembered.

THE SKINNY

Music

Image: Courtesy of The SAY Award Heir of the Cursed performing at The SAY Award

December 2021 – Feature

A Heart Full Day Following the heartbreaking news of her passing on 5 November, we’ve brought together a collection of tributes to remember the iconic Beldina Odenyo Onassis, aka Heir of the Cursed Words: Eliza Gearty

A

fellow Govanhill resident, Beldina Odenyo Onassis was a familiar friendly face. I danced with her a few times and met her in passing (Beldina lived in the neighbourhood for years before moving to Paisley). Long before I saw her play or listened to her music, I knew of her as just another person making art in the Southside. When I did eventually see her perform as Heir of the Cursed, I was knocked flat – by Beldina’s obvious talent and stage presence, but also by the compassion in her voice, the care she seemed to take with every word, as if each song were a letter addressed to whoever needed to hear it. ‘Ignore the chatter that crowds your head / It’s just a symptom of the way that you were bred’, she sings on Hold the Mirror. ‘It’s not easy to love yourself / But I see you / And I’m patient’.

In recent years, Beldina was also making a name for herself in theatre. She worked with Hannah Lavery and the National Theatre of Scotland on Lament for Sheku Bayoh. She was working with Lavery again this year on a show called Blood Salt Spring. In July, she revealed to Greater Govanhill magazine that she was writing her own play. An artist with still so much ahead of her, Beldina was possibly not yet aware of the deep impact her work could have on people. But for those of us lucky enough to have witnessed one of her live performances, there can be no doubt. Beldina’s power as an artist wasn’t just because of her formidable talent as a singer and guitar player. It also came from the profound humanity that radiated from her music.

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She had the ability to speak to the lonely, the lost, the people who felt a little out of place, with a voice that was as vulnerable as it was defiant. It’s a voice that will live on in her music. In 2017, when she was named one of YWCA Scotland’s 30 Under 30, Beldina was asked what her message would be for girls and young women in Scotland. “There is a place for you in the world,” she responded. “If you can’t find it, make it.” Beldina’s place in the world will never be filled. But we are all so thankful she made it.

In honour of Beldina, we’ve reached out to a number of her friends and peers to bring together a collection of tributes. We hope these warm memories can pay homage and provide some comfort.

THE SKINNY

Chris Bainbridge (Man of Moon) Anyone that knew Beldina, or saw her perform as Heir of the Cursed, knows how truly special she was and what an incredibly beautiful soul she had.

Her performances were like no other. She really was one of life’s special people. Rest in power, Beldina.

Love Music Hate Racism Glasgow We’re absolutely heartbroken about our friend Beldina. She was truly unique; with an absolutely incredible voice that could bring you to tears in an instant and was the kindest, most beautiful person. One of the most memorable gigs we’ve ever had was our closing act at Doune the Rabbit Hole, with Rise Kagona taking the stage. Bel was down the front wearing a facesplitting grin and dancing away, radiating joy. She could at once break your heart with her swooping, gut-wrenching voice, and grab your hand on the dancefloor and dance away with such warmth, such joy. Rest in power, Bel.

Kwame Barfour-Osei (Kobi Onyame) My sweet dearest sister, my homie, gangster, I’m still processing you not being here. Rest. Through your talent, through your selflessness, through the love you showed, you have cheated death. Now rest. Everyone who loved you and everyone you loved holds a piece of your best to pass on. May that continue. Your work is done. Your race was run. Now rest. It was an honour sharing stages with you. I keep close to my heart the music we made, the music we never got to make, the discussions, the laughs, your smile and the rants. Thank you for your words of encouragement and your selflessness. Now rest. I love you, homie. May God grant you tranquillity while you sleep and comfort to all who loved you. Be at peace, Beldina. Rest.

Gráinne Vedamanikam (Synergy Concerts) Beldina had magic in her. She was a sincerely magical human being, no other way to describe it.

Even people who didn’t know her well would comment that she had a certain something that they couldn’t put their finger on, and that they just liked her so much. I think it’s that she simply radiated love and warmth, and it was so easy and felt so nice to connect with that. Every person who knew her or met her felt it. Being her friend and colleague was a true privilege, and I will always remember and cherish her beautiful and glowing energy.

Robert Kilpatrick (SMIA) Beldina truly was one of a kind. She captivated audiences with every performance, and I feel incredibly lucky to have experienced her magic. It’s rare to witness such a talent, and on top of this, for it to come from someone so innately humble and truly authentic to their art. Her last performance at this year’s SAY Award Ceremony – celebrating former winner Kathryn Joseph – is something that I and every single person who attended will remember forever. On stage in that cape – belting, swaying and commanding every single eye and ear in the room. The definition of power, and of beauty.

She’ll be sorely and deeply missed by many.

Arusa Qureshi (Music journalist) The first time I saw Beldina on stage, she was performing with the brilliant Kobi Onyame. Despite providing accompanying vocals during his set, she — 29 —

was utterly mesmerising and Kobi was quick to give her the spotlight, pointing out that she was undeniably one to watch. We had met once before when I hosted a panel that she took part in and even then, I was in awe of her intelligence and the sincerity in everything she said. Shortly after, I interviewed Beldina for an article and she told me: “I’m just trying to tell the most honest stories and leave myself open to receive them [...] I want to share songs that reflect our time and comfort in any way I can.” We became friends and in the years following, she wowed me time and time again with the beauty and pure, raw emotion of her music and performance as Heir of the Cursed. But she was also a generous and kind soul; someone who always made you feel comfortable in her presence and I was so lucky to be able to call her a friend. I wish we had been able to spend more time together but I’m grateful to have seen and hugged her tight not too long ago.

Brian Reynolds (432 Presents) I met Beldina at The Flying Duck in 2015. She was working the bar and I had found myself in the midst of a bad music video shoot that I did not want to be part of. She shared my pain and suggested hiding in the cellar, where we stood and shared a cider. She told me how she was a musician from Dumfries, that she had ended up performing with The Milk Carton Kids at Celtic Connections [...], that her old boss had B.O.S.S. tattooed on his knuckles and shouted ‘MAKE WAY FOR THE BOSS’ anytime he passed his subordinates in the corridor. She was very funny and endearing, I was immediately drawn to her and wanted to bring her into our team.

I told her about The Hug and Pint and that she should meet Joe Rattray. Joe quickly booked her in for a show. I came down and was, like everybody else who saw her perform, astounded.

From there we worked on tonnes of shows together and became firm friends. [...] It was no surprise to any of us when she emerged as the highlight of The SAY Award 2021. [...] She was a wonderful person to be around – a proud fire-breathing Kenyan-Scot, a genius poet full of passion and love and anger and disappointment and hope. If she loved you, she let you know. She is sorely missed.

If you are affected by the news of Beldina’s passing, or are struggling with your mental health, if you can’t speak to someone you know about it there are organisations out there who can help, SAMH, Help Musicians UK and Samaritans being three Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with Beldina’s family and loved ones at this difficult time. Those in Scotland’s arts community who knew Beldina – who met her, worked with her or simply saw one of her mesmerising performances – will never forget her

December 2021 – Feature

Jim Monaghan (Poet and Arts Editor, Bella Caledonia) I can’t even remember how long ago it was that I first met Beldina but I feel like I always knew her.

We were such close buddies because we had great respect and love for each other. When Bel lived in Govanhill we had wonderful times together; she was wise and funny, the perfect partner for a night in McNeill’s. She loved that pub so much as it had that traditional working-class pub music, people singing songs together, and to each other. I remember her singing a country song in McNeill’s.

I was watching her, thinking she was at her happiest, guitar in hand, people joining in with the chorus. Beldina had an amazing effect on people, she lit up the company. She always made me feel happier than I was when I wasn’t with her. I am going to miss her terribly.

Kathryn Joseph Beldina was the most. The kindest most ferocious of lion heart. And maker of beauty in all ways. I honestly thought the world was about to get to see it. That she would be the most known of all. And no one deserved it more. I never felt I deserved how beautiful she was to me and about my songs. But I know I shouted all the love and more back into her beautiful heart every time we spoke. And I know she knew how much she was loved by everyone.

She was an actual goddess. We were all so lucky to have had her and we will miss her forever.

Music

Hannah Lavery (Playwright) I remember the first time I saw Beldina perform; she was headlining a night I was also performing in, but I was tired and was sneaking off when she came on stage. Jacket on and half out the door, I became rooted to the spot, transfixed by her voice, her words, her music, her performance. I missed my train.

When I was making Lament for Sheku Bayoh, I knew I wanted Beldina involved and what she brought to the production cannot be underestimated. The absolute beauty of her score and her incredible performance, full of such vulnerability and rage, was courageous and unforgettable. One night after a performance we had the great privilege to spend some time with Sheku’s family and hear their beautiful memories of their beloved brother. Beldina told me later, she wanted to get a tattoo of a line from the play, ‘It was a heart full day’ to remind her to live her life surrounded by love, like Sheku, she said.

THE SKINNY

Best Films of 2021

December 2021 – Feature

Film

The history books will record 2021 as the year the movies bounced back from the brink, but the pandemic had little impact on the quality of work on our screens. Whether you saw these ten films in theatres or on your laptop, their artistry shone brightly 10. Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman) What happens when your sugar daddy, his wife and baby, your parents, your ex-girlfriend, and your overbearing relatives gather under one roof for a funeral service? Emma Seligman’s Shiva Baby dares to ask that question, and the result is a queasy firecracker of a film, stuffed with knife-sharp wit and claustrophobia. Move along, Uncut Gems. [Xuanlin Tham]

shadows of stone halls, and creaking, constantly regrowing vines comprising the court’s mysterious Christmas visitor dominate The Green Knight’s visual and aural palette. Lowery’s film moves with impartial, relentless deliberateness; watching Dev Patel’s Gawain spend his journey – unwisely, but well – proves a haunting picture of youth.

[Carmen Paddock]

9. The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson) Consensus says this is Wes Anderson’s most Wes Andersonian film, and where one falls on it certainly depends on how much one likes him in the first place. It’s nice to know the writers at The Skinny still love Anderson’s compulsive architectural symmetry, striking emotional openness, and the shuddering dynamic between the two; The French Dispatch displays the director at his best.

[Thomas Atkinson]

4. Titane (Julia Ducournau) Julia Ducournau’s stomach-turning horror takes the French Extremity to its most extreme, inspiring walkouts at its premiere at Cannes but deservedly winning director Julia Ducournau the coveted Palme d’Or. With its visceral imagery, Titane uses serial murder, vehicular intercourse and buddy comedy to illustrate the bodily terror of being a woman. Like a roaring engine, it pumps motor oil, fear and pure adrenaline through the veins. [Iana Murray]

8. Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Ahmir Khalib Thompson) Ahmir Khalib Thompson (AKA Questlove) has done the Lord’s work by unearthing footage from the 1969 Mount Morris Park Festival in Harlem. The archive is vibrant, overflowing with indelible performances – a hyperactive and fresh-faced Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone at their funkiest, Nina Simone in sun goddess mode – but it’s the way Thompson weaves the music with the history of African-American oppression and resilience that makes Summer of Soul truly sing.

[Jamie Dunn]

3. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt) Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow might focus on the successful business venture of an American cook and a Chinese immigrant in 1820s Oregon, but it sits comfortably alongside her more contemporaneous studies of economic alienation. A loose adaptation of Jonathan Raymond’s novel The Half-Life, this offbeat exploration of friendship, capitalism and culinary ingenuity is a welcome recalibration of the American frontier myth. [Patrick Gamble] 2. Limbo (Ben Sharrock) The hostile environment takes on new and literal significance in this absurdist drama about a group of asylum seekers sent to a remote Scottish island for processing. This is filmmaking defined by breathtaking empathy: meticulously framing his characters in wide, grief-tinged landscapes, director Ben Sharrock locates tenderness in the most fraught of conditions, crafting a quiet yet unequivocal condemnation of the West’s response to the refugee crisis. [Anahit Behrooz]

7. Minari (Lee Isaac Chung) The tender Minari follows a Korean-American family who’ve moved to Arkansas, hoping to build a better life for themselves. The family’s high tensions are coupled with moments of humour and warmth, creating a true closeness, rare to see on film. In Minari, Lee Isaac Chung creates a story of love and resilience that moves through both its joy and pain. [Eilidh Akilade]

1. Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma) A profoundly moving fable which above all invites the viewer to ask themselves a simple question: What would it be like to be an eight-year-old, meeting your mother when she too was eight years old? Told with an otherworldly simplicity by director Céline Sciamma, with gorgeous music by her frequent collaborator Para One and tender, intelligent performances from twin leads Josephine and Gabrielle Sanz, this is a transcendent experience. [Ian Mantgani]

6. Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi) Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ingenious adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story is a piercing examination of grief and the mysteries of the heart. He uses long car rides and a production of Uncle Vanya to illuminate each character’s thoughts and emotions, and after three hours we feel we know them intimately. Drive My Car is as playful and intellectually stimulating as it is deeply moving, and the ensemble cast is perfect. [Philip Concannon] 5. The Green Knight (David Lowery) Arthuriana emerges from the ground in David Lowery’s vision. The rich moist earth, echoes and

Head to theskinny.co.uk/film to read our Film writers’ individual picks

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THE SKINNY

Underrated Films of 2021 Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (Josh Greenbaum) The Bridesmaids team is back with a bang in this kaleidoscopic, sublimely silly and criminally underrated comedy. Co-writers Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo are the titular culotte-loving, middle-aged besties on a Florida getaway, crossing the path of murderous villain Sharon Fisherman (also Wiig). But the real surprise is Jamie Dornan as Sharon’s henchman Edgar, who romances the two friends and gifts viewers a preposterous, delightful dance routine for the ages. [Stefania Sarrubba] The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet (Ana Katz) A poetic homage to life and all of its woes and glories, Ana Katz's The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet is a poignant tale of a modern flaneur who is comfortable in peaceful passivity. Through its contemplative black and white cinematography and beautifully contained performances, this Argentinian gem communicates the most complex of emotions through unrequited gentleness. A triumph. [Rafaela Sales Ross]

The Last Duel (Ridley Scott) From The Duellists to The Last Duel, what a career Ridley Scott has had. And he’s never been kindly treated by the critics. His best films have been appreciated in retrospect (Blade Runner) or not at all (1492: Conquest of Paradise). I’m confident the roundly abused The Last Duel will join Scott’s list of underappreciated masterpieces. This medieval #MeToo tale is technically daring, brazenly witty (Ben Affleck is funny AF), and has a final 20 minutes of pure cinema. [John Bleasdale] Malignant (James Wan) They don’t make movies like this anymore, primarily for good reason. James Wan’s completely unhinged response to Aquaman earning a billion dollars, this horror-mystery is as close as we’ve had to a studio financing an intentionally so-bad-it’s-good film.

Best appreciated by those who value slick filmmaking craft and a penchant for off-thewall nonsense. Once it warms up, it never cools down. [Rory Doherty]

Riders of Justice

The Night House (David Bruckner) It’s easy enough to denounce The Night House as a meagre entrant into the pantheon of calcified, ‘elevated’ horror. But that misses the primally upsetting, sophisticated conceit running through this exhausting drama of grief and hopelessness.

Naysayers will deplore it for treating trauma as a gimmick; I disagree. This is the most earnest, high-minded, elementally scary horror film in years.

[Thomas Atkinson] — 31 —

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar

Ninjababy (Yngvild Sve Flikke) When Rakel discovers she’s pregnant after a one-night stand with a butter-scented man, she reckons on an abortion. To her shock, however, she’s seven months gone, and this inventive foetus takes to taunting her in doodle form. Ninjababy bracingly flips pregnancy narratives – Rakel is resolutely not maternal. Grappling with her predicament frankly, this film draws its coming-of-age story with distinctive lines. [Eleanor Capaldi] Palm Springs (Max Barbakow) Acclaimed by the few who saw it at US drive-thrus in 2020 and a UK streaming audience this year, Palm Springs deserved so much more: specifically, packed cinemas across the world, full of laughter.

Why? Because Max Barbakow’s time-loop comedy about a schmuck stuck at a wedding (Andy Samberg) in the titular dessert resort town is relentlessly funny, loveable and ridiculous.

[Lou Thomas] Riders of Justice (Anders Thomas Jensen) While Another Round was receiving critical plaudits and awards, there was another Mads Mikkelsen-starring Zentropa production in cinemas that deserved more acclaim. It’s a violent and morally ambiguous revenge tale, but one shot through with a streak of knockabout comedy.

Anders Thomas Jensen handles the wildly fluctuating tone superbly. As hilarious as Riders of Justice frequently is, he never loses sight of his characters’ grief and trauma. [Philip Concannon] For The Skinny’s Film Team’s full list of underrated film of 2021, head to theskinny.co.uk/film

December 2021 – Feature

Greenland (Ric Roman Waugh) Yes, the Amazon Prime/Gerard Butler movie is good.

I am shook. You are shook. We are all shook.

Greenland paints an uncomfortably realistic portrait of how a world responds to the first tremors of a global disaster. On top of that, it features some genuinely stunning effects and keeps its eyes firmly on the human drama underneath them, even when the sky is falling. [Ross McIndoe]

I’m Your Man (Maria Schrader) The uncanny promises of AI get an imaginative, surprisingly funny reworking in Maria Schrader’s heartfelt rom-com. Dan Stevens delivers his best performance in years, his just-too-perfect face and bearing contributing to the oddness.

But ultimately, observing and adapting to humans proves the oddest experience of all. I’m Your Man knows that frustrations enrich life, and those shouldn’t be automated.

[Carmen Paddock]

Film

If you blinked this year you likely missed these misunderstood films when they played to empty auditoriums at your local theatres – if they made it to cinemas at all! Use the holidays to seek out these delightful cinematic oddballs and rejects

November 2021 — Feature

Books

THE SKINNY

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THE SKINNY

The Funniest Things of 2021™ More like ‘Merry Christmas and a Ha-Ha-Ha-ppy New Year’ from The Skinny!

Comedy

T

he Off Menu boys have become unlikely faces of the professional and (let’s face it) somewhat sickly sheen to which comedy podcasts have succumbed since brands realised their PR potential. This is what makes former Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd steamrolling through their usual format so delicious to listen to. Clearly there solely to flog his Crystal Head vodka, Aykroyd monologues from start to finish, rattling through his menu breathlessly, before ending with, “I hope I helped you guys out with your little project.” It’s tragi-comic to hear the hosts realise their comedy-legend guest has brought no sense of humour, no awareness, and no care for their chart-topping success. [Louis Cammell] Very genuinely one of the things that kept me going through lockdown, it feels like I’ve been waiting an age for a new instalment of the lovable Charalambos family from Stath Lets Flats.

The new season entered my life not with a bang but a beep beep beep beep beep beep. Now it feels like a gap has been filled, I’m back to exclusively communicating with my pals through Stath quotes, and oh my crump, I couldn’t be happier.

If you catch someone running down Princes Street in a suit, very gently holding their tie, and 5ive blaring out their back pocket, I can’t guarantee it won’t be me. [Yasmin Hackett]

The past 18 months have provided me with a heady mixture of crying and laughing, often simultaneously. While I’ve been

privileged enough to maintain a job, my health and a roof over my head, the pandemic ravaged my mental health – such that even the question “funniest thing you’ve seen this year?” provokes a kind of hollow, fatalistic chuckle. Joking? At a time like this?

I’m hesitant to promote Inside – the third Netflix ‘comedy’ special by tall American wunderkind Bo Burnham – as a laugha-minute ride. Its claustrophobic 90 minutes certainly pack a punch – full of wry, satirical musical numbers (easily his best songwriting to date) and frankly jaw-dropping lighting and visual compositions, all written, shot and edited by Burnham.

But – appropriately for a time full of unshakeable gloom – the jokes (it IS funny, I promise!) gradually give way to a vulnerable exploration of lockdown’s psychological toll. An unmissable spectacle. [George Sully] I can’t not shout about the stone-cold successes which are We Are Lady Parts and Alma’s Not Normal. No doubt if the main characters or writers were male, you wouldn’t be able to move for their praise. As it stands, I’m ecstatic to be their cheerleader. Absolutely shattering sitcom conventions, both series could give the gammon parade copious heart-attacks (here’s praying) with care-experienced sex workers and Muslim women actually enjoying being Muslim front and centre.

If subverting social norms for laughs were a game, both Alma and Lady Parts would be home runs.

Oh, also overhearing a 14-year-old boy trying to impress some girls by saying “Uh yeah, I took a load of paracetamol recently and got REALLY high.” [Polly Glynn] “This is the funniest thing I have ever seen. I am scream-laughing in the middle of the street at Malcolm right now!!!

