What's On

There are some absolutely gargantuan shows happening in Scotland this month. Beyoncé, our POP! issue muse, plays Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on 20 May, before Harry Styles stops by the following week for two nights in the same spot (26 & 27 May). On the same weekend that Harry’s in the country, a plethora of pop stars will also flock to Dundee’s Camperdown Park for Radio 1’s Big Weekend, with Arlo Parks, Wet Leg, Anne-Marie, Ashnikko, FLO, Georgia, Romy, Self Esteem and The 1975 all set to play.

Before all of that, the start of the month sees The Road To The Great Escape land in Glasgow. A warm-up run of shows for Brighton’s The Great Escape (10-13 May), on 6 May catch artists set to play the showcase festival at King Tut’s, Nice N Sleazy, The Garage Attic Bar and G2, including Katie Gregson-Macleod, Terra Kin, Humour, LVRA and more. That same weekend in Glasgow, the Melting Pot x Heverlee Springtime Weekender takes place in Queen’s Park with Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul, James Holden and Pleasure Pool all set to play live.

As the month rolls on, ahead of releasing Tracey Denim, catch the hypnagogic pop of Londoners bar italia at Edinburgh’s Sneaky Pete’s (11 May). The following week, grunge rockers OSEES will rip it up at Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket (19 May) and Summerhall’s Dissection Room (20 May). On the same night in Edinburgh, Devo tribute act We Are Not Devo play Voodoo Rooms. Back in Glasgow, Billie Marten brings the dreamy Drop Cherries to Saint Luke’s (24 May), before Caroline Polachek brings her incredible pop pipes and latest album, Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, to SWG3 (25 May), the same night Sam Smith’s rescheduled April show happens at the OVO Hydro. At the end of the month, New Zealand’s The Beths play The Garage (30 May), while the following night brings Alvvays to SWG3 and New York icons Interpol to Edinburgh’s O2 Academy.

May also sees a whole host of local artists celebrating new releases. Post Coal Prom Queen launch First Contact at The Old Hairdresser’s (4 May), Brooke Combe’s Black Is the New Gold mixtape gets an airing at QMU (12 May), Comfort play Dundee (Conroy’s Basement, 12 May), Glasgow (The Old Hairdresser’s, 13 May) and Edinburgh (Leith Depot, 14 May) in honour of What’s Bad Enough? and Slime City launch the addictive Slime City Death Club at Saint Luke’s with a little help from LNFG labelmates Bis and Casual Worker (17 May). [Tallah Brash]

Glasgow Film Theatre and Cameo in Edinburgh are showing Wes Anderson plenty of love this spring by putting on full retrospectives ahead of his latest film, Asteroid City, which arrives in cinemas on 23 June.

If that sounds like your nightmare, how about something nightmarish with DCA’s horror festival Dundead (11-14 May)? Its opener couldn’t be better: Andrew Cumming’s “stone age horror” The Origin, which takes us back to palaeolithic Scotland where a band of early humans are being picked off one by one by a mysterious threat. Also look out for Latin American anthology film Satanic Hispanics, and a mini-retrospective dedicated to the master of body horror, David Cronenberg.

But maybe any film is a horror film? That’s the premise of Glasgowbased artist filmmaker Daniel Cockburn’s lecture/performance How Not to

Watch a Movie (CCA, 3 May). We’re told Cockburn will take audiences down a cinematic rabbit hole through 90s horror films, the Y2K crisis and deep grammatical analyses of power ballad lyrics.

Another highlight this month is the Scottish Queer International Film Festival (aka SQIFF)’s Trans-Generational Tour, a travelling programme of films coming to GFT (12-14 May); MacRobert Arts Centre, Stirling (11 May); Cornucopia, Hawick (20 May); DCA (26-27 May); and An Lanntair, Stornoway (16 Jun). Included in the lineup are Framing Agnes, which uncovers buried trans histories, and Trans Parenting, a programme of short films portraying queer parenthood.

We’d also love to see you all at our free screening of the sorely underseen Matinee, Joe Dante’s joyous paean to the B-movie horrors he grew up watching as a kid, which we’re screening for free at CCA Glasgow (10 May) and Summerhall in Edinburgh (11 May). John Goodman is terrific in the film as a schlock director trying to tap into social anxiety around the Cold War and there’s a typically subversive streak to Dante’s knockabout comedy, which looks even sharper 30 years after its release. [Jamie

Dunn]

Kicking off May, in Glasgow Chispa presents: diessa at Stereo; expect wacky edits and bootleg (4 May). Missing Persons Club is back at La Cheetah with Detroit Techno legend DJ Bone (5 May), while Frenetik X Industrial Estate invite Kamafaka (5 May). Melting Pot X Heverlee Springtime Weekender is back once again at Queens Park Recreation Ground with over 15 artists (6-7 May) while The Berkeley Suite sees Amsterdam legend Lena Wilikens take the reins (7 May).