Hahahahahahaha,” went my response to the funniest thing I saw on the internet this year. My friend Laura didn’t check the dimensions of a coffee table before buying it and when it arrived she posted about it on Twitter alongside a photo of this tiny table which absolutely broke me. It reminded me of that scene in Zoolander: “What is this? A centre for ants? How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read... if they can’t even fit inside the building?” [Tallah Brash]

Alma's Not Normal

Tallah’s tiny table - (https://twitter.com/misslfoster/status/1365675605434458120)

— 33 —

December 2021 — Feature

Tom Mayhew’s Edinburgh Fringe show From Rags to Slightly Newer Rags (Tom Mayhew’s living room, Zoom) told how Mayhew became an out-of-work ‘working class hero’. He has a nice way of letting the audience into his world, so in my memory I forget this was Zoomed-in. Like many comedians over the pandemic, he knew how to make this apparent drawback work for him over an hour that felt both warm and uplifting.

On a Monday night in November, The Jinkx and Dela Holiday Show (Queen’s Hall) made up for a lot of staying in over the last two years. A festive romp with Drag Race stars BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon was like watching a glorious old-school double-act take down the queer-baiting of modern Christmas. Take that, Santa! [Ben Venables]

We Are Lady Parts

December 2021 – Feature

THE SKINNY

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THE SKINNY

Shop Local

Advertising Feature

Photo: Jessica Cora Taylor

Hatch Glasgow Located in the heart of Kelvingrove in Glasgow's West End, newly opened in August this year, Hatch provides a retail space for over 50 independent UK designer makers. A curated range of homewares and lifestyle products are available in store and online, with 100% of every sale going back to each resident designer, commission free.

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Ramsay Cornish A home less ordinary… buy at auction, the sustainable and individual way to shop.

From antique watches to Persian rugs via vintage tableware, maps and jewellery, you could find the perfect gift at these fortnightly online auctions. The next takes place on Saturday 12 December with an Antique & Decorators focus.

Auctions start at 11am Viewing Monday to Friday by appointment during the week prior 10am-5pm View the catalogue at ramsaycornish.com info@ramsaycornish.com — 35 —

Charco Press Charco Press is an award-winning publisher based in Edinburgh, committed to finding and translating into English the best literature from across contemporary Latin America, from Argentina to Uruguay, each title matched with beautiful book design, available from the online bookstore. The 2021 Bundle Subscription will make the perfect gift for your favourite bookworm, who can look forward to a whole year of brilliant new titles dropping on the doormat. charcopress.com/bookstore I: @CharcoPress

December 2021 – Feature

Photo: Peter Dibdin

Barney's Beer Edinburgh's longest-established non-continuously operating brewery is here to bring you Christmas Cheers! All produced in the heart of Edinburgh, we have an extensive range of gift packs including selections of dark winter warmers, zingy sours and hoppy easy-drinkers to satisfy any beer lover's tastes. Our Holiday selection includes three brand new releases, as well as gluten free and vegan options. If your Christmas isn't complete without a pint then check out our selection of mini casks. Happy Holidays from the Barney's Team! barneysbeer.co.uk

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With many sites and 5,000 years of history to explore, you’ll be taken on an exciting journey of discovery. Gift membership helps preserve and protect Scotland's heritage for generations to come. From abbeys to cathedrals, battlefields to castles there is so much to look forward to. members.historic-scotland.gov.uk/gift

Violet Thistle Gift someone Coll MacLaren’s dystopian adaptation of Baroness Emmuska Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel for Christmas! Dashing, daring and romantic Scottish Scarlet Pimpernel rescues American liberals from a fascist regime and the ‘Electroline’. Pageturners they won’t be able to put down!

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Order paperbacks at violetthistle.com

Fruitmarket Gallery This Christmas give the Fruitmarket Gallery back to audiences! Currently closed for redevelopment, the Fruitmarket’s plans for reopening in 2020 were hit by the coronavirus crisis. Donate through their Gift Registry by buying them a virtual ‘gift’ – coat hooks for the new learning studios; bricks in their warehouse space; a shelf in the Bookshop – and help bring this much missed cultural space back in 2021.

Fruitmarket.co.uk

Photo: Sally Jubb

Photo: Peter Clark

The Alchemy Experiment The Alchemy Experiment is a new exhibition and events space whose goal is to support artists and create a platform for them to grow. The space also features an internal speciality coffeehouse, high-quality soundsystem and a screening room. Our opening exhibition features work from artists created during lockdown (Love in the Time of COVID). The physical exhibition has been cut short due to recent changes in restrictions but the full display can be enjoyed online via our website.

157 Byres Road, Glasgow G12 8TS alchemyexperiment.com F: /thealchemyexperiment I: @thealchemyexperiment

Glasgow Science Centre Give the gift of science this Christmas with a choice of gift vouchers from Glasgow Science Centre. They can be used for Science Passport annual memberships, day tickets, GSC events and even in our cafe. All vouchers will be valid until March 2022. As a charity, your purchase will also be supporting our aim to make science accessible to all. glasgowsciencecentre.org

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Advertising Feature

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Illustration: Max Machen

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Advertising Feature

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Illustration: Connie Noble

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December 2021 – Feature

Gift Guide

Photo: Gabriela Silvera

Gift Guide We asked the team for recommendations including one thing, one experience and one place to support local, sustainable purchase during this year’s mass consumer event

DIY Candle Kit by Our Lovely Goods

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Blunt Knife Co.

Filmhouse Filmhouse in Edinburgh do lovely annual memberships which offer discounts on tickets, or for those of us already with a membership card (ahem, me) they also do gift cards for buying a ticket (or ten). filmhousecinema.com Image: Courtesy of Sunboy Toys Sunboy Toys

Image: Courtesy of Inver

Image: Courtesy of Glasgow PlantMama

Inver Glasgow Plant Mama

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Dalila D’Amico, Production manager Sunboy Toys Set up in 2017 by Katie Lundie and Isobel Neviazsky, Sunboy Toys is a Glasgow-based maker of friendly and colourful toys from almost entirely recycled and repurposed materials. sunboytoys.co.uk Stack Magazine Subscription Subscriptions cost £7 a month, you get a different magazine delivered every month. Magazines from all over the globe and you never know what you’ll get next, the topics covered are usually Art & Design, Culture, Fashion, Music, Food & Drinks etc. stackmagazines.com Inver Restaurant & Rooms If you’re feeling very generous.

Awarded the new Michelin Guide Green Star for Sustainability, they offer simply prepared fresh seafood and native meat and game in season, natural wine and fancy drinks. In the evening they also serve a four course tasting menu. Using current cooking techniques and the very best local wild and farmed ingredients, they offer a contemporary take on traditional and forgotten Scottish dishes. inverrestaurant.co.uk

December 2021 – Feature

PlantMama PlantMama is like a botanical garden in a shop front in the Southside of Glasgow. If – like me – you want every view of your flat to look like it belongs to one of the portrait painter Alice Neel’s sitters/neighbours in 1950s Harlem, a dramatic plant is a necessity. See, for example, the fishbone cactus, whose long wavy leaves look lifted straight from a Matisse cutout and only need minimal watering. Win win! glasgowplantmama.com

te Seba Family-run, homemade pasta.

Imagine being so good that you can just have one dish be fresh made pasta with butter and sage, and it’s a showstopper. teseba.co.uk

Blunt Knife Co. Carefully curated books, art, and zines?

Exclusively by the girls and the theys?? Sign me up now. But maybe get me a gift card because I want to wander in this cute little Edinburgh shop myself. bluntknife.co Rare Bird Books New kids on the Stockbridge block Rare Bird Books do an utterly charming book club subscription where they send you a surprise book every month. Do I already own a sickening number of books? Yeah! Is this hubrism at its most dangerous? Probably! But here we are. rarebirdsbooks.com

Adam Benmakhlouf, Art editor

Sally Good Hair Sally Good is making Glaswegians gorgeous one-by-one. She’s a magical hair witch and the person to call if you would like to give the gift of looking four years younger and minimum two points cuter. Sally is based in Curlach in Glasgow whose tagline is “low maintenance, high impact hair”, and they just won Creative Head Magazine’s Best Local Salon of the year. curlach.co.uk

Anahit Behrooz, Events editor

Gift Guide

Image: Courtesy of BluntKnife Co.

Subscribe to The Skinny!

The perfect Christmas gift for you and literally everyone you know. We offer subscriptions on a three-monthly or annual basis. Sign up for a year (for just £55) and you will receive 12 copies of The Skinny direct to your door, PLUS two risograph prints by exciting local illustrators Atika Bennamane and Inès Gradot, AND a download code for our Pyramid album compilation AS WELL AS any additional publications we produce over the course of the year. theskinny.co.uk/subscribe We trust that resolves all of your Christmas shopping dilemmas. If you’re looking to buy someone a second gift, we have a few suggestions of things, places and experiences with the usual focus on local, sustainable, small business support.

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Photo: Victoria Vitesse

Eliza Gearty, Theatre editor

Gift Guide

Category Is Books This fiercely independent bookshop is one of the gems of Glasgow’s Southside. It’s a lovely, cosy space, and has a fantastic selection of books, zines, comics and graphic novels created by or with the LGBTQIA+ community. categoryisbooks.com BEND.R Described as ‘a physical vending machine turned queer creativity capsule’, this is a truly brilliant project spearheaded by artist Leo Valenti. You pay on a sliding scale – from £4 to £30 – and receive a mystery bag of goodies from a queer artist in the post. Each ticket corresponds to a product’s price.

Valenti actually originally bought a real-life vending machine for this project and filled it with artwork, inspired by Japanese gashapon machines. meopeoleo.com/bend-r-machine-ticket

Meadowlark Yoga

Image: Courtesy of Heron

Paesano Pizza I love this place – it does the best pizza in the world. They make traditional Napoletana pizza in big, wood fired ovens. They cook them really quickly on a really high heat. The restaurant is always packed and they offer gift cards. paesanopizza.co.uk

Jamie Dunn, Film editor, Online journalist Meadowlark yoga Chances are that one or more of your loved ones got right into virtual yoga over lockdown but haven’t quite been brave enough to take their downward facing dog into a real life studio yet.

Not-for-profit yoga studio Meadowlark, just off the Meadows in Edinburgh is as fine a place as any to take the plunge. They offer a great range of gift cards, starting from just £9, which can be purchased at the studio or online at meadowlarkyoga.com IOLLA glasses Have I developed cataracts? No, I just need new glasses. I tend to shop at everyone’s favourite budget specs chain (you know the one) but am in the market for something a bit more chic this year. Us four-eyes wear our glasses more than any other item of apparel, so they should really be stylish as hell. Scottish brand IOLLA have a beautiful range of frames, and are surprisingly affordable. Festive gift cards start at £20 and come with a free tote. iolla.com/products/gift-card

Heron

Katie Smith tote bag from IOLLA

Image: Courtesy of Wild Shore Dundee

December 2021 – Feature

Image: Courtesy of IOLLA

Image: Courtesy of BPaesano Paesano

Leith’s Pay What You Want Bookshop Second-hand books make for lovely stocking fillers that don’t break the bank. Edinburgh has an enviable collection of second-hand book shops scattered across the city, but one of the newest and most forwardthinking is Leith’s Pay What You Want Bookshop, which offers a high-quality selection of nearly new books for whatever you’re able to pay. The kids’ selection is particularly winning.

120 Ferry Road, Edinburgh

Wild Shore Dundee

Laurie Presswood, General manager Wild Shore Dundee They’re closed for the winter now, but this is basically a massive total wipeout-style adventure course floating in Dundee’s City Quay. It looks fun and stupid and I’ve been wanting to go for a very long time. wildshoredundee.co.uk

like the dish on account of all those pesky kidney beans – and veggie alternatives to the meaty elements can easily be found at your local supermarket. lupepintos.com/ lupe-pintos-famous-chile-con-carne

Lupe Pintos Famous Chilli Con Carne Pack To be clear, this is not a real product, but you can collect all the constituent parts from Lupe Pintos and bundle them up in a wholesome little hamper. Their chilli recipe is a special treat for those who don’t normally

Heron If you’re looking to push the boat out this Christmas, might I suggest you push it right along the Water of Leith to the lovely Heron. This restaurant is not cheap, so a voucher is the perfect way to get your loved ones to treat themselves to a meal somewhere they might not go otherwise. heron.scot

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Photo: Jack Allan

Peter Simpson, Digital editor, Food & Drink editor Vault City Brewing There are a few ways to give the all-sour Edinburgh brewery as a gift. Grab a bottle or two from your local indie off-license, gift a snazzy glass or surprisingly tasteful T-shirt, or take your giftee to Vault City’s new bar in Haymarket and do some heavily fruited, pleasingly potent tasting. vaultcity.co.uk

Holly Grows

Scottish Soap Witch Handcrafted, vegan, cold-pressed soaps which all look and smell magical across a range of Scottish and folklore themes. If you don’t want to just smell of gravy and selection boxes this festive season, these are 100% for you! instagram.com/scottish.soap.witch

Photo: Rosyln Leitch

Image: courtesy Lunch Concept

Image: courtesy Max Machen

Holly Grows Freshen up your home jungle with a gift card from Holly Grows. Now settled in a place of its own after pop-ups across Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders, Holly Grows is an excellent indie plant and interiors shop in the heart of Portobello. HG even offers a plant repotting service, which we know your limp-looking Monstera is desperate for! hollygrows.co.uk

Gift Guide

Max Machen OK, we recommended Max last year, but his work’s just so much fun. If you only get one orange and blue scarf featuring a peanut-eating elephant in sunglasses and the slogan ‘Go Nuts!’ this festive season, make it this one. etsy.com/uk/shop/MAXMACHENsShop

Polly Glynn, Comedy editor

Max Machen Scarves

Phoebe Willison, Designer Perfume Making Workshop at A Library of Olfactive Material This beautiful space in Trongate, Glasgow, offers a three hour session teaching you the basics of scent making, and you get to take home your own 30ml bottle of fragrance.

And as the name library suggests, they have a collection of sample scents to browse, and a growing collection of publications on all things scent. a-library-of.com/booking

Lunch Concept Store

Photo: Borja Moronta

Rosamund West, Editor-in-chief Inklings 404 Ink’s non-fiction series is a breath of fresh air – big ideas explored by passionate writers found through an open call commissioning process. You can buy their whole 2021 set of eight – covering topics from the queer revolution of Schitt’s Creek to living between two cultures via an exploration of disaster fiction in apocalyptic times – for £60, or buy them individually for £7.50. The 2022 roster is also available for preorder.

404ink.com/shop Roslyn Leitch Jewellery Specifically, her Impossible Loopy Earrings in Lilac. Made from Leitch’s Fife studio using locallyproduced linoleum, her work has a maximalist aesthetic with a sustainably-focused production process. roslynleitch.com/product-page/ impossible-loopy-earrings-lilac

Borja Moronta Ceramics I want literally everything from this Edinburgh-based ceramicist, but it’s all so popular that you have to sign up to a mailing list and wait for a secret email link. It’s worth the wait though, as the pieces are beautiful and make you feel like a chic minimalist villain when you’re sipping your morning coffee. Webshop reopening 2 Dec borjamoronta.com

Borja Moronta Ceramics

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Edinburgh Ceramics Workshop Learning ceramic techniques of an evening sounds like a really great way to distract the mind from a) Scottish winter and b) global pandemic. Courses and workshops are offered in partnership with Edinburgh Design School, providing beginner and intermediate level pottery training. edinburghceramicsworkshop.co.uk/classes

December 2021 – Feature

Lunch Concept Store Championing independent designers, with a focus on slow fashion, Lunch has to be one of the most exciting online destinations to come out of Scotland. It’s easy to dream away an hour going through their journal, discovering the stories behind the pieces and designers – and their gift card makes an easy present for your fashion-forward family member. lunchconcept.com/product/gift-card

Impossible Loopy Earrings , Roslyn Leitch Jewellery

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Image: courtesy Still Life

Tallah Brash, Music editor

Gift Guide

Birch & Rockpool Loch Sunset Earrings I am in love with these hand-painted clay earrings from Aberdeen jeweller Birch & Rockpool. They’re so bright and colourful I think my ears would be happier with them in their life. etsy.com/uk/shop/BirchAndRockpool Aurora Based in Leith, Aurora describe themselves as a ‘Modern Eatery’ and offer tasting menus from £30, making it affordable for this kind of dining. I am desperate to try the gorgonzola and white chocolate lollipop so a voucher would help fulfil my dream. auroraedinburgh.co.uk Still Life Glasgow-based Still Life were behind the beautiful SAY Award prizes this year and I would love something of theirs to call my own. Made from recycled plastics, they make everything from coasters to stools, each piece gloriously colourful and unique. stilllife.earth

Still Life

Image: courtesy Clyde Built Radio

December 2021 – Feature

Photo: Alice Meikle

Photo: Margherita Turrin Aurora

Odd Company Jewellery

Nadia Younes, Clubs editor

Odd Company Jewellery Call it nepotism if you want, but Skinny alumna Rachael Hood's earrings deserve all the praise because they are beautiful! instagram.com/odd__company Support community radio!

A lot of people got back into radio over lockdown and, for some of us, it was one of the few things keeping us sane. There are loads of really great community radio stations in Scotland – like EH-FM, Clyde Built Radio, and Radio Buena Vida – that you can support by becoming a subscriber, buying merch, or simply making a donation. clydebuiltradio.bandcamp.com

Clyde Built Radio tote bag

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Taza In Town One of the things I miss the most about living in Edinburgh is living dangerously close to Taza In Town.

It serves some of the best Lebanese food I've eaten outside of Lebanon, and the staff are an absolute delight. tazaintown.co.uk

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Art Shops

Above, clockwise from top left: Selkie the Seal by Donna Wilson Daytripper Beach Towel, designs by Laura Morsley, Katie Smith and Kate Scarlet Harvey Bella Beanie by Jo-AMI and Jumper

by Jennifer Kent DIY Candle Kit by Our Lovely Goods

Good Press

Photo: Josephine Lohoar Self

What Lydia Made

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Wild Gorse Pottery

December 2021 – Feature

Image: Courtesy Good Press

Photo: Josephine Lohoar Self

Local Heroes Design picks All items available from V&A Dundee shop.

Photos styled by Local Heroes and photographed

Gift Guide

It’s true artists don’t really have to make ‘stuff’ anymore, and you can thank Lucy Lippard for The Dematerialisation of the Art Object. But there are still beautiful art objects out there for your pal or family member that loves art but doesn’t really want a non-fungible token under the Christmas tree. Here are some recs.

Burning House Books is a bookshop with a focus on art, photography, experimental writing and counterculture based in Glasgow. In stock there, you can find gems like Faster than an Erection by Reba Maybury, with a poem by Cassandra Troyan, which lays out Maybury’s methodology as an Artist and Dominatrix whose medium is men. See also Good Press in Glasgow for artists’ books and zines.

Also in stock at Burning House Books, but with her own shop with much on Instagram, Isobel Neviazsky is an artist who makes paintings and drawings of life around, full of the confusion, terror and occasional joy of being alive. In the Instagram Shop category, there’s also @whatlydiamade for garments, and @mysillylittlerings for jewellery made by Nancy Haslam-Chance, one of the winners of last year’s Trinity Wharf Drawing Prize.

Back IRL and into the city, there’s Welcome Home, located inside the CCA in Glasgow. The stock comes from local artists and designers, and includes prints, ornaments, jewellery, bags, purses and candles that are – just they promise themselves – “handmade, well designed, useful, beautiful or all of the above.” Next door to CCA’s side door, find Paint and Mortar, an independent art supplies shop.

The last three shouts are for all the ceramics lovers out there. If you’re looking for some gorgeous and one-of-a-kind homeware, Wild Gorse Pottery is the one, run by local potter Jen Smith. For classes to learn to make your own, or some left-field psychedelic wares (yes please, always), check out Studio Mama and FireWorks Studio. [Adam Benmakhlouf]

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Shop Local Advertising Feature

A rundown of some special offers and events happening this festive season

DCA Bringing together a unique selection of local and national design, jewellery and craft with contemporary homeware, books, gifts, and limited edition prints produced in DCA Print Studio, DCA Shop is the perfect place to find your Christmas gifts. Shop in person at Dundee Contemporary Arts, or online at shop.dca.org.uk, where you can find special themed gift boxes to make your Christmas shopping even easier.

Hatch Based in the heart of Glasgow's West End in Kelvingrove, Hatch provides both a retail space for over 100 independent UK designers, and a creative workshop space available for hire for artist-led workshops.

340 W Prince's St, Glasgow hatchglasgow.co.uk

152 Nethergate, Dundee

Fruitmarket

Fruitmarket The Fruitmarket bookshop has brilliant and exclusive selection of books, cards and Christmas gift delights.

You can visit in person, or browse our extended online shop and bring the bookshop direct to you, wherever you are this Christmas.

Photo: Spike Wright

Hatch

Photo: Petra Hajska

December 2021 – Feature

45 Market St, Edinburgh fruitmarket.co.uk

DCA

The Alchemy Experiment The Alchemy Experiment opened in October 2020 with the aim of creating an inclusive art space. Since opening, the space has hosted open calls that resulted in two publications & exhibitions with entrants and art from all over the world, as well as workshops, spoken word events, art shows, live music and pop-up shops for artists and makers’ work.

The Alchemy Experiment

157 Byres Rd, Glasgow. alchemyexperiment.co.uk

Jiří Rožeň

Scottish Chamber Orchestra Celebrate the new year in fine style with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s New Year Gala Concerts in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Perth, 1-3 Jan. Featuring delicious dance-hall music by Dvořák and toe-tapping Viennese waltzes by the Strauss family, the SCO is joined by vibrant young Prague-born conductor Jiří Rožeň for this ever-popular event!

Tickets start at £13. Book at sco.org.uk

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Photo: Peter Dibdin

ploterre ploterre combines mathematics and design to create limited edition prints.

Based in Edinburgh and inspired by the natural world, each piece is printed by hand using locally made, natural materials.

Edinburgh International Book Festival Give the book lover in your life a gift membership with the world’s leading literary festival. As a Friend of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, they will receive advance booking privileges for the August 2022 events, a full programme brochure by post, invitations to special events and much more. Order by phoning 0131 718 5653 by 14 December for Christmas delivery or email friends@ edbookfest.co.uk. edbookfest.co.uk/support-us/friends-of-the-festival

Barney's Beer

ploterre.com Photo: Rebecca J Kaye

Barney's Beer What better way to spread the Christmas cheer than with a box of beer? Barney's Beer has a variety of beer gift packs to choose from, so whether there's a hophead, devout dark beer drinker or someone who likes something cheek-puckering on your nice list, this Edinburgh microbrewery has it sorted.

Advertising Feature

Photo: Robin Mair

Every design has a story to tell. From using image analysis to reveal the most commonly seen bird colours flying into our green spaces, to developing formulas to create dazzle patterns from ocean surface currents.

Dean Atta at Edinburgh International Book Festival

barneysbeer.co.uk/shop Photo: Simon Saffrey

Photo: Shannon Tofts

ploterre

Mr Woods Fossils

Mr Wood's Fossils Edinburgh’s famous fossil shop opened in 1987 and has been amazing ever since. Drop in to the shop in the Grassmarket, or visit the website. Pictured: Campo del Cielo meteorite, 4.54 billion years old, Chaco, Argentina. £40-£60.

Coburg House

Coburg House Coburg House Art Studios houses four floors of private studios (open in August and December for one of the best open studios events around). This old granary also boasts an artist-run gallery and shop selling art and craft created by the artists based in the studios, open weekends 11am to 4pm.

15 Coburg Street, Edinburgh. coburghouse.co.uk

5 Cowgatehead, Edinburgh mrwoodsfossils.co.uk Pickering's Gin

pickeringsgin.com

The Queen's Hall The Queen’s Hall’s Associate Artist Michael Begg and the Black Glass Ensemble premieres Light Water Is Black Water, commissioned by the Ocean ARTic partnership, at The Queen’s Hall on Saturday 15 January. This extraordinary new music will be fully realised in all its glacial beauty, alongside incredible Arctic expedition footage and scientific readings. thequeenshall.net/whats-on/light-water-black-water

Department of Magic

Department of Magic Tucked away in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town, The Magic Potions Tavern makes the perfect winter rendezvous for any witch or wizard. Grab your magic wand and brew up a delicious concoction at Edinburgh’s highest-rated mystical cocktail experience. Parchment letters in wax sealed envelopes are available for any and all gift vouchers.

9 Blair St, Edinburgh departmentofmagic.com

Light Water is Black Water

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December 2021 – Feature

Image: Courtesy Monkey Barrel

Pickering's Gin Designed as the perfect favour for the Christmas table, Pickering’s Save My Seat Set contains four miniature bottles of gin, complete with four customisable place-setting tags for just £20. By purchasing one from Pickering’s Distillery Shop, you will automatically be entered into a draw to win a year’s supply of gin in time for Christmas!

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Intersections

Redesign the Night At the end of a year that has once again revealed the dangers faced by women and people from marginalised genders at night, we meet some of those working to properly and authentically implement safer space policy in the club scene Interview: Nadia Younes Illustrations: Sophie J Morrison

December 2021 — Feature

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honing a friend, sticking to main roads, not wearing headphones... We are all aware, by now, of the standard safety protocols taken when women and people from marginalised genders walk alone at night. The events of the last year – from the high profile murders of Sarah Everard in March and Sabina Nessa in September, to recent reports of needle spiking in UK nightclubs – have brought to light huge concerns over the safety of women and people from marginalised genders at night.

A recent YouGov survey – commissioned by Police Crime Prevention Initiatives – found that more than 80% of women want improved safety in bars and nightclubs, and the recent rise in concern over spiking has prompted many nightlife venues across the UK to release statements outlining new security measures. Another response to the reports of spikings was a nightclub boycott, which took place on 28 October, organised by a group of Edinburgh students under the campaign name Girls Night In. Launching on the same night as the boycott was a brand-new club night, Club Sylkie, at Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh. The night, run by Rowan Crerar – who DJs under the moniker Xivro – aims to create a space for queer women, trans women and non-binary people to enjoy harder styles of dance music in a club environment.

Crerar has worked in the events industry, specifically in club promotion, for over five years, and has previously received Good Night Out training – a programme specifically designed for nightlife venues to “better understand, respond to, and prevent sexual harassment and assault in their spaces.” The organisation has worked with and trained 185 nightlife spaces across the UK, and helped world-renowned London nightclub fabric create the first ever nightclub anti-sexual harassment policy.

Upon hearing news of the boycott taking place on the night of Club Sylkie’s launch, Crerar immediately attempted to get in touch with the organisers of Girls Night In, but struggled to get a response. On the day of the boycott, student

publication The Tab published an article which featured a statement from Girls Night In making an exception for Club Sylkie. “It seemed, at first, that the boycott was going to happen [and] Club Sylkie would be empty, or just full of men, and we wouldn’t be able to do another one,” says Crerar.

“And what’s the result of that? There’s no dedicated safer space for queer women in Edinburgh.”

Crerar continues: “I think, in student culture, boycotting and community and collective action is really important. I think some of the people who came [to Club Sylkie] were students and felt quite anxious or guilty about breaking the boycott or not showing solidarity, so it was nice that Girls Night In had recognised the efforts going on.”

As well as receiving Good Night Out training, Crerar has also received training from Edinburghbased organisation Crew 2000 – a harm reduction

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and outreach charity, which trains thousands of professionals in Scotland every year – and says that, in light of recent events, everyone at Club Sylkie will be receiving the same training in the next few months.

“To some extent, the stuff that’s covered in safer space policy is tacit knowledge but it’s always helpful to have that contextualised and to learn proper protocols,” says Crerar. Ultimately, when you’re throwing a party, you want it to be fun and it’s only going to be fun if everyone feels safe. “That’s the whole point with Club Sylkie: for queer women and queer, non-binary people, and people who are largely not represented within the dance music scene to have fun.”

Crerar credits collectives like Gut Level in Sheffield and London’s Sisu Crew as key inspirations for Club Sylkie; both of whom run seminars and workshops on creating safer, more inclusive spaces and events, specifically focusing on dance music and club culture. More locally, Crerar also mentions FUSE by VAJ.Power in Glasgow as a key influence.

FUSE was co-founded by Sofya Staune as a club night in 2016, with the goal to create a safer space for artists and audience alike, prioritising trans and queer people, and it has since expanded into a booking agency. “The most important thing that I found while trying to run a safer space event is to always listen to people who are at different intersections of experience to me, and to identify who the spaces I run are for,” says Staune. “I want to be in and run a space that is comfortable, not just safe: comfortable for the queer community, comfortable for neurodivergent people, comfortable for trans people. I think it’s important to have a more nuanced approach to this, rather than focusing solely on being physically safe or being able to physically exist within the space, [which] is a bare minimum.”

Both Crerar and Staune agree that it is important for promoters to have ongoing conversations with venue bookers, managers and staff on

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Intersections

education from a young age. I know that the Scottish Government has just introduced legislation all about improving sex education in schools, specifically directed at boys, to change their attitudes of how they view women and girls, which is such a good starting point because it really does start then.”

The recent outrage surrounding needle spiking has, justifiably, created a sense of panic and fear among many people visiting nightclubs in the UK. But while the risk of spiking remains concerning – with nearly 200 confirmed reports of drink spiking reported across the UK in August and September alone – in November, Vice World News reported that there have been no confirmed official cases from 274 reports of needle spiking in the UK. Many nightlife venues have since taken measures to improve security and have increased staff training, but, as Cowan suggests, the onus shouldn’t solely be on venues, but rather on our wider culture.

The greatest joy of clubbing is, ultimately, the sense of freedom that comes with it, but it is impossible to feel free without feeling safe. There are numerous organisations providing promoters and venues, within and outwith Scotland, with the skills they need to spot potential incidents of harm within their spaces. And parties like Club Sylkie and FUSE by VAJ.Power show that it is very possible to create a safe and comfortable club environment, striking that all important balance and providing spaces where dancers can feel both free and safe.

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Here to Help Scottish Trans Alliance The Equality Network project working to improve gender identity and gender reassignment equality, rights and inclusion in Scotland. The organisation provides specific security training on trans equality, rights and inclusion good practice.

Street Assist Edinburgh A self-funded and volunteer-led organisation, made up of welfare officers and first aiders, providing cover on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as offering a bespoke service for events.

Strut Safe An Edinburgh-based, volunteer-led organisation, founded by students Alice Jackson and Rachel Chung, which allows individuals to call or text a number to request an escort home, or chat with someone while you walk home.

Sexpression An independent UK charity, who provide near-peer informal and comprehensive Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) teaching training to university students.

December 2021 — Feature

how to properly and authentically implement a safer space policy at their nights and, more importantly, to trust them. “I knew from going to Miss World that Sneaky Pete’s were very communicative and they really care about community,” says Crerar. “Issues like safer space, representation and inclusion are something that Sneaky Pete’s are interested in and care about.”

Staune shares a similar sentiment: “I have a lot of respect and admiration for the venue we currently are based in, Stereo,” they say. “The security there is amazing, as well as the staff, and I have a lot of trust in them to handle anything that can arise during the night, probably the most trust I’ve ever had working with a venue.”

A lot of the recent conversations surrounding safety within nightclubs have centred around increased security, specifically on ramping up bag checks and entry searches. But over-policing in nightclubs is often criticised for disproportionately affecting marginalised groups. This is something Anna Cowan, co-founder of Girls Against – a non-profit organisation fighting against sexual assault at live music and nightlife events – is critical of, explaning: “Our main thing is we want an intersectional approach to educating people.

“There needs to be a cultural shift to make sure that sexual violence is no longer prevalent in nightlife and live music, rather than increasing security, bag checks and all that,” Cowan continues.

“Our biggest belief is changing this through sex

December 2021 — Feature

Film

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Love on Fire Julia Ducournau, the director of cult horror Raw, explores the boundaries of sexuality and genre with her uninhibited new film Titane. We speak to Ducournau and Titane's game-for-anything star, Agathe Rousselle, about this brutal film’s tender core Interview: Xuanlin Tham — 50 —

A

girl with a titanium plate in her skull.

Dancers pressing themselves against the bodies of automobiles, metal and flesh drenched seductively in neon light. An erotic collision between woman and car. A match to petrol as the final flourish to a killing spree. This is the world of Julia Ducournau’s Titane: the flamelicked, battered and beautiful work of a filmmaker deeply invested in mythmaking.

“I like to create my own world,” writer-director Ducournau explains, “so it’s logical for me to try and create a form of mythology within my film.

My characters start as archetypes – archetypes I’m going to try to deconstruct.” She drew inspiration from the biggest stories of all – creation myths. “I thought a lot about the story of Gaia and Uranus, where the gods of the Earth and the sky, by mating, gave birth to the Titans.” Ducournau weaves a tale where humanity is violent and monstrous, but also resilient: “[Gaia and Uranus] repopulate the earth with something that stands for strength somehow. Hence the title of my film – ‘titane’ means titanium, but it’s also a feminine way to put the word ‘titan.’”

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trauma – “you have to find a way for [the characters] to interact.

“Dancing is a very expressive and immediate way to have dialogue between characters,” continues Ducournau, “but also between the characters and the audience. When you receive dancing, when you watch it and receive it, there is an immediacy of the body’s reaction. Every time I go see a ballet, I move my arms just a little bit: it’s like I want to accompany the gestures with my fingers.

It creates a physical bond between me and the dancers, and it’s something I’ve always noticed to be very strong.”

The massive physical transformation Rousselle had to embody helped her to find the vulnerability she needed for the performance, dancing with Alexia into the dark. “You go from a very hot blonde, you know, embracing all the stereotypes that people await from women to this...” She pauses to find the right words to describe the frail Adrien. “Piece of crap?” she suggests. “Half-shaved, no eyebrows, broken nose, it’s like, what the fuck?”

Rousselle laughs, gesturing around her face.

“That transformation made me as an actress, and the character, very vulnerable. Also because she’s pregnant.” Some days on set required six to eight hours of prosthetic fitting, including glueing on a

“I’ve worked as a model, and if you know that you can look good on camera, you’re not scared of looking like shit, you know?”

Agathe Rousselle

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Titane is released 31 Dec by Altitude

December 2021 — Feature

fake pregnancy belly moulded on to Rousselle’s actual stomach. “It was really disturbing because if I ever got pregnant, that’s what I would look like.”

The intensity of the actor’s own bodily experience meant that navigating Alexia’s psychological transformation from stone-cold serial killer to awkward, out-of-place fireman’s son felt organic. “Discovering your own humanity and emotions and everything [is] also a result of this transformation” says Rousselle, reflecting on the inextricable ties between body and psyche. “She’s not in control.” Losing control – to Alexia’s surprise, perhaps – makes space for someone to care about her, and someone for her to care about. “She has a chance to kill Vincent, and she just doesn’t, because for the first time in her life she feels safe,” says Rousselle. “She literally catches feelings.

And for her, it’s very uncomfortable.”

At its core, Titane is a story about the connection between this unlikely pair, and the way the unspoken forgiveness they give each other allows them both to be reborn slightly less broken and a whole lot less alone. “You have an evolution of

their relationship in the way they move together, and the way they look at each other while doing so,” says Ducournau. Reflecting on a magical scene where Alexia and Vincent dance together in intimate slow-motion with the rest of the firemen, Ducournau remarks: “For the first time, they actually look at each other and smile at each other, beyond the representations that they stand for.

There is something true about the sheer joy that they share in this moment, where it’s no longer a question of building your own fantasy or pretending to be someone else.” Slowly, emphatically, she adds: “It’s really them looking at each other.”

Ducournau is always concerned with self-discovery, and the painful process of shedding multiple skins to get to the truth of who we are. Where does this leave Alexia? Her mythical evolution – into Adrien, into something in between, and perhaps back again – culminates in one final dance that both mirrors and vividly contrasts the Alexia with whom we began this journey. “All of a sudden, she’s full of all the identities that she took on herself, but that also created this new creature that you can’t really label,” says Ducournau. “She [performs] the same [exotic dance] moves from the beginning, but these moves are [now] digested by the rest of her personality. There is a form of biblical grace in this scene. Some of the firemen look at her like she’s the Messiah; others have to look away because the power of this creature is too much to take in.

Obviously, it defies the norm of their masculinity, that’s for sure. But there is something beyond gender in that.” Ducournau emphasises: “It’s about the sacredness of that person.”

And it does feel sacred, the hope that Titane bestows upon its audience. Bringing Alexia’s transformation to life reinforced something that Rousselle already believed in: “No matter what your upbringing was, no matter what kind of shit you went through, you can always overcome it. You can carry your parents’ shit your whole life, or you can just set it free.” Her words come rushing forth, earnest but firm. “Ultimately, you can choose to have something safe and peaceful, which is what Alexia found with Vincent – safe place.”

It’s all about love, really. “The love that we can have for each other as human beings, beyond the idea of gender, or any kind of determinant,” Ducournau specifies. “Our mortality is a link between all of us, in front of which we are all constantly vulnerable.” So what do we do? We find each other in the dark. “There is no brightness without darkness, and vice versa.

“When you know that’s where you want to go with your film, that you want that brightness, that you want that hope...” Ducournau pauses. “That new world I try to hint at, it’s stronger than ours,” she continues. “And it’s stronger because it’s monstrous, but also because the monstrosity of this new world is looked at with love. Then you have to work your way back to start your story.

It has to start in darkness. It’s a chiaroscuro, like Caravaggio’s paintings.”

She smiles. “You can’t have one without the other. It’s not that easy, you know?”

Film

While Titane feels otherworldly, it retains the intimate fascination with human flesh of Ducournau’s cannibalistic first feature, Raw. “As far as bodies are concerned,” she says, “[it’s] deeply rooted in a form of realism: the way I treat wounds, the way I treat the skin and the blood.” The body that grounds Titane, enacting both myth and realism, belongs to Agathe Rousselle. In a feature film debut that sears itself into our retinas with its viscerality, the actor’s performance as Alexia is phoenix-like: rebirth and transformation are wrought through self-destruction.

It’s a largely wordless performance, but Rousselle wasn’t daunted by the fact her body would be her chief mode of communicating to camera. “I’ve worked as a model,” she says, “and if you know that you can look good on camera, you’re not scared of looking like shit, you know?

Ugliness – I don’t have a problem with it. Knowing what a camera does to me was really freeing. I was always someone really physical; I’ve done dozens of different sports.”

Rousselle’s mercurial lead role in Titane gave her the opportunity to discover new modes of physical expression, including how to give “an aggressive lap dance” to a car. “I had no idea I could dance like that before,” she laughs. “It was not a part of my femininity that I really embraced.

Between this and going to the mosh pit, I would always choose the mosh pit; not the same crowd.”

Rousselle underwent three months of dance training with Doris Arnold, or “the queen of pole dancing in Paris” as she enthusiastically relates.

“She taught me everything. And now I’m super happy to know how to twerk”. Rousselle grins, a sparkle in her eyes. “At parties, I entertain people.”

The film is propelled by Alexia’s transformational arc. The femme fatale-esque exotic dancer that we meet in the film’s neon-drenched opening must soon mutate, both bodily and psychologically. “When [Alexia] is dancing with the car, she’s definitely active in her own narrative,” Ducournau emphasises. “She’s not as passive and objectified as the other dancers. However, she remains enclosed in the very stereotyped realm of the car show.” Eschewing a traditional three-act structure in favour of tunnelling deeper and deeper under her main character’s skin, one way that Ducournau charts Alexia’s evolution is through dance. But first, she needed to give Alexia a dance partner.

Fleeing from the cops, Alexia painfully rearranges her bodily and facial features to adopt a new identity: that of Adrien, the missing son of steroid-addicted fireman Vincent Legrand (Vincent Lindon). Ducournau envisioned Alexia and Vincent as two archetypal titans meeting. “I often refer to Vincent’s character as being a golem, and also a centaur, as far as his body is concerned” she says.

“And obviously, [Alexia] is a form of cyborg as well.” A strange bond sees the two characters gradually tear down their walls, especially in scenes where they dance with each other, allowing music and movement to tether them together. “It came very naturally to create these dance scenes when I was writing, because when you have a character that can’t talk” – Vincent presumes his newly-returned son is reticent to speak due to

THE SKINNY

In a Town Called Bethlehem

December 2021 — Feature

Theatre

Ahead of the Bethlehem Cultural Festival at the CCA, we chat to Ben Harrison, co-Artistic Director of Grid Iron, Marina Barham, co-founder of Al-Harah Theatre, and Abdelfattah Abusrour, director of Bethlehem Cultural Festival, about their work collaborating on Bethlehem’s first site-specific theatre festival Interview: Eliza Gearty

B

en Harrison is used to staging shows in all sorts of different places. Grid Iron, the Edinburgh-based theatre company he has been Co-Artistic Director of since 1996, is known for its site-specific work – locations for shows have ranged from a working cancer hospital in Jordan to ten metres underwater in Belfast’s Lagan Weir. But something about making work at the periphery of the Israeli-West Bank border hit him differently.

“I don’t think I’ve ever done this before, but I stopped the workshop,” says Harrison, who has worked as a director for over 25 years and has facilitated workshops all over the world. An expert at knowing how to fill all sorts of spaces with stories, he suddenly found himself in a place where he felt there was “nothing to add... The space was too overwhelming,” he explains. “Anything too artistic, too aesthetic, too visually ambitious, felt totally wrong. Because you can’t compete with the monstrosity of what the wall is. All you can do is witness it.”

Harrison was in Palestine at the time to work with the company Al-Harah Theater on the very first Bethlehem Site Specific Festival, launched by Al-Harah in 2020 to celebrate the city of Bethlehem’s standing that year as the Capital of Arab Culture (although due to the pandemic, the actual festival was postponed until the summer of 2021). In Feburary 2020, he travelled to Bethlehem with director Allie Butler to facilitate workshops on site-specific theatre with a group of ten emerging Palestinian theatre directors. The concept of having a site-specific festival in the area transpired “because there are lots of old houses in Bethlehem and Beit Jala,” explains Marina Barham, Co-Founder and General Manager of Al-Harah Theater. “Some of them are inhabited and some of them are not, but people don’t know their history and their stories. [Site-specific theatre] is something new that does not exist much in Palestine – we thought this could be a way to make these spaces come alive.”

Supported by the British Council, Al-Harah began looking for a UK-based partner with a history of site-specific performance to develop the project with. Everybody kept recommending “Ben Harrison and Grid Iron,” says Barham. “They were one of the oldest groups in the UK working with site-specific performance.

So we proposed [they collaborate with us], and they agreed.”

Harrison and Butler worked with the group of directors for nine days, developing the concepts that would later debut at the festival. The directors were asked to create work that responded in some way to the spaces they were in. With the exception of the workshop “right by the separation wall,” when Harrison felt compelled to stop, he found the experience “joyous” and “very close to domestic life”.

“I think what was interesting about some of the old courtyards and buildings we were working in was the sense of family history, and families being there for generations and generations,” he says. “We chatted to people who were living next door to the spaces we were working in – they were very interested in them.”

Barham credits the festival with giving many elderly members of the community a new lease of life. “It revived neighbourhoods with older people. In Star Street, there are many houses where the younger generation have moved out, and it is just elderly people living in them,” she says. “[The festival] gave them a new

appreciation of their houses, their stories, their lives. When we finished, I went back to visit them after a couple of weeks and they said, ‘are you coming again next week to perform?’ I said ‘no, I’m sorry, but we will come back!’”

“We wanted to show that Bethlehem is a Palestinian culture, full of multiplicity and diversity” Abdelfattah Abusrour, Bethlehem Cultural Festival The festival, when it took place in 2021, proved to be a great success. “With these site-specific performances, we had new audiences, new faces we hadn’t seen in our theatres,” says Barham. “It was full of life. Some of the directors have a completely different vision for theatre after this experience, and they want to continue working in this field. In Palestine, we don’t have a lot of good theatre venues. This is a good substitute, using alternative spaces and houses – it’s a way to get closer to the community, and reach more normal people, not just the usual theatre-goers.” Both Barham and Harrison hope to revive the festival again in 2022; Barham can see it becoming a staple cultural event in the region.

This month, Harrison and Barham will be appearing together at the Bethlehem Cultural Festival at the CCA in Glasgow to speak about the Bethlehem Site Specific Festival and share a documentary that was made about the project.

The BCF aims to shine a light on the rich arts and cultural scene in the ‘not so little town’ of Bethlehem – reminding attendees that there is more to this part of Palestine than the religious and political history that is often associated with it in the West. “[We wanted to show] that Bethlehem is a Palestinian culture, full of multiplicity and diversity,” says Abdelfattah Abusrour, Festival Director. “Here you’ll find Muslims, Christians, and so much cultural and artistic life. It was important for us to present and celebrate this Bethlehem – to show that it’s not only a religious place where people come to think about Jesus, but also a place where life is, and where people of different religions are living as Palestinians and as equals.” Alongside discussions, such as the one between Harrison and Barham, the programme features film, live music and poetry. For Harrison, it’s important that such an event takes place in the UK. “The only news stories you see [about Palestine] in the West are ones of violence and despair,” he notes. “When actually, the culture is as rich as any other culture. There are political reasons for why we don’t see as much of that – but we should.”

The Bethlehem Cultural Festival CCA, Glasgow 4-5 Dec bethlehemculturalfestival.com/whats-on/whats-on-glasgow-2021/

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December 2021

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Books

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Apocalypse in 2021 As we come to the end of another year that truly feels like the end of times are nigh, Katie Goh – author of The End: Surviving the World Through Imagined Disasters – looks back on 2021 through a literary apocalyptic lens Illustration: Kasia Kozakiewicz

December 2021 — Feature

W

hat do we do with the warnings we receive? Do we take action, suddenly spurred into motion by alarm?

Or do we, as Jessie Greengrass writes in her novel The High House, “[tune] it out like static”? Or, as per Jenny Offill in her Orwell Prize-longlisted novel, Weather, continue to sit in a “twilight knowing”, a refusal to engage with what we know, but prefer to ignore?

These questions are becoming less rhetorical as the end times roll on. Post-COP26 – the UN climate conference that was called the “best last hope” for our world and, soon after it finished, declared a failure – it feels like we are on a one-way road to the apocalypse. We’ve been walking this road for a while now. Crisis after crisis has thrown us into a state of normalised turmoil: 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, the 2008 economic crash, devastating earthquakes and tsunamis, political upheaval, the arrival of data-driven surveillance capitalism, the COVID-19 virus and an environmental catastrophe that is bringing about the sixth mass extinction of life on this planet. These are just recent global upheavals contributing to a collective feeling of relentless, accelerating doom.

As we sit, stupefied like frogs in slowly boiling water, how can we comprehend our own demise? When the rent is due next week and the shops are out of avocados and we’re all just trying to carve out some sort of normality after nearly two years of a pandemic, how can we even begin to process all of this disaster?

Writers have always responded to the world around them and now is no different. 2021 has seen an abundance of novelists tackle environmental, political and technological disasters through fiction. As we come to the end of another year that has highlighted just how apocalyptic life on Earth has become, we look back at some of this year’s novels that grapple with our collective “twilight knowing” and the futures that could be ahead.

Beginning as the world ends – “crisis slid from distant threat to imminent probability,” narrates the teenager, Caro – Greengrass’s novel The High House is set in rural Suffolk.

While the world ignored imminent environmental catastrophe until it was too late, Caro’s stepmother, a prominent scientist, prepared a house for the family to move into with the meticulous planning of a doomsday prepper. Removed from floods and mudslides, Caro and her family’s situation parallels that of the wealthy in the Global North right now. “We are all at the mercy of the weather, but not all to the same extent,” thinks Caro early in the novel. Geography and wealth will be what

saves – or kills – most of us as the climate crisis continues to rage on. Evoking Noah’s Ark, the book explores parental responsibility during environmental catastrophe, asking the queasy question: what are the ethics of bringing children into a world on fire?

It’s a theme that is also tackled by the Danish writer Ursula Scavenius in her collection of short stories, The Dolls (translated into English by Jennifer Russell and published by Lolli). Opening with the sound of violins and the fall of ash, the collection's titular story is set in a world that could be either 20th-century or 22nd-century Europe. “The violin bows gnaw at the strings the same way we gnaw at chicken bones,” narrates the young protagonist, as the music relentlessly plays.

The narrator, a young girl in a wheelchair, feeds her sister through a cellar grille, as they play with dolls with glued-on hair.

Scavenius’ writing is stark and cold, and The Dolls is a story drenched with post-apocalyptic dread. A monstrosity called ‘the Machine,’ where the girls’ parents work in the hope that they’ll be left alone, continues to roll closer to the family’s home. Every time the narrator looks away and back at the Machine, it’s inched closer, until it’s almost on top of them.

Like the climate crisis in The High House, Scavenius’ story is about the normalisation of looming, terrible disaster. Rather than flee, The Dolls’ family accepts the rolling regime, acclimatising to its terror until it’s too late.

The Dolls captures the sense of fatalism that has come to hang over life in this decade: What’s the point of recycling when 20 fossil fuel companies are responsible for a third of all carbon emissions? What difference will one vote make in an election?

Why fight the Big Data capitalists who are selling our behaviours, desires and very thoughts back to us? Wouldn’t it be easier to just give up and embrace whatever fucked up future is coming our way?

Stuck in endless and normalised catastrophe, near-future dystopias can offer us clarifying focus. In Ros Anderson’s novel The Hierarchies, sex, power and desire have become commodified in the form of futuristic sex dolls. Fresh out of a box, one of these dolls, Sylv.ie, has been engineered to be the perfect ‘wife’ for her owner, a man simply referred to as the Husband. Sylv.ie’s life revolves around sex, but she also can engage in witty but polite conversation and play chess – always, of course, allowing the Husband to win.

Like Westworld and The Stepford Wives, The Hierarchies

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Books

young, ill girl called Josie, she is simultaneously a servant and friend, a toy and a governess, a product and a parent. “Are you a guest at all? Or do I treat you like a vacuum cleaner?” says one character to Klara.

Like Anderson, Ishiguro is interested in portraying a slowly deepening consciousness. Klara and the Sun shares many similar themes with his earlier beloved novel Never Let Me Go, in which orphan clones are brought up in an English boarding school and then harvested for their organs. But the world has grown crueller in the 16 years since Never Let Me Go was published. In Klara’s world, technological advancements have rendered people ‘postemployed’, while scientists argue about what makes a human human: ”A part of us refuses to let go,” muses one character. “The part that wants to keep believing there’s something unreachable inside each of us. Something that’s unique and won’t transfer.”

Klara and the Sun is about a crisis of consciousness.

As Klara’s understanding of her world – and her role within it – expands, she becomes increasingly human, relying on misguided faith, dignified martyrdom and the burden of parental responsibility to guide her consciousness into the light. Ishiguro upturns the hierarchy of human and non-human to ask: what happens when A.I. becomes more human than people? What happens when robots take on the burden of human anguish?

What brave new world could technology lead us to?

Fiction is incredibly powerful, especially when most of us are already living between multiple online and offline worlds and debates over what exactly constitutes ‘real’ and ‘fake’ continue to rage. Disaster has always loomed over us, but that state of ‘twilight knowing’ that so many of us have sat comfortably in for too long is coming to an end. Rather than simply offering escapism, these fictional post-apocalyptic worlds about technological, environmental and social crises grant us something far better: the space to explore hypothetical futures, from the dystopian to the utopian. Look at where we could go, these stories say. Look at who we could be.

The End: Surviving the World Through Imagined Disasters is out now from 404 Ink 404ink.com

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December 2021 — Feature

explores the intersection of technology and patriarchy, narrativising concerns around gendered biases in software. Anderson strips apart performative gender in the novel – the dolls are given make-up and can cry real tears in order to play the role of idealised ‘woman’ for their owners – while also locating sexuality and capitalism as coming from the same impulse: social power.

Sylv.ie’s downfall (or ‘becoming’) begins when she writes a diary and gains consciousness beyond her programmed settings. She learns of social movements fighting to give ‘Augmented Persons’ rights as well as her very reason for existing: a desire to outsource sex, like all realms of labour in The Hierarchies’ world. In her seminal 1985 essay A Cyborg Manifesto, technofeminist Donna Haraway writes that: the cyborg “is a matter of fiction and lived experience that changes what counts as women’s experience in the late twentieth century. This is a struggle over life and death, but the boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion.”

As Haraway calls for in her manifesto, Sylv.ie pulls apart the supposedly rigid boundaries between human and non-human, wife and machine, consciousness and software. While The Hierarchies’ technology-driven world is hardly the feminist utopia envisioned in Haraway’s manifesto, the novel proves the essay’s point: we create the cyborg, but we also create the world the cyborg is born into. If we fail to act, that future world will simply be a version of the unequal, unjust social hierarchies that exist right now.

Technology is also the crisis at the heart of Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro’s eighth novel. The narrator, Girl AF Klara, an Artificial Friend, lives in a showroom watching the world go by through the window. She spends her days speaking to fellow AFs and watching the sun (which powers their technology) make its way across the sky on its daily journey. Klara is her world’s latest version of Alexa or Siri: sophisticated technology in the shape of a humanoid, engineered with software to recognise emotion and provide companionship to children.

Throughout the novel, Klara processes feelings to increasingly nuanced degrees, until she isn’t simply recognising them but, instead, feeling them herself.

Ishiguro constructs his world-building through Klara’s limited perspective, leaving much to the reader’s imagination.

Klara and the Sun could be set in 2021 or 2081: characters are designated as “high-ranking” by their clothing, while children spend their time staring at ‘oblongs’. After Klara is bought for a

THE SKINNY

A Circle Has No End Art

Howardena Pindell’s exhibition at Fruitmarket brings together her diverse body of work for her first major UK solo show. Here she gives an insight into her studio practice, and the last 60 years of making social change as an artist and activist Interview: Adam Benmakhlouf

the textural work as well as the issue-related work.

I love to do research. In the outside studio, I do the non-figurative works, the large works. I have assistants, also. At 78 or 79, I don’t have the strength of a 30-year-old… [I’ve] been revisiting in recent times the early spray dot works on a large scale. There’s plenty of room in the [outside] studio.

I find the textural works very calming to produce.”

These are the stunning abstract paintings that are often what might come up first when researching Pindell’s work. These are also notable in the way that Pindell works with the cloth of the canvas, without attaching it to wooden stretchers.

“I love working on unstretched canvas, I love the free floating material. It feels large and less cumbersome without stretchers. My first abstract pieces were all unstretched or in some cases they were later stretched.”

These aren’t only unusual works for what the paint was being applied to (the unstretched canvas), but also how Pindell would paint with specialist equipment. “I worked using an atomiser, which is hard to explain because it’s an art supply that I don’t think is sold now. You had a spray can and it had a little attachment that you could put on maybe an eight-ounce bottle of acrylic with a water tension breaker, then you would just slowly

spray through the templates which I made by taking file folders and cutting them in strips, because way back in the 70s you couldn’t get a hole-puncher that would go all the way in if you had too large a strip. Then I would glue them together, and I’d put a skirt of plastic around them so they wouldn’t create an edge.”

Pindell’s concept-driven works are in contrast to her large scale abstract and textural works.

Pindell brings up the work Columbus (2020) as an instance of one of the issue-related works. It’s mixed media on canvas, made up of text on a black background of traced hands that have been cut out and applied to the canvas with black acrylic paint.

It relays the untaught histories of Columbus, whose status as a heroic explorer is only just beginning to be questioned in mainstream education.

[TW: The rest of this paragraph and the next refer to deeply disturbing racialised violence.] In this work, Pindell in no uncertain terms details the atrocities committed by Columbus, and under his command, including ‘LYNCHING OF FIRST NATIONS/ PEOPLE, TAKING BODY/ PARTS AS TROPHIES’.

Columbus ‘TRAINED DOGS TO EAT HUMAN FLESH/ GRILLED INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ALIVE. DISMEMBERED INFANTS, FEEDING THEM TO THE DOGS’. The text in Columbus is all-caps, emblazoned, Photo: Tom Nolan

December 2021 — Feature

O

ne evening in November, in the midst of preparing for some of the most prestigious art festivals in the world, and keeping pace with the incredible demand for her work, Howardena Pindell spares 40 minutes to answer 11 in-depth questions about her practice, career and life. At 78, she has for six decades been dedicatedly making work for which she has received international renown and attention, forging a new path for herself as an African American woman in white-dominated art contexts.

Throughout her career, she has made paintings about war, Apartheid, police violence, the AIDS crisis, slavery and the environment. Pindell’s diverse body of work stems from research (which she loves to do), daring experimentation and the pursuit of beauty. Her home city is New York and throughout the interview, there are the sounds of the city as accompaniment. “I apologise for the background noise,” she says “I’m on the first floor so a lot of people swoop through here on Saturday night on their motorcycles and souped-up cars.” It’s late in the day, and she addresses each of the questions with a spirit of generosity and intellectual elegance.

Pindell’s output can at times be textual, with references to history and politics writ large, while others shift the emphasis to material, form colour and texture. By way of a general introduction to the different registers on which her works operate, Pindell draws a distinction between issue-based artworks and others that reflect on and express concepts of beauty. “My work talks back and forth to itself. The issue-related work can be heavy and depressing. The textural and colourful work is a pleasure to the senses, in making it and seeing it.

I have two studio spaces – in the home studio I do

“I would like to forget all these microaggressions, but they still linger in my memory”

Howardena Pindell - A New Language, Fruitmarket

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Image: Courtesy of Garth Greenan Gallery

Art

“My work talks back and forth to itself” Howardena Pindell

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Howardena Pindell

staff there, but also saw Paris for the first time. “I thought Paris was the most beautiful city I’d ever seen.” She fell seasick and was given an injection to feel better. A storm broke out, and for three days, the boat went around, side-to-side, in every direction. For Pindell, it was close to one of the most traumatic experiences of her life.

Speaking of the motivations for this work, she also mentions “the middle passage, people were thrown overboard, people who were enslaved. This would be for insurance. For the worst of it, see the film [Fire/Water/Rope in the exhibition].” Nevertheless, Pindell doesn’t finish there.

As well as the ocean being the site of the terrifying history of enslavement, for Pindell there is the possibility to find wonder there, too. “It’s horrible,” she says of the murders, “but I’m fascinated by the colour blue and the colour of water. I especially like glaciers, when they calve, that is when they fall apart. There is this extraordinary beautiful luminous blue that’s there. Plankton can be luminous in the ocean at night, it lights up. I love that colour blue.”

Howardena Pindell: A New Language, Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, until 2 May 2022

December 2021 — Feature

sometimes curving off and around the text around as if communicating the excesses of the violence it describes, that the format itself must curve and bend to the enormity of what is described.

Columbus relates also to two other works, the painting Four Little Girls and the film Rope/ Fire/Water. In Four Little Girls, Pindell “memorialises the schoolgirls Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Rosamond Robertson who were murdered in Birmingham [Alabama, USA] in September 1963 by the domestic terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.” It was a gathering place for the Children’s Crusade of 1963, whose demonstrators sought to integrate schools in the USA. Pindell carefully brings this history into recent times, listing the burning of Black Churches up until 2015. Similarly, she is careful not to historicise the past in the film Rope/Fire/Water, which recounts horrific lynchings of Black people in the USA, and draws a line from these to the present-day police brutality and murder.

Speaking with Pindell, a more grounded sense of regress and progress emerges. She candidly recalls being ejected by racist restaurant staff on her lunch breaks while she was the curator of MoMA. Around the same time, she visited the Hamptons, where the likes of Jackson Pollock had taken up residence. Here, a gallery owner let visitors eat in front of the building, but wouldn’t let Pindell, because she is Black – she steadfastly did so, nevertheless. “The Hamptons are so racist, it’s outrageous… It attracted white artists, who didn’t notice.”

Years later, and relatively recently Pindell returned to the Hamptons to sit on a panel of three artists, with one other African and American and a fairly famous white male artist. Tired from standing and using her cane, Pindell went to find a chair from the foyer where a white middle-aged woman on staff – who was smiling at the white clientele on arrival, without asking them for their membership – demanded to know if Pindell was a member, then

loudly asked Pindell to leave. A senior member of staff happened to be nearby, and intervened.

“The woman tried to get me to sit in her chair and I refused.”

Elsewhere, in the interview, Pindell says, “I would like to forget all these microaggressions, but they still linger in my memory.”

Having started the interview speaking about the method for making the abstract paintings, made up of countless circles, Pindell returns to where she began, with one last memory. “I’m fascinated by the circle because of an experience I had as a child. My mother and father, we went to visit my mother’s mother, my grandma. My mother was hanging out with her sister and her mother. She’d moved to Southern Ohio, which is racist in its own way. But Kentucky’s really racist. My father and I went to a root beer stand. We were served chilled mugs like everyone else, but at the bottom there was a big red circle. And that night, I asked my father what that meant, and he said under segregation, the eating utensils must be marked that Black people use. You cannot share eating utensils with whites… I think I’ll end here with that story.”

Just before sharing that last memory, Pindell hints at what she’s working on now, and what’s next. Describing how her work moves, she says it “accelerates, then break, then back-up, let’s relook at it. Right now I’m working on large spray paintings. I don’t have an issue-related painting in the hopper yet, but I have the literature I need to read.

At home I’m working on a textural painting that is basically about beauty. I’m very interested in the colour of water, and of the Caribbean versus the Hudson which is brown, the colour of the ocean.”

She traces this new work to her own time at sea, when she took a boat back from a trip to Europe as a student. She’d been coming back from the trip when she’d been made to sleep on a bed in the dining room of a Swedish hotel by the racist

THE SKINNY

Connecting the Dots Ahead of Polka Dot Disco Club’s Christmas party at Dundee’s Beat Generator Live!, we meet the collective’s founder, Frankie Elyse, to discuss how they are diversifying Dundee’s club scene Clubs

Interview: Nadia Younes

December 2021 — Feature

Photo: Daniel Anderson

D

undee has very much been put on the map in the last few years, particularly since the opening of the V&A Dundee in 2018. So much so that the city even featured as a location for an entire episode of HBO’s multiple Emmy Award-winning TV series, Succession, in its second season. While Kendall Roy’s cringe-worthy attempt at rapping in the episode may have left a lot to be desired, however, Dundee’s local music scene, fortunately, has a lot more to offer.

Frankie Elyse is a Dundee-born DJ, who co-founded Polka Dot Disco Club – a DJ collective that aims to empower women and non-binary people – along with her twin sister Jozette. Elyse came up with the idea for the collective after discovering just how limited a selection of women DJs there were in Dundee. “I thought this has got to change,” says Elyse. “So I got in touch with [Dundee University Students’ Association]... and they were brilliant. They gave us the space and they gave us the equipment all for free.”

After receiving around 30 applications, Elyse narrowed the list down to a group of six young women based in Dundee, who were taught how to DJ in four weeks through a series of workshops conducted by herself and sister Jozette. The members of Polka Dot Disco Club – Alias-L, Becka Clark, Corran, Heather Tulloch, Krulkop and T.D. Slider – made their live debuts at DUSA’s annual International Women’s Day gig in March last year, but then COVID got in the way.

Like many other DJ collectives, Polka Dot Disco Club reinvented itself as a mix series throughout the pandemic, with contributions from residents and special guests, including Eva Crystaltips, Jordy Deelight and Hayley Zalassi. “We were trying to keep them going, keep them motivated, because it was hard,” says Elyse. “I think everybody lost motivation with COVID... and that was a good way for us to meet other creatives in Scotland… I think it’s made us appreciate things a lot more, and made us more determined to push ahead and have fun.”

Since clubs reopened, it’s been back to business as usual and the collective have secured a weekend residency at Dundee bar Kilted Kangaroo, as well as playing shows outside of their home city, at The Mash House in Edinburgh and Sub Club in Glasgow. Having started her DJ career while studying in Edinburgh and now living and working in Glasgow, Elyse has developed an awareness of the different scenes across each of

the cities, but says she found the Glasgow club scene particularly difficult to break into.

“I didn’t really know anyone, and I found it difficult to network... so it wasn’t actually until just before lockdown I really began to get into Glasgow life, and that was after living here for two years,” she says. “The scene wasn’t as diverse – it was still better than Dundee, I suppose – but it wasn’t as diverse in general, so it was harder to get past the boys’ club… It was difficult for me to navigate.”

Elyse credits fellow Dundonian DJ, and her childhood friend, Hannah Laing with supporting her in the early stages of her DJ career and helping her get gigs in Edinburgh during her student days.

With Polka Dot Disco Club, Elyse wanted to provide a similar support system for budding young DJs in

“For me, it wasn’t just about [gender], it was more [about] finding that community that you feel you can bounce off” Frankie Elyse — 58 —

her hometown and provide them with the confidence to pursue a career in electronic music.

“For me, it wasn’t just about [gender], it was more [about] finding that community that you feel you can bounce off,” she says. “It was to facilitate a way for people... to get these opportunities and get gigs, because I think it’s all about collaboration and just being as welcoming as possible.”

Outside of Polka Dot Disco Club, the Elyse sisters also make music together, performing under the name KINTRA, with Jozette playing the electric violin and Frankie DJing. The duo are currently in the process of preparing an EP for official release early next year, made up of some tracks they began working on during lockdown. One of the EP’s tracks, Oort Cloud, has even received some radio airtime, first played on Phoebe Inglis-Holmes and Shereen Cutkelvin’s BBC Introducing show on BBC Scotland before being picked up nationally by BBC Radio One DJ Jaguar.

Putting the setbacks brought upon by COVID behind her, Elyse is very much focused on the future; not only for herself but also for the bright young talents she has nurtured through Polka Dot Disco Club. In doing so, Elyse is continuing to invigorate and diversify Dundee’s electronic music scene, as well as creating opportunities for women and non-binary DJs all over Scotland.

Polka Dot Disco Club, Beat Generator Live!, Dundee, 17 Dec

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December 2021

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December 2021

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Music Now While there aren’t many big releases this month due to it being December, there’s still a thrilling collection of sounds coming out of Scotland worth seeking out Words: Tallah Brash Music

MC Salum

Queen Vol. 2 delights and amazes at every turn, especially considering that each of its 12 tracks were written and recorded over the Easter long weekend, with its musicians doing everything from fabricating blanket fort recording booths in Brighton (Kissing) to a synth-filled Glasgow living room as in the case of Pink Jammies – a group comprised of L.T. Leif, Bart Owl (eagleowl) and Liam Chapman (C Duncan, Rachel Sermanni).

The latter group’s Ambient Pink Wafers is a real highlight of a record that’s full of them – from Ben Seal’s breathy Meet Me in the Fire to Meursault’s high-octane Butterfly Collector, the glorious harmonies of Double Lonely (Hailey Beavis, Robyn Dawson and Mario Cruzado) on Return and Ted Hawkins cover Sorry You’re Sick, to Faith Eliott’s delicate closer Sadie.

At the start of the month, Dundee rapper and producer MC Salum releases his bouncy debut album, Crocodile DD (1 Dec).

Inspired by Drake and Noname, Crocodile DD is full of swagger, with rich, inviting production and an impressive cast of features from producer GUY GALACTIC, to rapper HITMONLEE and exceptional vocalists Priya and Gabriella Liandu. Hip-hop fans will also want to seek out new Scottish label Habibi Records this month who release two tracks featuring Edinburgh rapper CTRL – HeadGone and Al Pacino – on 9 and 23 December respectively. They also release the super catchy pop-fuelled Beside You at the end of the month from producer Bakersville and singer Joey Locke (30 Dec).

Finally, Glasgow production duo Silicone Soul release Darkroom Dubs Vol. V via their own Darkroom Dubs label (10 Dec), and there are new singles from Josephine Sillars (I’ll See You When I See You, 1 Dec) and Peter Johnstone (Love Bug, 7 Dec). But what better way to finish off the last column of the year than with a trio of Christmas singles? Becci Wallace’s Ghost (1 Dec) is twinkling, full of hope and for those “affected by Christmas due to adversity or painful memories”. Pelts’ Parachute Silk is for the Christmas romantics, while Lucifer’s Christmas by Dale is for “those who don’t fit in and feel isolated over the festive season”, with all proceeds going to Tiny Changes.

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December 2021 – Review

Photo: Marilena Vlachopoulou

TAAHLIAH

Photo: Lauren Kellie

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he most notable release this month comes from Glasgowbased hyperpop/gabber producer TAAHLIAH. Following the success of May’s Angelica (longlisted for The SAY Award and featured in The Skinny’s top ten Scottish albums of the year list on p27), Angelica (Extended) takes a fresh look at some of its tracks, either supercharging them or making them somehow even more euphoric. “Most of the tracks on this project were never meant to see the light of day,” says TAAHLIAH of this new remixed mini-album. “I created them mainly for personal development or live performances. The more I’ve played them live or included them in mixes, the stronger the audience response has been.” Angelica (Extended) is due via untitled (recs) for an exclusive Bandcamp day release on 3 December, with general release landing a week later.

After a four-year hiatus, Julie Crawford’s MONKOORA project makes a welcome return this month with the stunning Night Charm. Due on 3 December via her own Labyrinths in Whack label, Night Charms twists and turns across its eight tracks, traversing numerous genres, never keeping still for too long. Describing the record as a “microcosm that exists in the night time”, opener Bloom carries you away into a dreamlike realm with gorgeous swirling pianos, its structure almost emulating the rise and fall of a chest as you descend into a deep sleep, before Celestica’s uncomfortable looped backing vocals kick in.

Later on the record, Moon Food is a dystopian sci-fi delight, and Night Walks sees Crawford channelling the 80s energy of Madonna’s Holiday over a modest bass groove and static hi-hats. Black Mould offers up the record’s most tender moment, showcasing just how unique, pure and warm Crawford’s voice is, making for a really moving moment on a record that’s chock full of exciting ideas.

On the same day, Paisley party starters The Vegan Leather release their brand new EP, Furious, Not Ominous. Of the nine tracks, three were previously released as singles over the course of the various lockdown restrictions in place throughout 2020 and 2021, so it’s nice to hear Gloaming, Sanctum Sound and Who’s Knocking On My Door? together now as part of a bigger release. There’s a great energy across the whole of Furious, Not Ominous, best exemplified in the casual spoken word of She Don’t (F.T.S), the screamsinging of Who’s Knocking... and the relentless Forget It. It’s also nice to hear the band exploring new ideas here; the intro, interlude and outro, in particular, are a nice touch.

Due on 10 December, one release that’s making us feel all warm and fuzzy this month comes from Hailey Beavis and Faith Eliott’s OK Pal Records as the label releases their second annual “Album in a Weekend” compilation. Prancing

THE SKINNY

Scotland on Screen: Mark Cousins Film

We catch up with the ever-inspiring Mark Cousins – Scotland’s most prolific and critically acclaimed documentarian – ahead of the release of two new films shot through with his irrepressible passion for cinema

Interview: Jamie Dunn Filmography: The First Movie (2009), The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011), What Is This Film Called... Love?

(2012), A Story of Children and Film (2013), Here Be Dragons (2013), Life May Be (co-director Mania Akbari, (2014)), Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise (2015), I Am Belfast (2015), Stockholm, My Love (2016), The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018), Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (2018) t: @markcousinsfilm

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ark Cousins’ films can be broadly categorised into two piles. There are his openhearted essays on film culture, where he uses his vast film knowledge to cast an askance eye on cinema history, and in the process open it up beyond the narrow confines of the Western canon (The Story of Film (2011), Women Make Film (2018)). Then there are his playful portraits of people and places, which often cast their subject in revelatory new light (I Am Belfast (2015), The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018)). So prolific is this Edinburgh-based Irish filmmaker that two features of each flavour arrive in cinemas this month.

One is The Story of Film: A New Generation, Cousins’ sequel to his epic 15-hour history of the movies. “I thought I was done with this,” Cousins says on a video call from his flat in Edinburgh. “[The Story of Film] was ten years ago, and the book was a lot more than that. I don’t like going over old ground.”

However, when the book’s publisher suggested an addendum for a new addition, the cogs started turning. “In order to do that chapter, I had to look back over cinema of the last ten years, and I realised a lot had happened – and not even in cinema, but in society, of course. So I thought maybe it’s time to have another crack at this.”

“I’m trying to aim for a feeling of poetry”

December 2021 – Review

Mark Cousins Cousins’ writing process is akin to the cut-up technique.

After immersing himself in the cinema of the 2010s (“There are things I hadn’t seen: I’d only seen two Lav Diaz but not enough...”) he wrote the works he wanted to discuss on sheets of A5. He flashes a few of them on screen. Some of the titles made the picture (Under the Skin, Mad Max: Fury Road) and some didn’t (Source Code, Climax). “Then all I do is take these pieces of paper and lay them out on the carpet here and work out a sequence,” he explains. “So it wasn’t too difficult. I’m quite decisive, you know. I don’t faff around with these things. I just wanted to make sure that I covered lots of different types of cinema.”

The chief criteria to make the grade was innovation: which films expanded established forms of filmmaking, and which forged their own path? But the result is much more than a simple list of ingenious movies.

What makes A New Generation sparkle is Cousins’ ability to not only weave intellectual ideas with each new clip, but emotions too. “I’m trying to aim for a feeling of poetry in some way,” is how he describes it. “So you’re looking for visual connections between clips, and mood connections too.”

The other Mark Cousins joint released this month is The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, a spry homage to the fiercely independent film producer who has shepherded projects from some of cinema’s most talented filmmakers. Like many of Cousins’ works, it takes the form of a road movie, with the filmmaker riding shotgun with Thomas as he drives on his annual pilgrimage to the Cannes Film Festival.

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When asked why he keeps returning to this road movie form, Cousins is emphatic. “I just love it! On road trips you just unravel, don’t you? If you’re with somebody else in a car or on foot, there’s just that sense that you can feel the day stretch ahead, and you can feel your friendship, hopefully, getting more fun and more moving. And that’s what happened with Jeremy. I knew him a bit before we set off in that car, but we knew each other very well by the end of it.”

Along the way, Cousins intersects clips from Thomas’s daring and consistently brilliant career – Crash (David Cronenberg), Bad Timing (Nicolas Roeg), The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci), Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (Nagisa Ōshima) are just a few of the titles featured. Through these masterworks, Cousins digs into Thomas’s key cinematic preoccupations: sex, politics and mortality. Anyone with one eye on Cousins’ own obsessions might see parallels.

The title of the film refers to the moment Cousins was sharing a drink with Thomas and several other filmy people on a beachside terrace in Cannes. When a thundercloud swept in, all the celebs ran for cover, but Thomas stayed put, enjoying nature’s chaotic spectacle. Cousins’ penchant for wild swimming and long hikes is well documented, so I suggest that with the storm-loving Thomas he’d found a fellow elemental soul.

“Definitely,” agrees Cousins. “Elemental is the key word. I want a full sensory life and when Jeremy said, ‘Isn’t this wonderful?’, sitting there getting soaked in his wee denim jacket, I thought, ‘Man, we are on the same wavelength.’” I certainly get the sense Cousins had no intention of fleeing for shelter either.

“Wherever I am in the world, I love to swim,” he says. “But almost every time I say to somebody, ‘I think I’m going to go swimming’, the first thing they say back is, ‘Have you got a towel?’ And I’ve been thinking of making a film called Have You Got a Towel? Because it’s a lovely question. It’s a caring question. But it’s never a question I’ve considered.”

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas is released 10 Dec by Curzon The Story of Film: A New Generation is released 17 Dec by Dogwoof

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas

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Film Titane Director: Julia Ducournau Starring: Agathe Rousselle

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Released 31 Dec by Altitude; certificate TBC

Boiling Point Director: Philip Barantini Starring: Stephen Graham, Vinette Robinson, Alice Feetham

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The hospitality industry can be nightmarish, especially in the world of fine dining, where the pressure to meticulously assemble a perfect plate of food is often exacerbated by a lack of staff and exacting deadlines. It provides the perfect arena for the culinary thriller Boiling Point, which takes place in a fictional London restaurant on a particularly busy winter’s evening where any mistake could lead to disaster. An under-qualified manager, an alcoholic head chef, and their short-handed kitchen must balance a marriage proposal, a nut allergy and a surprise visit from a prolific food critic.

Just reading this description raises the blood pressure but Boiling Point amplifies this anxiety through

precise camera work, with cinematographer Matthew Lewis appearing to capture the action in one continuous shot. The technique creates the same excitement of live theatre, switching smoothly between characters by shifting focus during conversations.

Veteran British actors Stephen Graham, Vinette Robinson and Jason Flemyng carry the film’s emotional weight while the supporting cast allows the story to swirl around them.

The result is a feverish film that flows and keeps emotions heightened.

Even in the few quiet moments, where characters take an aside to calm down, tension doesn’t break.

Just as you take a breath and process the emotions on screen, you’re hit with another plot wrinkle. Watching Boiling Point is like experiencing a slow-burning anxiety attack; when it finally boils over it feels like being released. [Beatrice Copland]

Film

If you’ve heard anything about Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or-winning Titane, it probably sounded a little insane.

Dancer-slash-serial killer Alexia becomes pregnant after having sex with a Cadillac; fleeing from police, she adopts the identity of Adrien, the missing son of fireman Vincent. Behold erotic dancing, killing sprees, a genderangsty cyborg pregnancy that causes motor oil lactation, and the Macarena.

It’s one of the most thrilling stories about love in recent years.

While Ducournau’s Raw sank its teeth into the question of what we inherit through our blood ties, Titane is a film about choosing your own family – risking ourselves through the messy

vulnerability demanded by human connection, and tremulously shedding the armour we don in self-protection.

Here are two strange people at war with their own bodies: Alexia binds her swelling stomach to play the role of Vincent’s son, while Vincent despairingly shoots steroids, trying to fight the softening of his musculature with age.

Yet they soon discover a fierce kinship – the kind that sparks between one lonely, incomprehensible human being and another.

The scale of Titane’s imagination feels utterly mythical. Ducournau’s neon-drenched universe effortlessly morphs between surreal, practically religious imagery, and the embodied, visceral gore that we saw in Raw. But like every good myth, Titane is devastatingly human. It knows how much we ache for someone to tell us patiently, lovingly, unconditionally: “I’m right here with you.” [Xuanlin Tham]

Released 29 Dec by Vertigo; certificate 15

Released 31 Dec by Altitude, certificate 18

Titane

Lamb

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‘Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ Tolstoy’s opening from Anna Karenina well applies to this eerie Icelandic fable. Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason star as María and Ingvar, a couple who run a sheep farm where banks of fog conceal an unforgiving landscape, conveying a sense of isolation and suspension from reality. In that empty space, something unexpected sneaks in to give this broken family a beacon of the happiness they’ve been deprived of after an unspeakable loss.

They find domestic bliss thanks to Ada, a half-lamb, half-human hybrid delivered by a sheep and claimed by María as her own. She and Ingvar attempt to craft their joy

out of desperation, playing house with Ada and shutting the world – in the form of Ingvar’s loose-cannon brother – out. Ada is brought to life using a combination of puppetry, CGI and actors (both animal and human).

The moments where you can spot the seams in these visual effects are distracting, but that feeling is fleeting thanks to Rapace’s magnetic stare, which shepherds viewers through this heartbreaking tale of grief and love.

Blending Norse lore and religious symbolism, Valdimar Jóhannsson’s film is close to wordless, and the beautifully restrained performances are only enhanced by how little is said. Still, one line resonates: “Ada is a gift, a new beginning.” That’s what María tells Pétur, and yet, there is the sinister feeling that they should have looked this gift lamb in the mouth. [Stefania Sarrubba] Released 10 Dec by MUBI; certificate 15

Boiling Point

The Hand of God Director: Paolo Sorrentino Starring: Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Marlon Joubert

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It’s telling that director Asif Kapadia decided to linger over the period Diego Maradona spent in Naples for his 2019 documentary about the Argentinian footballer. That film sets out to distinguish the man from the myth by scrutinising the rags-to-riches-to-rags narrative that followed Maradona throughout his life. In The Hand of God, director Paolo Sorrentino is interested in the myth only. Set during the same period, it paints the man as a god from its very first beat (initially at least).

In Fabie’s (Scotti) family, Maradona is the ultimate unifier. “I will kill myself,” says his uncle at the thought of the player’s deal with Napoli falling through. The hyperbolic nature of this Neapolitan family is the

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The Hand of God

heart of The Hand of God’s first half, the dynamics between different clusters of cousins and aunts and lovers hitting a delightful intersection of great writing and acting. From Fabie’s parents (a fantastic pairing of Toni Servillo and Teresa Saponangelo) lovingly whistling to each other in lieu of “I love you” to a cracking recurring gag involving a speech-generating device, there is never a dull moment in this clan’s company.

As The Hand of God dips into tragedy, however, this love letter to rowdy Italian families deflates, never fully reaching the ebullience of its early chapter despite the tenderness of its existential yearnings. With this sharp left turn, Sorrentino’s family drama loses its way but proves he was, in fact, interested in the man after all. [Rafaela Sales Ross] Released 3 Dec by Netflix (streaming 15 Dec); certificate 15

December 2021 – Review

Director: Valdimar Jóhannsson Starring: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason

Lamb

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Books

Book Reviews

Like a Tree, Walking

Somebody Loves You

Only This Once Are You Immaculate

By Vahni Capildeo

By Blessing Musariri

By Scott Hutchison

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By Mona Arshi

Whether it was a snowy night at the Barrowlands or a drunken singalong in Bloc, every fan has at least one vivid memory of a Frightened Rabbit gig. The band could soundtrack the most devastating break-up of your life and the most jubilant night with friends, often at the same time.

Central to that was Scott Hutchison and his raw, unflinching and delightfully inelegant songwriting sensibilities.

The premise of The Work: The Lyrics of Scott Hutchison is simple: it is an exhaustive collection of the words from those songs. Designed and typeset by Dave Thomas of dlt, who has worked closely with Scott and the band throughout their career, there is a generous helping of handwritten lyric sheets, doodles and illustrations. Scott’s sense of humour is sprinkled throughout too.

The lyrics to Snake, a cult favourite that the singer was heckled to play at almost every show, are scribbled out.

A footnote from the singer reads: “Fuck off.”

This collection memorialises Scott, who died in May 2018, in a way none of us wishes it had to – however the love and care put into the book serves to lift up his work and focus on the legacy that he left behind. “I haven’t quite found the right word for what it is, whether it’s therapeutic or cathartic,” Scott is quoted as saying in the book’s foreword. He gave so many of us both. [Nicola Love]

Vahni Capildeo has always been a remarkable and singular poet, and Like a Tree, Walking is yet another triumph of their warm wit, direct vision, and almost spiritual connection to the page. One minute, the reader sits in Port of Spain, lulled and lullabied by a storm and the promise of no quakes in the rain, and the next, we are unwalking with them, being reminded that ‘fainting and being pulled up is a tighter and wider form of walking.’ ‘Slow it down,’ they say.

Capildeo’s work has always generously invited the reader to meet with the poet’s vision, pointing the reader toward perceptions and innovations that, until meeting with Capildeo’s poetry, have been elusive. Like a Tree, Walking, continues this artful tradition: while the poet often sets out in seemingly specific locations, the reader finds oneself able to journey from the side of the poet into their own experience, and back again, without any overly wilful interpretation.

Sometimes referred to as a ‘poet’s poet’, Capildeo’s latest work may be one for the poets, but let us not forget the joyous humour and gentle – but often dark – visions that can be found within the text by any reader. Drawing attention to the first poem, In Praise of Birds, we anti-worship: ‘In praise of talk being cheep, and in praise of men who shut up about birds.’ Who wouldn’t be pulled in by that line (and have a wee chuckle and sigh, too)?

The collection is welcoming, disarming, and – as its blurb commands – ‘defined by how it writes about love.’ The poetry within is to be celebrated, read, and reread by poets and not-poets alike. [Beth Cochrane]

Silence can be powerful. At a young age, Ruby gives up talking, finding the quiet a shelter from her mother’s mental illness, and the pressures of her life. In Somebody Loves You, words hold power, in that – much like the character – Mona Arshi uses them sparingly and with deft precision. A small book told in bite-sized vignettes, most snapshots a page or two in length, it’s a tapestry of life that weaves together bit by bit.

Sisterly comparisons of innie and outie belly buttons and their predisposition to balance eggs, or dream journaling, or eating bluebells as a child – each small anecdote is simple in isolation, but as the book unfolds the story lives within its spaces. The construction of agony as an a-word, through traversing life and death. Words are not to be wasted; each feels carefully chosen and placed, tiny fragments of memory, wit, love, growth, life.

Those looking for a linear narrative might not find it in these pages, but amid these disjointed anecdotes spanning years of life in a handful of pages lies a tale that will sit with readers long after its final page. [Heather McDaid]

Nowhere in the whole of literature is the old writing adage ‘show, don’t tell’ easier to break than in the fantasy genre. With whole worlds to be built and entire systems of culture, knowledge, and mythology to be crafted, the genre’s limitless expanse offers very few boundaries against which writers can constrain a temptation for exposition. And so it is with Blessing Musariri’s latest novel, Only This Once Are You Immaculate, a magical realist dystopia whose intricately constructed world is so weighed down in explanation and emphasis that it never quite lifts off the page.

Musariri’s multi-voice narrative follows twins Afya and Aftab, along with their adopted brother Khaled and uncle Azad, as they leave the protected shelter of their home for the first time ever for the world beyond. Musariri deftly interweaves the contemporary technological and political realities of our world with a varied imagination drawing on African landscapes and diverse mythologies, including as far afield as Zoroastrianism. Yet for all its evocative detail Only This Once Are You Immaculate feels curiously inert: narrative voices sound identical, action arrives with a whimper, and the emotional stakes, such as they are, are oddly restrained. Throughout the novel, there is a constant sense of trust withheld; undeniably it is a beautiful world through which to be so firmly steered, but how much better would it have been to explore it freely. [Anahit Behrooz]

Faber Music, out now, £25

Carcanet, out now, £11.99

And Other Stories, out now, £11.99

flipped eye, out now, £7.99

fabermusic.com

carcanet.co.uk

andotherstories.org

flippedeye.net

The Work: The Lyrics of Scott Hutchison

December 2021 — Review

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ICYMI Fringe Dog goes all puppy dog-eyed at Eddie, the star of 90s sitcom Frasier Illustration: Edith Ault eddie also opened up a conversation on mental health, with a sensitive portrayal of depression – which well-cared for dogs find hard to simulate because our default emotions are o boy o boy o boy and zzz. one of the best scenes in the whole series comes when eddie and martin think about mortality. it shows man and his best friend in twenty seconds of silence. its poignant and beautiful, just like the sad bit near the end of a award-nommed edinburgh fringe show. after 264 episodes, ‘frasier’ ends with a happier father and son movin’ on to new starts, proving that the best family therapy doesn’t come from a radio psychiatrist, but from a feisty 5star dog !!!

December 2021 — Review

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Comedy

i

think it was sigmund freud who first said “i hear the blues are callin’ tossed salads and scrambled eggs” and it doesnt take a freudian to tell me i’ve dug a big hole in my comedy unconsciousness by never watchin’ the brilliant sitcom frasier now i’m not one to make excuses, its just the last episode was in 2004 – which was some 42 dog years before i was born !!! fortunately i was able to recover a box-set i’d buried long ago in battersea park just in case i was ever summoned to watch all eleven seasons for the skinny !!! you cant be too careful and o boy frasier didnt disappoint !!! it’s got a dog trick up its sleeve – a jack russell terrier named eddie !!! ‘frasier’ begins when dr frasier crane – a freudian psychiatrist and pompous snob – moves back to seattle to be with his retired blue collar dad martin and eddie the dog (who usually wore a black collar) by putting dr frasier against his opposites in martin and eddie the sitcom was built round a vintage ‘odd couple’ and it stuck to one of the big three dramatic conflicts: man vs dog – neither eddie or martin share frasier’s eggheaded and arty pretensions. even though frasier’s catchphrase as a radio psychiatrist is “i’m listenin’”, frasier doesnt understand dog !!! when it's eddie vs frasier, it’s always the jack russell who has the upper paw, like when frasier has three dates that all go wrong and eddie ends up with three gourmet meals, or how eddie wins one of their running staring contests, or when frasier wakes from pleasant dreams to find eddie lickin’ his face !!! eddie stories could also dig deep: in one episode frasier is upset martin has never told him that he loves him, even though he says ‘i love ya’ to eddie all the time !!! then there’s the old fashioned love story that makes frasier so watchable – a love between daphne (martin’s live-in physio] and niles, frasier’s younger brother: also a psychiatrist and smarty-pants. niles and daphne are in one of those ‘will they / won’t they’ romances. o boy, it makes you tense with anticipation. it’s just like when you go to the park to play fetch but it takes seven seasons before anyone throws the ball !!! eddie is such a prime character that the original actor – a dog called moose – was obliged to sire puppies so one of them could take over the role from his ageing father !!! (this was brilliant news for the show but if your boss ever asks you to make babies so you can be replaced, o boy it’s time to unionise !!!) in season two, moose’s real life puppies make an appearance. it was one of these pups, enzo, who took over the role of eddie in the later seasons. (another puppy – moosie – went to live with peri gilpin, who played roz, frasier’s steamy radio producer – a 5star actor and person) moose and enzo were skilled actors, having to keep up with the show’s farcical pace and witty dialogue, such as when eddie barks during a spelling bee. eddie could also break the constrainin’ gender norms by prefurring a barbie doll he found in the park to his own chew toy – now that’s a dog who was ahead of his time !!!

THE SKINNY

Listings Looking for something to do? Well you’re in the right place! Here's a rundown of what's happening across Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee this month.

To find out how to submit listings, head to theskinny.co.uk/listings

Glasgow Music Tue 30 Nov FENNE LILY

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00

Folk indie from Dorset.

BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00

JAMIE WEBSTER

Indie-rock from Glasgow.

Folk from Liverpool.

BARROWLANDS, 19:00–23:00

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

PSYCHIC MARKERS BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00

VISTAS

Indie-rock from Edinburgh.

SPYRES

Alt-indie from London.

STEREO, 19:00–23:00

STEREO, 19:00–23:00

SIERRA HULL

GIRLI

Punk-rock from Scotland.

Bubblegum pop from London.

ST LUKE’S, 19:30–23:00

DAVID KEENAN ST LUKE’S, 19:00–23:00

Folk from Ireland.

JAMES (HAPPY MONDAYS)

THE OVO HYDRO, 19:00–23:00

Classic rock from Manchester.

Wed 01 Dec LEIF ERIKSON (VELVET)

Singer-songwriter from Tennessee.

THE MODERN KIND (THE KAVES + SPEAK EASY CIRCUS) THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–23:00

Rock’n’roll from Glasgow.

UNOMA OKUDO (ELLYN OLIVER)

THE BLUE ARROW, 19:00–23:00,

Soul from Glasgow.

Indie-rock from London.

DIGNITY ROW (FALLEN ARCHES + MIMA MERROW + SCHIZOFACTORY)

MONO, 19:00–23:00

Indie from Glasgow.

KING TUT’S, 19:00–23:00

OZRIC TENTACLES

ROOM 2, 19:00–23:00

Electronic from the UK.

Fri 03 Dec

BILK

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Rock from Essex.

WHISPERING SONS BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00

Post-punk from Brussels.

VISTAS

BARROWLANDS, 19:00–23:00

Indie-rock from Edinburgh.

WE ARE SCIENTISTS ST LUKE’S, 19:00–23:00

Rock from New York.

December 2021 — Listings

THE STREAMS (THE FEAR + POLLY + THE WITS)

THE FALLEN ANGELS CLUB: ADAM HOLMES CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 20:00–23:00

Americana folk from Edinburgh.

GARY BARLOW

THE OVO HYDRO, 18:30–23:00

Pop from the UK.

PEAKES (SWISS PORTRAIT + RHONA MHAIRI) THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30–23:00

Electro-pop from Leeds.

Thu 02 Dec CAVETOWN

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Indie from Cambridge.

THE LONGEST JOHNS (NIALL MCNAMEE) KING TUT’S, 20:30– 23:00

Folk from Bristol.

SIX60

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

Soul from New Zealand.

HAUNT THE WOODS SWG3, 19:00–23:00

Prog-rock from Cornwall.

FOZZY (TREATMENT) THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 18:00–23:00

Heavy metal from Atlanta.

JAMIE LENMAN KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00

Punk rock from the UK. SOUL ASYLUM

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Alt-rock from Minneapolis.

STANLEYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Indie-rock from Wigan.

HYYTS

ST LUKE’S, 19:00–23:00

Pop from Glasgow.

CLOSET ORGAN (EVERYDAY PHARAOHS)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, 20:00–23:00

Grunge from Glasgow.

MADNESS

THE OVO HYDRO, 18:30–23:00

Ska from London.

LUKI (MAX SYEDTOLLAN + ALICE FAYE NEIL) THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–23:00

Art pop from Glasgow.

Sat 04 Dec TIGERCUB

KING TUT’S, 20:30– 23:00

Alt-rock from Brighton.

THE VOLTS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Indie-rock from West Lothian.

ITALIA 90

BROADCAST, 19:00– 23:00

New Wave from Brighton.

SKIPINNISH

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Trad from the Gàidhealtachd.

LOST MAP'S CHRISTMAS HUMBUG MONO, 18:30–23:00

Multi-genre line-up.

BABY CHAOS

STEREO, 19:00–23:00

Rock from Glasgow.

THE ROOV (SPEAK EASY CIRCUS + THE TROPICANAS) THE FLYING DUCK, 19:30–22:00

Electro-pop from Lossiemouth.

ADMIRAL FALLOW

ST LUKE’S, 19:00– 23:00

Lo-fi from Glasgow.

AMERICAN SOUND (ROBERT SOTELO + ALI SHA SHA + GREAT AREA)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, 19:30–23:00

Experimental electronica from Scotland.

STARRY SKIES

THE DUST CODA

AMY WADGE

Rock from London.

Singer-songwriter from Wales.

KING TUT’S, 20:30– 23:00

BICEP (HAMMER)

THE HUMAN LEAGUE

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

Electronica from Belfast.

WILL AND THE PEOPLE STEREO, 19:00–23:00

Indie from Brighton.

ODDKIN [EZRA MILLER + LILAH LARSON]

ROOM 2, 19:00–23:00

Acoustic rock from Glasgow.

Sun 05 Dec JOSE GONZALEZ

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Folk-pop from Sweden.

SARA ‘N’ JUNBUG (CHRIS GREIG & THE MERCHANTS + ROBYN RED) KING TUT’S, 20:00– 23:00

Alt-pop from Glasgow.

PRINCESS GOES TO THE BUTTERFLY MUSEUM MONO, 19:00–23:00

Avant-garde from New York.

THE TWANG

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Indie-rock from Birmingham.

ALESTORM

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Heavy metal from Perth.

ADMIRAL FALLOW

ST LUKE’S, 19:00– 23:00

Indie-folk from Glasgow.

MIKE

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 19:00–23:00

Rap from the US. TOM JONES

THE OVO HYDRO, 19:00–23:00

Soul-pop from Wales.

Mon 06 Dec

JAMES YORKSTON

ORAN MOR, 19:00–23:00

Folk from Fife.

MYLES KENNEDY & COMPANY

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–23:00

Indie from Leeds.

DJ and producer from England.

ARCADE STATE

Rock from Southampton.

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30–23:00

STEVEN YOUNG

ROOM 2, 19:00–23:00

Singer-songwriter from Glasgow.

Sun 12 Dec NATHAN EVANS

ROSS WILCOCK

D DOUBLE E

Indie from Glasgow.

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

D-BLOCK EUROPE

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–23:00

Hip-hop from London.

Tue 07 Dec

DR FEELGOOD (LIGHTS OUT BY NINE)

TOM JENKINS

ORAN MOR, 19:00–23:00

Singer-songwriter from Wales.

THE CADILLAC THREE (BRENT COBB)

KING TUT’S, 20:30– 23:00

Rock from the UK.

THE BRAND NEW HEAVIES

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

QUEEN MARGARET UNION, 19:00–23:00

THE PALE WHITE (JANGO FLASH)

RUSSELL STEWART

Rock from the South.

Acid jazz from London.

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

HIPPY (PELIKAN ROGUE + THE RONAINS)

DROPKICK (U.S. HIGHBALL + NEIL STURGEON)

CREEPER

Fri 10 Dec

Genre-queer from Brooklyn.

NATIVE HARROW

Folk from New York.

New Wave from the UK.

NATHAN DAWE

KING TUT’S, 20:00– 23:00

KING TUT’S, 20:00– 23:00

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–23:00

THE OVO HYDRO, 18:30–23:00

MIK ARTISTIK’S EGO TRIP

Trad-folk from Scotland.

DRYGATE BREWING CO., 19:00–23:00

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 19:30–23:00

Pop from Scotland.

STEREO, 19:00–23:00

Rock from Newcastle.

Wed 08 Dec

ZUZU (MORNING MIDNIGHT + CHERRY) KING TUT’S, 20:00– 23:00

Guitar-pop from Liverpool.

BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00

Composer from the Netherlands.

LEVELLERS

BARROWLANDS, 19:00–23:00

Folk-rock from Brighton.

KYLE FALCONER

Indie from Chicago.

KAPUTT

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00

Post-punk from Glasgow.

LIL DARKIE

STEREO, 20:00–23:00

Heavy metal from the UK.

PROJECT SMOK (TBC)

BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00

THE FLYING DUCK, 19:30–22:00

Neo-trad from Scotland.

DAXX & ROXANE (DIRTY SOUND MAGNET)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30–23:00

Trap rap from California.

UNSCHOOLING

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30–23:00

Post-punk from Rouen.

Tue 14 Dec

Rock from London.

Sat 11 Dec

THE COVASETTES

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

ORAN MOR, 19:00–23:00

Indie from Manchester.

CHUBBY AND THE GANG (NARROW HEAD)

CHINA CRISIS

YUNGBLUD

Alt-rock from Doncaster.

LIV DAWN (KATE KYLE + MEGAN BLACK) THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30–23:00

Singer-songwriter from Scotland.

Thu 09 Dec JESSIE WARE

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Pop from London.

Synth-pop from Liverpool.

KING TUT’S, 20:30– 23:00

Punk from London.

WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS

KING TUT’S, 20:00– 23:00

Americana blues from Bristol.

THE RILLS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Indie from Lincoln.

THE SWEET (LIMEHOUSE LIZZY)

Alt-rock from Glasgow.

STEREO, 19:00–23:00

LUKE LA VOLPE

THE OVO HYDRO, 18:30–23:00

Rock from Birmingham.

ST LUKE’S, 19:00– 23:00

Folk-rock from Scotland.

W.H. LUNG

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30–23:00

Synth-pop from Manchester.

Fri 17 Dec

THE SKIDS & BIG COUNTRY

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 18:30–23:00

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Rock from Birmingham.

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30–23:00

BRONTËS (FUZZY LOP)

OCEAN COLOUR SCENE

Electronic trad from Skye.

Folk from Devon.

Indie from Scotland.

Blues from the US.

— 66 —

KING TUT’S, 20:00– 23:00

Indie from Edinburgh.

DEL AMITRI

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Alt-rock from Glasgow.

Tue 21 Dec DEL AMITRI

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Alt-rock from Glasgow.

GALLUS

Post-punk from Manchester.

ST LUKE’S, 19:00– 23:00

QUEEN MARGARET UNION, 19:00–23:00

Wed 22 Dec

THE ALMONDS

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–23:00

Post-punk from Stockholm.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Pop from the UK. GOODBYE MR MACKENZIE

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Rock from Bathgate.

AMY MACDONALD THE OVO HYDRO, 18:30–23:00

Pop from Scotland.

FIT TO WORK (DEATH BED + GAY PANIC DEFENCE) THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30–23:00

Indie-punk from Glasgow.

NIMBUS SEXTET

Jazz from the UK.

Thu 23 Dec BEN MONTEITH

ORAN MOR, 19:00–23:00

Singer-songwriter from Glasgow.

BILLY MITCHELL (THE RAHS + THE ROOV) KING TUT’S, 20:30– 23:00

Indie from Dundee.

KASSIDY

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Folk-rock from Scotland.

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 19:30–23:00

RETRO VIDEO CLUB

OCEAN COLOUR SCENE

ORAN MOR, 19:00–23:00

THE BLUEBELLS (SISTER JOHN)

Mon 20 Dec

STEREO, 19:00–23:00

Folk from Birmingham.

SETH LAKEMAN

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Pop-rock from Glasgow.

Mon 27 Dec

Wed 15 Dec

GUN

DEACON BLUE

Sat 18 Dec

VALTOS (EABHAL)

Indie-rock from Glasgow.

CABBAGE

Rockabilly from the UK.

BROADCAST, 19:00– 23:00

KATHERINE PRIDDY

Indie-rock from Scotland.

BROADCAST, 19:00– 23:00

DARREL HIGHAM

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Punk from Glasgow.

Neo-jazz from Scotland.

THE DARKNESS

Rock from the UK.

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

BABY STRANGE

Indie-rock from Edinburgh.

Hard rock from Glasgow.

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Indie-pop from New York.

UNITS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Glam rock from the UK.

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

QUEEN MARGARET UNION, 19:00–23:00

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

ELLES BAILEY

OCEAN COLOUR SCENE

VIAGRA BOYS

THE DRUMS

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Mon 13 Dec

Rock’n’roll from Switzerland.

BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD

Punk from Manchester.

DEL AMITRI

Alt-rock from Glasgow.

BROADCAST, 19:00– 23:00

BROADCAST, 19:00– 23:00

Indie-rock from Hull.

KING TUT’S, 20:30– 23:00

ORANGE GOBLIN (KING CREATURE + URNE)

THE PADDINGTONS (WEB)

BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30–23:00

Indie from Dublin.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

DOCUMENT

BLACK STAR JACKALS

DEEPER

Rap-metal from Milton Keynes.

JOZEF VAN WISSEM

MELTS

Indie-rock from Birmingham.

STEREO, 19:00–23:00

Hip-hop from London.

CATHOUSE, 19:00–23:00

OVERPASS

HACKTIVIST

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

Alt-pop from Glasgow.

Indie-rock from Dundee.

SNUFF

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Alt-rock from Doncaster.

ASHNIKKO

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Punk-rock from Dunfermline.

Post-Britpop from England.

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Grime from London.

ST LUKE’S, 19:00–23:00

Punk from London.

YUNGBLUD

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

Soul from Glasgow.

STARSAILOR

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

Trad-folk from Airdrie.

SWG3, 19:00–23:00

BARROWLANDS, 19:00– 23:00

Rock from Birmingham.

Thu 16 Dec

ALEX AMOR (LAVENDER LANE + DEV GREEN)

KING TUT’S, 20:00– 23:00

Singer-songwriter from Glasgow.

OCEAN COLOUR SCENE

Rock from Birmingham.

THE PRIMEVALS

Rock from Glasgow.

Tue 28 Dec NICKY LIPP

DICTATOR

KING TUT’S, 20:30– 23:00

Indie-pop from West Lothian.

Wed 29 Dec

STEREO, 19:00–23:00

SISTER JOHN (THE BLUEBELLS)

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 19:30–23:00

Lo-fi from Glasgow.

Sun 19 Dec

COLIN MACLEOD

ORAN MOR, 19:00–23:00

Singer-songwriter from Lewis.

SUPERGRASS

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–23:00

Rock from Oxford.

VLURE

KING TUT’S, 20:00– 23:00

Punk from Glasgow.

Indie from the UK. SCHEME

KING TUT’S, 20:30– 23:00

Indie-punk from Glasgow.

Thu 30 Dec

NINA KRAVIZ & FRAZI. ER THE OVO HYDRO, 17:30–23:00

Techno from Europe.

Fri 31 Dec

CAMERON BARNES

KING TUT’S, 20:30– 23:00

Singer-songwriter from Fife.

THE SKINNY

Edinburgh Music

ITALIA 90

Tue 30 Nov

BEACH RIOT (SINTIDE + DOOTCHI) SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–23:00

Lo-fi rock from London.

Wed 01 Dec

BOOTLACE (NANI + STUFFED ANIMALS) BANNERMANS, 19:00– 23:00

Alt-rock from Edinburgh.

QUIET HOUSES

THE BEAT ROUTE THE BONGO CLUB, 19:00–23:00

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

New Wave from Brighton.

Jazz from Edinburgh.

USHER HALL, 19:00– 23:00

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–23:00

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–23:00

MEMES (CASUAL DRAG)

THE BROTHERS FIFE

WILL AND THE PEOPLE

Indie from Brighton.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

BANNERMANS, 19:30– 23:00

RACHEL SERMANNI SUMMERHALL, 19:00– 23:00

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

Folk from Scotland.

SPYRES

MARISA & THE MOTHS (FINDING KATE + JEANICE LEE + IZZY THOMAS)

THE DANGERFIELDS (BUZZBOMB)

Punk-rock from Belfast.

THE TWANG

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–23:00

Indie-rock from Birmingham.

Indie-folk from Manchester. Sat 04 Dec

Tue 07 Dec

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–23:00

O2 ACADEMY EDINBURGH, 19:00–23:00

Punk-rock from Scotland.

Thu 02 Dec ELECTRIC SIX

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–23:00

Rock from Detroit.

POSABLE ACTION FIGURES SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

Electropopbluesrock from Edinburgh.

Fri 03 Dec

BLUE ROSE CODE (FAT SUIT) THE QUEEN’S HALL, 20:00–23:00

Folk-jazz from Scotland.

LOST MAP'S CHRISTMAS HUMBUG SUMMERHALL, 20:00–23:00

Multi-genre line-up.

BANNERMANS, 19:30– 23:00

Hard rock from Reading.

PAPER SPARROWS (AMY HILL) THE PLEASANCE, 19:00–23:00, £0

Folk-Americana from Edinburgh.

BICEP

Electronica from Belfast.

HANNAH ALDRIDGE + JASON CHARLES MILLER THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–23:00

Americana from Alabama.

THE LATHUMS

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–23:00

DEACON BLUE

Pop-rock from Glasgow.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

Rock from Glasgow.

Thu 09 Dec DAXX & ROXANE

BANNERMANS, 19:30– 23:00

Rock’n’roll from Switzerland.

THE BRAND NEW HEAVIES

Acid jazz from London.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

Pop-punk from Edinburgh.

PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS SUMMERHALL, 19:30– 23:00

Sun 05 Dec

THE BUNNY THE BEAR (PSYCHO VILLAGE) BANNERMANS, 19:30– 23:00

Post-hardcore from Buffalo.

Guitar-pop from Liverpool.

Wed 08 Dec THE JELLYMAN’S DAUGHTER

Glasgow Clubs Wed 01 Dec

IT’SNOTRADIO PRESENTS...

TECHNO & TRANCE LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00

Techno and trance.

Thu 02 Dec LANE 8

SWG3, 22:00–03:00

Electro and house.

Fri 03 Dec

GRADE 2

BANNERMANS, 19:00– 23:00

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

Punk-rock from Fife.

DVNE (KING WITCH + GODEATER)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00

SWG3, 23:00–03:00

Britpop from the UK.

90s trance, prog house and acid.

SUPERMAX W/ DJ BILLY WOODS

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 23:00–04:00

Disco trip.

Sun 05 Dec PULSE: BLAWAN

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00

Techno.

Mon 06 Dec FEEL MY BICEP GLASGOW

SUB CLUB, 22:30–03:00

House and disco.

Old school disco and popcorn.

Wed 08 Dec

SWG3, 22:00–03:00

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00

SWG3 PRESENTS MK

Producer and remixer.

LEZURE 057: DREAM_E + PEEVE + SLOAN + LENNY + LAS.DOUG LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00

Ambient house.

JAIVA + BUTHOTHEWARRIOR + SHAKARA

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00

House, funk and afrobeat.

WE SHOULD HANG OUT MORE (IRIS PERTEGAZ)

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 23:00–03:00

House and disco.

MISSING PERSONS CLUB X NEVER SLEEP (GABBER ELEGANZA + YAZZUS + DJ SMOKER) ROOM 2, 23:00–03:00

Hardcore techno.

Sat 04 Dec GLITTERBOX GLASGOW

SWG3, 21:00–03:00

Multi-genre line-up.

AISHA + VXYX

Techno from Glasgow.

Thu 09 Dec EJECA XL

SUBCULTURE, 23:00

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft' joined by a carousel of super fresh guests.

Cathouse

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 20:00–23:00

Glam rock from the UK.

DROPKICK (VAPOUR TRAILS + SHAUN MCLACHLAN) THE BONGO CLUB, 19:00–23:00

Trad-folk from Scotland.

Cathouse's Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up.

FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS, 22:30

Screamy, shouty, posthardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style.

New Sub Club resident.

Fri 10 Dec

SWG3, 22:00–03:00

Multi-genre line-up.

RTM: INHALT DER NACHT & SLAM

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00

Techno and New Wave.

THE YELLOW DOOR THE XMAS ONE

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 23:00–03:00

Danceparty vibes.

CALVIN LOGUE PRESENTS OKTVE W/ JOYHAUSER ROOM 2, 23:00–03:00

Techno.

Sat 11 Dec DENIS SULTA

SWG3, 22:00–03:00

DJ from Scotland.

Or Caturdays, if you will.

Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs.

From the fab fierce family that brought you Catty Pride comes Cathouse Rock Club’s new monthly alternative drag show.

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00

DYSFUNCTIONAL PRESENTS TRYM

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS, 23:00

DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best pop-punk, rock and hip-hop.

UNHOLY, 23:00

ARIELLE FREE PRESENTS: FREE YOUR MIND

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 22:00–03:00

Disco house and techno.

ELECTRIC SALSA SOLID BLAKE

ROOM 2, 23:00–04:00

Electro and techno.

Fri 17 Dec

TRANCE CLASSICS SWG3, 23:00–03:00

Trance and techno classics.

ECLAIR FIFI

SUB CLUB, 23:00–04:00

Electro from Scotland.

ANIMAL FARM - D.DAN + QUAIL + AISHA + ERROR-E ROOM 2, 23:00–04:00

Tue 21 Dec

Indie from Manchester.

THE CAVES, 19:00– 23:00

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

FESTIMUFFS (FISTYMUFFS + AUNTIE VICIOUS + CHRISALIS)

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, 19:00–23:00,

Riot grrrl, disco grunge, pop punk.

Alt-rock from Glasgow.

MODERN STUDIES SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

Folk-rock from Scotland.

Mon 13 Dec

COLIN MACLEOD

Singer-songwriter from Lewis.

Wed 22 Dec

RETRO VIDEO CLUB THE CAVES, 19:00– 23:00

Indie from Edinburgh.

Thu 23 Dec

LOGANS CLOSE (RACECAR + JUPITER STRANGE + JULEN SANTAMARIA)

Wed 01 Dec GLEN MATLOCK

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, 19:30–23:00

Punk from London.

Fri 03 Dec THE LATHUMS

FAT SAM’S, 19:00– 23:00

Indie from Manchester.

Sat 04 Dec THE LATHUMS

FAT SAM’S, 19:00– 23:00

Indie from Manchester.

Sun 05 Dec

FUZ CALDRIN (RED VANILLA + PORTABLE HEADS) RAD APPLES, 19:30–23:00

Rock’n’roll from West Lothian.

Fri 10 Dec CHINA CRISIS

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, 20:00–23:00

Synth-pop from Liverpool.

Sat 11 Dec

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:00–23:00

GOODBYE MR MACKENZIE

Singer-songwriter from Scotland.

THE GILHOOLYS

Rock from Bathgate.

Sat 18 Dec

Indie-rock from Scotland.

BILLY MITCHELL

LEWIS ROSS

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

TV SMITH (THE ADVERTS)

THE FRAUDS (THE UNDERNEATH + FUZ CALDRIN)

BANNERMANS, 19:30– 23:00

Rock from West Lothian.

O2 ACADEMY EDINBURGH, 19:30–23:00

BANNERMANS, 19:30– 23:00

Acoustic from Scotland.

THE COVASETTES

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–23:00

SUNDAYS (LAST OF THE MONTH)

SLIDE IT IN, 23:00

SATURDAYS

WEDNESDAYS

THURSDAYS

Thu 16 Dec

CAMERON LEDWIDGE

Dundee Music

Punk from London.

SUAVE MARTYRS (THE VAUNTS + KAMORA)

Indie from Edinburgh.

CHURCH, 19:00–23:00

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

Thu 16 Dec

Wed 29 Dec

THE HUNTER S. THOMPSON, 19:00–23:00

SKIPINNISH

Indie from Dundee.

Trad from the Gàidhealtachd.

BAD MANNERS (MAX SPLODGE)

USHER HALL, 20:00–23:00

Thu 30 Dec

CHURCH, 19:00–23:00

Ska band from England.

Indie from Manchester.

SUNDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH)

CATHOUSE WEDNESDAYS, 23:00

Punk from Manchester.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

Metal from Edinburgh.

Sun 12 Dec

Folk-jazz from Australia.

Mon 20 Dec

DEL AMITRI

Indie-pop from Edinburgh.

THE MAGIC LANTERN

DOCUMENT

USHER HALL, 19:00– 23:00

Regular Glasgow club nights SATURDAYS

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–23:00

SWIM SCHOOL

MY LIFE STORY

Indie from Glasgow.

Rock from St Albans.

Jazz from Glasgow.

Sat 11 Dec

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–23:00

Sun 19 Dec

USHER HALL, 19:00– 23:00

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

LA BELLE ANGELE, 20:30–23:00

VOODOOS

ENTER SHIKARI

Fri 10 Dec

THE CAVES, 19:00– 23:00

Sub Club

Singer-songwriter from Scotland.

THE BONGO CLUB, 18:00–23:00

HELLBENT, 23:00

SUNDAYS (SECOND OF THE MONTH) FLASHBACK, 23:00

Pop party anthems & classic cheese from DJ Nicola Walker.

SUNDAYS (THIRD OF THE MONTH) CHEERS FOR THIRD SUNDAY, 23:00

DJ Kelmosh takes you through Mid-Southwestern emo, rock, new metal, nostalgia and 90s and 00s tunes.

Sat 18 Dec

Classic rock through the ages from DJ Nicola Walker.

The Garage Glasgow MONDAYS

BARE MONDAYS, 23:00

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

TUESDAYS

#TAG TUESDAYS, 23:00

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

WEDNESDAYS

GLITTERED! WEDNESDAYS, 23:00

DJ Garry Garry Garry in G2 with chart remixes, along with beer pong competitions all night.

ROOM2, 10:30 –

SWG3, 22:00–03:00

Techno and disco.

INTERCHANGE PRESENTS: PUBLIC ENERGY AKA SPEEDY J

With live performance by Free Love.

ROOM 2, 23:00–03:00

Techno and gabber.

Thu 30 Dec

Edinburgh Clubs

SWG3, 23:00–03:00

Wed 01 Dec

FRAZI.ER B2B CYNTHIA SPIERING

Back to back DJ sets.

Fri 31 Dec

SWG3 NYE WITH MALL GRAB B2B KETTAMA SWG3, 23:00–03:00

All night rave.

ELEMENT, 23:00

Ross MacMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey.

FRIDAYS

FRESH BEAT, 23:00

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangervs galore.

SATURDAYS

I LOVE GARAGE, 23:00

Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you.

SUNDAYS

SESH, 23:00

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.

SO FETCH - 2000S PARTY

DILF EDINBURGH FESTIVE FLING

Noughties hits.

Danceparty vibes.

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00

Sat 04 Dec

PULSE 12TH BIRTHDAY: BLAWAN (DARRELL PULSE + SEAN LAIRD + SHAUN JOHNSTON) THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00

Techno.

EHFM X CLYDE BUILT RADIO PRESENT: ICED GEM B2B ANN TWEAK + MAG B2B EOIN DJ SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

Central Belt house and disco.

KICKSTART MY HEART LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00

80s hair metal and power ballads.

SAMEDIA SHEBEEN THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00

Afrobeat, Arabic and dancehall.

Thu 09 Dec

STAND B-SIDE: MACKA (MACKA) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

OPTIMO (ESPACIO) HOGMANAY 2021

MELLA DEE

THURSDAYS

WHAT GOES UP PRESENTS ALEX VIRGO THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00

DJ and producer from London.

Thu 02 Dec

VOLENS CHORUS (BLUETOOF + JL B2B FEENA) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

Garage, jungle, high speed bass.

Fri 03 Dec

HOMETOWN SESSIONS: 30 YEARS OF IRATION STEPPAS THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00

Reggae and dubstep.

MISS WORLD: PANOOC

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

House from New York City.

Glasgow house, techno, acid.

Fri 10 Dec

SSL XL (3RD BIRTHDAY): JUNGLE & DNB SPECIAL

— 67 —

Sat 11 Dec

I AM A RAVER GOES HARD THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00

Rave club anthems.

HAND-MADE WITH LOVE: FAFI ABDEL NOUR SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

Psychedelic disco/house from Groningen.

DYEN + QUAIL

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00

Techno from Rotterdam.

EARL JEFFERS

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00

Nineties house.

Mon 13 Dec CHAOS IN THE COSMOS

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

Funk, disco, house.

Thu 16 Dec

MISS WORLD (SOFIA KOURTESIS) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

House from Peru.

Fri 17 Dec

DISKO MAKOSSA

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00

LOS CHICANOS

ATHENS OF THE NORTH DISCO CLUB (EUAN FRYER + LEL PALFREY)

Jungle and drum'n'bass.

THE JAZZ BAR, 23:45–03:00

Latin rhythm from Edinburgh.

Funk, disco, and synth.

JAX JONES + DEEP JOY CLUB

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

Danceparty vibes.

REGGAETON CHRISTMAS PARTY

THE LIQUID ROOM, 23:00–03:00

HOT MESS (SIMONOTRON) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

Queer party tunes.

Techno.

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00

Rare dancefloor vinyl.

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00

Reggaeton.

December 2021 — Listings

ANNA & HOLLY’S DANCE PARTY

BACK TO THE FUTURE 2.0

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–23:00

Wed 15 Dec

Folk-rock from Edinburgh.

Clubs

Rockabilly from the UK.

DEAN OWENS

Rock from Newcastle.

ZUZU (BERTA KENNEDY + INDOOR FOXES) THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–23:00

Trad-folk from Airdrie.

Fri 17 Dec

COLD YEARS

Rock from Aberdeen.

DARREL HIGHAM

THE CAVES, 19:00– 23:00

LA BELLE ANGELE, 19:00–23:00

THE SWEET (LIMEHOUSE LIZZY)

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–23:00

NATHAN EVANS

ACT SHY

PARIS STREET REBELS (FELIX & THE SUNSETS)

NEW SLANG

SUMMERHALL, 19:30– 23:00

Folk from Fife.

Indie-folk from the Highlands.

Street punk from the Isle of Wight.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–23:00

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00

Rock from Scotland.

ELEPHANT SESSIONS

Pop from Fife.

Indie from Manchester.

JAMES YORKSTON

Hard rock from London.

SUMMERHALL, 19:30– 23:00

BANNERMANS, 19:30– 23:00

DMS (THE SUPER MOONS + LAYAWAY)

USHER HALL, 19:30– 23:00

Americana-pop from the UK.

THE JAZZ BAR, 21:15–23:00

Mon 06 Dec

Alt-rock from Northern Ireland.

AN EVENING WITH BRUCE DICKINSON

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–23:00

GEORGIA CÉCILE

West African drum and dance.

ASH

ROB WHEELER

THE SKINNY

Sat 18 Dec

FLY WAXXXMAS (MR G (LIVE) + OVERMONO + JASPER JAMES + LA LA) THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:00–05:00

Back to back DJ sets.

Sun 26 Dec

PULSE BOXING DAY: SLAM LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00

Techno.

OPTIMO (ESPACIO)

EROL ALKAN

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00

Electro alt-techno.

Mon 27 Dec

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

Mon 20 Dec HEADSET’S 7TH BIRTHDAY PT2 W/ SPECIAL GUESTS (BATU + YUSH + CANDO + SKILLIS) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

UK techno from Bristol.

Thu 23 Dec

SWEATBOX: MISTLETOE & GRIND SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

Ghettotech, breaks, footwork.

House and disco.

TAIS-TOI & FRIENDS (AGORA + MACKENZIE + TECHNO TITS) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

Techno, breaks and acid.

Thu 30 Dec

CLUB SYLKIE: CLUB SYLKIE’S GAY HOGMANAY (DJ PEANUT + XIVRO + SYLKIE RESIDENTS) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

TELFORT’S GOOD PLACE: HOGMANAY EDITION (TELFORT + TOM VR) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00

Propulsive house grooves.

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00

Afrobeat, Arabic and dancehall.

Dundee Clubs Sat 18 Dec

HANNAH’S CHOICE PRESENTS JAX JONES + DEEP JOY FAT SAM’S, 22:00–03:00

Danceparty vibes.

Clyde Built Radio resident.

Fri 31 Dec

MIDNIGHT BASS, 23:00

Big basslines and small prices form the ethos behind this weekly Tuesday night, with drum'n'bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage aplenty.

POPULAR MUSIC, 23:00

DJs playing music by bands to make you dance: Grace Jones to Neu!, Parquet Courts to Brian Eno, The Clash to Janelle Monáe.

WEDNESDAYS

HEATERS, 23:00

Heaters resident C-Shaman presents a month of ambiguous local showdowns, purveying the multifarious mischief that characterises Sneaky’s midweek party haven.

SATURDAYS (LAST OF THE MONTH) SOUL JAM, 23:00

Monthly no holds barred, down and dirty bikram disco.

SUNDAYS

December 2021 — Listings

POSTAL, 23:00,

Multi-genre beats every Sunday at Sneaky Pete's, showcasing the very best of local talent with some extra special guests.

8:30PM

Glasgow Art

AERIAL CHRISTMAS CABARET SHOWCASE

CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art

20 MINUTES OF ACTION

A shocking, verbatim take through one of the landmark sexual assault cases in America.

5 DEC, 7:30PM – 10:00PM

A showcase of the many gravity-defying artists in Edinburgh’s aerial dance scene.

LAWRENCE CHANEY: PURPLE REIGN TOUR 9 DEC, 8:30PM – 11:00PM

The queen of (drag) queens takes her new show on the road.

ELECTRIKAL: DRUM N BASS HOGMANAY

Drum'n'bass.

1-31 DEC, TIMES VARY

The Liquid Room

SATURDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH) REWIND, 22:30

Monthly party night celebrating the best in soul, disco, rock and pop with music from the 70s, 80s, 90s and current bangers.

Sneaky Pete’s The Hive TUESDAYS

Assembly Roxy

Festival Theatre

SCOTTISH BALLET’S THE NUTCRACKER

A lavish production of the beloved Tchaikovsky ballet.

Matinees also available.

Regular Edinburgh club nights TUESDAYS

Art

SAMEDIA HOGMANAY 1-3 DEC, 7:30PM –

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00

The Bongo Club

Edinburgh Theatre

MONDAYS

MIXED UP MONDAY, 22:00

Monday-brightening mix of hip-hop, R'n'B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

TUESDAYS

TRASH TUESDAY, 22:00

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherry picked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

WEDNESDAYS

COOKIE WEDNESDAY, 22:00

90s and 00s cheesy pop and modern chart anthems.

THURSDAYS

HI-SOCIETY THURSDAY, 22:00

Student anthems and bangerz.

FRIDAYS

FLIP FRIDAY, 22:00

Yer all-new Friday at Hive.

Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and noveltystuffed. Perrrfect.

SATURDAYS

BUBBLEGUM, 22:00

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

SUNDAYS

SECRET SUNDAY, 22:00

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indiepop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday.

Subway Cowgate MONDAYS

TRACKS, 21:00

Blow the cobwebs off the week with a weekly Monday night party with some of Scotland’s biggest and best drag queens.

TUESDAYS

TAMAGOTCHI, 23:00

Throwback Tuesdays with non-stop 80s, 90s, 00s tunes.

Royal Lyceum Theatre CHRISTMAS DINNER

6 DEC-2 JAN 22, TIMES VARY

Dazzling family show about the (meta) production of Christmas. Matinees also available.

Summerhall

LA TROUPE PRESENTE: 8 FEMMES 12-13 DEC, TIMES VARY

A Christmas Eve murder mystery comedy.

The Edinburgh Playhouse WHITE CHRISTMAS 14 DEC-2 JAN 22, TIMES VARY

XO, 23:00

A magical restaging of the classic Irving Berlin musical.

Matinees also available.

THURSDAYS

1 DEC, 7:30PM – 10:30PM

WEDNESDAYS

hip-hop and R'n'B grooves from regulars DJ Beef and DJ Cherry.

SLIC, 23:00

More classic Hip-hop and R'n'B dance tunes for the almost end of the week.

FRIDAYS

FIT FRIDAYS, 23:00,

Chart-topping tunes perfect for an irresistible sing and dance-along.

SATURDAYS

SLICE SATURDAY, 23:00

ADAM KAY: ‘TWAS THE NIGHTSHIFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

An uproarious, bittersweet look at Christmastime in the NHS. HEATHERS THE MUSICAL

7-11 DEC, 7:30PM – 10:30PM

A sly, all-singing take on the bloody teen satire of the 1980s. Matinees also available.

The drinks are easy and the pop is heavy.

The Studio

SUNDAY SERVICE, 23:00

17-31 DEC, TIMES VARY

SUNDAYS

Atone for the week before and the week ahead with non-stop dancing.

THE ENORMOUS CHRISTMAS TURNIP

Warm Christmas theatre for wee ones. Matinees also available.

Traverse Theatre

Glasgow Theatre Oran Mor

CINDERELLA 2: I MARRIED A NUMPTY (ORAN MOR CHRISTMAS PANTO)

1-31 DEC, TIMES VARY

Seasonal silliness and sassy songs abound in this magical update to Oran Mor’s panto.

The King’s Theatre CINDERELLA

1 DEC-2 JAN 22, TIMES VARY

Pantomime production of the beloved fairy tale.

Theatre Royal LES MISERABLES

1-31 DEC, TIMES VARY

The acclaimed musical set in 19th-century Paris goes on tour.

A hilarious new play about queer love and liberation.

Matinees also available.

Tramway

CITIZENS THEATRE: CHARLES DICKENS' A CHRISTMAS CAROL

3-24 DEC, TIMES VARY

A classic festive anticapitalist tale. Matinees also available.

Tron Theatre OLIVE THE OTHER REINDEER 14-24 DEC, TIMES VARY

Reindeer adventures for little ones and their families. Matinees also available.

1-11 DEC, TIMES VARY

Film and photography exhibition focused on the climate crisis and indigenous rights.

Glasgow Print Studio 5 @ GPS

1 DEC-22 JAN 22, 11:00AM – 5:00PM

A group exhibition of monoprints, etchings, and paintings by five women artists who came together at Glasgow Print Studio to learn new ways of making.

Glasgow Women’s Library

JOAN EARDLEY: A CENTENARY OF LIVES AND LANDSCAPES 1 DEC-12 FEB 22, TIMES VARY

Exhibition of five paintings celebrating the birth of renowned Scottish artist Joan Eardley.

CONSCIOUSLY RISING

1 DEC-5 FEB 22, TIMES VARY

A series of print works created under lockdown and probing the intersection between the personal and political.

GoMA

DRINK IN THE BEAUTY 1 DEC-23 JAN 22, 11:00AM – 4:00PM

Inspired by Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking environmental treatise Silent Spring, this exhibition features artists engaging with our connection to the nonhuman, and thinking through the ethics and aesthetics of how we record nature.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum FRANCE-LISE MCGURN: ALOUD 1 DEC-1 JUN 22, 11:00AM – 4:00PM

France-Lise McGurn’s newly commissioned installation draws on her personal experiences of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, creating bewitching, almost sculptural forms that fill the museum’s gallery.

RGI Kelly Gallery

METAMORPHOSIS

WILF

8-24 DEC, TIMES VARY

Theatre

THE WORD FOR WORLD IS FOREST

1-3 DEC, TIMES VARY

Multimedia exhibition by City of Glasgow College students responding to the climate crisis.

UNBOXED

Dundee Theatre

9 DEC-15 JAN 22, TIMES VARY

A Christmas exhibition of RGI members.

South Block

Dundee Rep

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

1-31 DEC, TIMES VARY

A brand new musical version of the ultimate Christmas story directed

by Dundee Reps Andrew Panton. Matinees also available.

PIMPAM - BACKSP!N 1-13 DEC, 9:00AM – 5:00PM

A group exhibition inspired by table tennis and featuring artists across Scotland.

HARRIET SELKA: BONES

17 DEC-8 FEB 22, 9:00AM – 5:00PM

An autobiographical exhibition exploring experiences of illness and bodily fragility.

— 68 —

Street Level Photoworks

TAPESTRY: CHANGING CONCEPTS

1 DEC-30 JAN 22, TIMES VARY

Group exhibition of 19 contemporary artists associated with the former Tapestry Department at Edinburgh College of Art.

FOREVER CHANGES

Contemporary Nordic photography addressing climate change.

1 DEC-13 MAR 22, TIMES VARY

Studio Pavilion Dovecot at House for an Studios Art Lover MAKING NUNO: SIMON MCAULEY + CAMERON MORGAN 1 DEC-30 JAN 22, 11:00AM – 4:00PM

Collaboration between Studio Pavilion and Project Ability.

The Briggait

SIRI BLACK, MARION CARRÉ, LIBBY ODAI: NEW FORMS OF TOGETHERNESS 1-6 DEC, TIMES VARY

JAPANESE TEXTILE INNOVATION FROM SUDŌ REIKO 1 DEC-8 JAN 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM

An innovative exhibition examining the life work of renowned Japanese textile artist Sudo Reiko, Making NUNO spotlights her unconventional practice and radical play with materiality.

A group exhibition exploring creative responses to the concept of AI.

KURT JACKSON: MERMAID’S TEARS

The Modern Institute

A series of paintings exploring the devastating effect of plastic pollution in the oceans.

ALEX DORDOY: THE WEATHER CHANNEL

1-31 DEC, TIMES VARY

Alex Dordoy infuses his landscapes with the nostalgia of vintage travel posters, constructing a sublime, almost artificial view of nature that resists modernity.

The Modern Institute @ Airds Lane

MARTIN BOYCE: NO CLOUDS OR STREAMS NO INFORMATION OR MEMORY 1-31 DEC, TIMES VARY

Established international artist Martin Boyce takes on themes of modernity and ecology.

VICTORIA MORTON: SLEEP LINE

1-31 DEC, TIMES VARY

Victoria Morton blends abstraction and vivid colour to create compelling, barely recognisable dreamscapes.

Tramway

KHVAY SAMNANG: CALLING FOR RAIN

1 DEC-6 MAR 22, TIMES VARY

Multimedia exhibition by Cambodian artist drawing on folklore to explore our relationship with the Earth.

AMARTEY GOLDING: BRING ME TO HEAL 4 DEC-27 FEB 22, TIMES VARY

Filmmaking, photography and textile exhibition exploring generational trauma and healing in Britain.

Edinburgh Art &Gallery

EMILY MOORE: FROM BERLIN WITH LOVE 1 DEC, TIMES VARY

An exhibition of paintings depicting urban landscapes.

Arusha Gallery

JOHN ABELL: THROUGH GREAT WATERS 1-19 DEC, TIMES VARY

A new body of surreal, figurative landscapes by Welsh folk artist.

City Art Centre REFLECTIONS: THE LIGHT AND LIFE OF JOHN HENRY LORIMER (1856-1936) 1 DEC-20 MAR 22, TIMES VARY

The first retrospective of Fife painter’s work.

1 DEC-5 FEB 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM

Dundas Street Gallery ROBERTA FULFORD: ROOTED/ FLOWING/ WILD

16-21 DEC, TIMES VARY

Drawing on the wilderness of her island home, the works of Shetland-based artist Roberta Fulford celebrate nature and consider our relationship with the environment using cast bronze, seaweed, steel and oil rig.

Fruitmarket

JYLL BRADLEY: PARDES 1 DEC-18 APR 22, 11:00AM – 6:00PM

Exhibition of sculptures paying homage to Fruitmarket’s industrial and agricultural past.

HOWARDENA PINDELL: A NEW LANGUAGE 1 DEC-2 MAY 22, 11:00AM – 6:00PM

Multimedia exhibition spanning the artist’s decades-long career and her anti-racism activism.

Ingleby Gallery MOYNA FLANNIGAN: MATTER 1-18 DEC, 11:00AM – 5:00PM

Following an exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Moyna Flannigan continues her investigation of collage as a means of exploring the fragmentation of society and civilisation.

Open Eye Gallery

BARBARA RAE: A MAJOR SURVEY OF PRINTS 1-23 DEC, TIMES VARY

A major survey of prints from internationally acclaimed Scottish painter and master printmaker, renowned for her use of colour.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

RAY HARRYHAUSEN: TITAN OF CINEMA 1 DEC-20 FEB 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM

This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition brings together the life work of a giant of cinematic history and the grandfather of modern special effects, showcasing some of his most iconic designs and achievements.

JOAN EARDLEY: CATTERLINE

1 DEC-9 JAN 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM

Celebrating the life and work of the artist Joan Eardley, this exhibition focuses on her post-war works created in Catterline.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery ALISON WATT: A PORTRAIT WITHOUT LIKENESS 2 DEC-8 JAN 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM

A body of new work created in response to celebrated eighteenth-century portraitist Allan Ramsay, Alison Watt’s paintings play with detail and ideas of femininity, exploring the art of portraiture beyond the subject.

THOMAS JOSHUA COOPER: THE WORLD’S EDGE 2 DEC-22 JAN 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM

The only artist to have ever taken photographs of the two poles, Thomas Joshua Cooper is known for working in the extremes, pushing the boundaries of both creative practice and human endurance.

Summerhall

MARIA MCCAVANA: WOMEN’S WORK

1-23 DEC, 12:00PM – 5:30PM

A multimedia exhibition exploring the material tools of women working in the NHS. JODI LE BIGRE: OUR UNFATHOMABLE DEPTHS

1-23 DEC, 12:00PM – 5:30PM

Exhibition of lithography exploring our relationship to coral.

Talbot Rice Gallery

ANGELICA MESITI: IN THE ROUND 1 DEC-19 FEB 22, TIMES VARY

One of Australia’s leading artists explores how performance can be used as a mode of social and political storytelling, examining ideas of colonialism and environmental collapse through dance and sound.

The Scottish Gallery

HANNAH MOONEY: INTO THE LANDSCAPE 2-23 DEC, TIMES VARY

Lyrical paintings that find the poetic in still life.

CITY LIGHTS

2-23 DEC, TIMES VARY

A group exhibition celebrating the beauty of Edinburgh.

ASH & PLUMB: ARCHETYPES

2-23 DEC, TIMES VARY

Intricate craftwork drawing on naturally sustainable materials.

PINNING OUR HOPES

2-23 DEC, TIMES VARY

A continuation of The Scottish Gallery’s delicate and intricate miniatures series.

Torrance Gallery

WINTER EXHIBITION 1 DEC-8 JAN 22, 11:00AM – 5:30PM

Annual winter exhibition featuring a range of artists and media.

Whitespace CLAMJAMFRY

1-2 DEC, 12:00PM – 6:00PM

Exhibition of paintings and textiles.

RESONATING NARRATIVE

10-16 DEC, 12:00PM – 6:00PM

Group exhibition of strikingly different artistic practices with all works and prints available for sale.

THE SKINNY

Dundee Art Cooper Gallery SIT-IN #2: TO BE POTENTIAL

2 DEC-19 FEB 22, TIMES VARY

Venues Compiled by Jamie Wilde

Scotland venues round-up: Christmas 2021 Photo: Theodora van Duin

Photo: Cat Thomson

This dynamic exhibition by The Ignorant Art School interrogates the institutionalisation of knowledge by examining how artistic practice can challenge, resist, and demand liberation.

DCA: Dundee Contemporary Arts TAKO TAAL: AT THE SHORE, EVERYTHING TOUCHES 11 DEC-20 MAR 22, TIMES VARY

Glasgow-based artist brings together film, collage, and painting to explore Black subjectivities.

RAE-YEN SONG

11 DEC-20 MAR 22, TIMES VARY

Multimedia exhibition creating an immersive space to explore ideas of self-mythologisation and identity.

Generator Projects

ZOE GIBSON: DAILY DANCE

2-19 DEC, 12:00PM – 5:00PM

The first solo show by local artist Zoe Gibson interweaves moments of domesticity with otherworldly imagination.

The McManus

A LOVE LETTER TO DUNDEE: JOSEPH MCKENZIE PHOTOGRAPHS 19641987 1 DEC-1 MAR 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM

Turning to black and white photography from the 1960s-1980s, this exhibition charts the changing landscape of Dundee’s waterfront and the evolution of the City’s fortunes and its people.

THE STREET AT THE MCMANUS 1 DEC-22 OCT 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM

Immersive exhibition looking at Dundee’s historical architecture.

2 DEC-9 JAN 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £5 - £10

The perfect exhibition in the light of the last year, Night Fever explores the relationship between vibrant global club culture and fashion, architecture, and graphic design, giving an intoxicating glimpse into the art that informs our nights out.

into the city’s murky past to provide the ultimate alternative office night out! [Izzy Gray] Glasgow Compared with 2020’s muted festive season, 2021 leaves us spoilt for Christmassy choice in Glasgow. Sure, the longarm of COVID has forced a few festive changes in the city: The George Square Christmas market, for example, won’t go ahead this year.

But there are still plenty of places to wander stalls while sipping mulled wine. Better places, in fact.

Spot Design Market at The Pearce Institute in Govan (4-5 Dec) will have stalls from a cleverly curated selection of local artists and businesses, as well as street food, craft workshops and an online version of the experience for those who don’t feel crowd-ready just yet. East End residents will be familiar with Super Market – the dog-friendly regular offering at Barras Art and Design which brings together the work of small Scottish retailers under the stylish venue’s glass roof. Closer to the big day, meanwhile, is the Wasps Artists and Makers Winter Market (11-12 Dec) at the stunning Briggait 1873 Hall. The weekend promises over 85 stalls of independent brands across all imaginable fields: food, homeware, clothing, ceramics, art.

Elsewhere, there is festive fun to be had across the city: wreathmaking at The Left Bank, festive movie nights at Sloanes, and Christmas Drag Queen Bingo at Drygate Brewing Co. [Tara Hepburn] — 69 —

Dundee All eyes for Christmas in Dundee this year look set to be on its brand new Winterfest event at Slessor Gardens. Though it hasn’t been short of stipulations since its announcement earlier this year, having the largest scale winter event the city has ever produced right in the heart of town should also be a good thing for local, independent businesses nearby. An ice skating rink, giant ferris wheel and bunches of food and crafts stalls provide all the trimmings for a wholesome day out.

Head along to the west end of the city and you’ll find another flurry of jovially festive events taking place. Dundee’s creative

quarter has always retained a sense of community spirit and Christmas time is no different.

Running for a fortnight from the end of November, its schedule blends both online and interactive events including its online Winter Wonderland Art Journey, West End Christmas Market and Community Wardrobe event, offering free clothes for people in need during the festive period.

Elsewhere, Dundee Rep Theatre will be hosting A Christmas Carol on 10 December while the Caird Hall welcomes the RSNO for a special concert performance of The Snowman.

Can it get any more Christmassy than that? [Jamie Wilde]

Dundee Rep

December 2021 — Listings

NIGHT FEVER: DESIGNING CLUB CULTURE

Edinburgh It’s a fact: stepping into Edinburgh’s winter wonderland has the same healing properties as a big warm hug. Snow-dusted spires? Bow-wrapped stores?

Glittering markets? The capital offers more than a stocking’s worth of ways to get cosy as the nights draw in.

Open air stalls got you feeling the chills? Pop into the Summerhall Christmas Market (5 Dec) where 50 indie Scottish makers will help you tackle those Christmas list conundrums. Or, for a grotto with a twist, visit the Eco Larder (Morrison Street). Rumour has it a certain jovial fella will be dishing out environmentallyfriendly gifts and tips.

Brave enough to face the elements? You can’t go wrong with a rake through Stockbridge’s charity shops. Be sure to pick up a hot choccy from The Marshmallow Lady en route. Their heavenly-domed cuppas are laden with cockle-warming properties. Or, for a pre-theatre fill, visit the new Hendersons, primely placed on Leven Street (Oh yes it is!) Their veggie fare is doing a grand job of filling the hole left in our hearts following the closure of their Hanover Street joint. A bracelet for Montpeliers’ Christmas Cocktail Club, meanwhile, will get you discounted drinks in their bars throughout December. Or, if hunkering down in front of a crackling fire is more your style, Teuchters (26 William St) will see you through.

Too traditional? The Anatomist Escape Room (25 Nicolson Sq) offers the perfect antidote, delving

Spot Design Market

Photo: Viktoria Begg

V&A Dundee

Summerhall Christmas Market

THE SKINNY

The Skinny On...

Grant Stott The Skinny On...

What better way to celebrate the return of IRL panto season than with a Q&A with Scottish pantomime stalwart Grant Stott?

What’s your favourite place to visit?

Tenerife. For the last few years we’ve bookended the panto with a quick week in Tenerife for a bit of winter sun. I’ve really missed it over the pandemic.

It’s a place where I can truly unwind and relax, so perfect after a hectic panto season.

What’s your favourite food?

Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you how obsessive I am about Chinese food. I love nothing more than getting a takeaway or going to one of the many fabulous restaurants in Edinburgh.

Especially the Kweilin.

What’s your favourite colour?

I would have to opt immediately for green for the Hibs, but also of late purple has a great significance for me and for those who knew and loved Andy Gray [Grant’s long-time panto cast-mate who sadly passed earlier this year] and my pinkie nail will be painted purple (a tradition Andy started) in his memory throughout the panto this season.

December 2021 — Chat

Who was your hero growing up?

My dad. He’s just a normal working bloke who loved socialising, and I learned from him the value of true friends and life-long friendship – it’s something that he and I now share. He had the same group of friends for many years and it’s the same for me, and he gets a real buzz out of hanging out with me and my school friends.

Whose work inspires you now?

Andy Gray – from having watched him as a kid in the 80s in Naked Video and City Lights to having worked with him in panto for so many years, he’d be the guy I’d think of now as my biggest inspiration. I’ve taken his example into what I do now.

What three people would you invite to your dinner party and what are you cooking?

My cooking skills are limited but I pride myself on my ability to cook a curry – there may well be a jar which features but I enhance it! My three guests would be Billy Connolly – no reason needed, Miriam Margolyes – because I love her stories – and Chris Evans – my radio hero.

What’s your all time favourite album?

Donald Fagen's The Nightfly. My number one go-to album when trying out new audio equipment or wanting to hear some really great production. I’ve had it on vinyl, on CD, streamed it and now I’ve bought it on vinyl all over again. It’s a masterclass in production, songwriting and performance – I just love it.

What’s the worst film you’ve ever seen?

The Boondock Saints. My friend Eddie bigged this film up so much and we sat down to watch it and it was two hours of my life I’ll never get back again.

What book would you take to a desert island?

Jock Tamson’s bairns – a family favourite. It came out in the 1970s, a book where Scottish authors were asked to write about their childhood and one of them wrote about my Dad so that gave me a real insight into his childhood which is amazing.

When did you last cry?

This week in rehearsals as we got to a very emotional part of the panto rehearsals which is a tribute to our great friend Andy.

What are you most scared of?

Losing people who are close to me. It’s happened too many times in recent years and I just don’t want it to happen any more.

When did you last vomit and why?

[Laughs] I honestly cannot remember the last time I chucked up – years ago. Just because I was ill – no exciting story.

Michael Bublé, One More Sleep by Leona Lewis – I know these are really cheesy but I just love Christmas. The one I would probably go for Matchbox, Over the Rainbow/You Belong To Me – which isn’t a Christmas song but was in the charts at Christmas and reminds me of being a young kid and decorating my bedroom.

What was your highlight of 2021?

Joining River City has been not just a highlight of 2021 but a career highlight, a long-held ambition.

What are your hopes for 2022?

That we continue getting back to society as it was before the pandemic in terms of theatre and live events in a slow and safe way. I hope 2022 sees more light on the horizon.

Grant Stott appears in Sleeping Beauty, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, until 16 Jan, tickets from £19 capitaltheatres.com/whats-on/sleeping-beauty-2021

Tell us a secret?

I could tell you a storyline in River City that’s about to happen to my character Sam Spiller. If it was up to me I would tell you but I’d get in trouble with the story writers so I better avoid that question.

Which celebrity could you take in a fight?

I’m not a great fighter – I’ve only been in about two fights in my life and I don’t think I would be co-ordinated enough to throw a successful string of punches... but if I was going to have a square go with any celebrity... confidently I reckon I could probably take Joe Pasquale.

If you could be reincarnated as an animal, which animal would it be?

It would be our family dog because she really has a wonderful life and she gets what she wants every single day.

What’s your favourite Christmas song?

So many as I love love love Christmas songs. Cold December Night by — 70 —

Grant Stott in Sleeping Beauty

THE SKINNY

October 2020

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December 2021 — Chat

The Skinny On...

THE SKINNY

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