Over in Edinburgh, Palidrone invites French artist De Grandi to Sneaky Pete’s (5 May). At Cabaret Voltaire, Harrison BDP, Anna Wall (fabric) and Alien Communications are playing all night (6 May).

Aberdeen hosts a huge techno lineup for Cultivate Festival with acts including Charlie Sparks, Franck, TAAHLIAH, 999999999, at Innoflate Aberdeen (12-13 May).

Anz performs at La Cheetah (12 May). Voight-Kampff are back at Stereo with Berlin-based hardcore artist Viscerale, with support from Whitley and DJ Aveen (13 May). On 14 May, CBR Sundays presents 12th Isle, Glasgow label legends. Pop Mutations returns with a huge lineup at The Flying Duck on 19 May, featuring Coolant + Pink Pound, General Ludd + DJ Peanut – a night of experimental music.

Over in Edinburgh, the legend Erol Alkan play Sneaky’s on 13 May. FLY Open Air Festival is back with a combination of local stars and international acts. (20-21 May).

On 27 May Glasgow local star Miss Cabbage & Stereo present Goth Jafar, birthed by NYC’s rave scene. This will be a huge night, not to be missed! [Heléna Stanton]

At CAMPLE LINE, near Dumfries, Kira Freije’s river by night (until 10 Jun) uses the nearby River Cample as inspiration. Freije presents new sculptural interventions that reflect on interior psyches and the built and natural environment, in particular response to the gallery’s rural surroundings.

In Edinburgh, Talbot Rice hosts a group show titled The Accursed Share (until 27 May). Revolving around the concept of debt, nine artists (including Lubaina Himid, Sammy Baloji and Marwa Arsanios) unearth the origins of debt in enslavement and imperialism, and how it has manifested itself in contemporary issues such as the cost of living crisis.

In Glasgow, The Modern Institute currently has a trio of exhibitions open, all until 20 May. In A Sunflower, Six Trees, Three Birds and Two Horses (One With Wings), Andrew Sim combines queer autobiography with folklore in a series of radiant pastel motifs of monkey puzzle trees, horses and sunflowers. Meanwhile, Andrew Kerr’s Flattening the Penny (in the gallery’s Aird’s Lane space) demonstrates the artist’s renewed interest in book cover design. In the Aird’s Lane Bricks Space, Tokyo-based artist Yuichi Hirako presents flamboyant paintings and sculptures.

The culmination of a one year residency exchange programme, All Islands Connect Underwater at the CCA (until 3 Jun) brings together artists Asha Athman, Islam Shabana and Samra Mayanja in an exploration of the ocean as a site of political, cultural and legal contestation.

The Hunterian Collection have recently acquired a number of films by the pioneering filmmaker Lis Rhodes, which will go on display at the gallery from 12 May. The exhibition will feature films from the start of Rhodes’ career in the 1980s to more recent works, which trace a feminist and anti-austerity trajectory over the last four decades. In the East End, The Pipe Factory is showing Ghada Eissa and Nik Rawlings’s I was in the tide, the tide was in me (6-21 May), a new audiovisual artwork that examines personal experiences of bipolar disorder and neurodiversity.

On 20 May, DCA debuts an exhibition of new work by Saoirse Amira Anis, whose multidisciplinary practice centres radical care, compassion and joy. Anis will delve into Scottish and Moroccan folklore, drawing parallels with how they are deeply embedded in water. [Harvey

Dimond]

From Edinburgh Makar Hannah Lavery (Lament for Sheku Bayoh) comes Protest (until 2 Jun), a story of marginalisation and solidarity for children and their parents. This exciting collaboration will open at Northern Stage in Newcastle and tour Scotland, including a stop at the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival (29-31 May). The Children’s Festival offers nine days of family-friendly theatre and dance from 27 May to 4 June.

Glasgow’s Tron Theatre presents Ross Willis’s award-winning Wolfie (4-13 May). This innovative fairytale follows the story of twins separated at birth in an irreverent look at life in and after the care system. At Tramway, the Citizens Theatre Young Company will stage the premiere of PAL: Your AI Care Companion (11-13 May), a new play by Sara Shaarawi (Sister Radio).

Scottish Opera hosts the return of acclaimed director John Fulljames with Bizet’s Carmen, sung in English and set in 1970s Spain. Carmen will visit Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh (12 May-11 Jun).

This month also sees the world premiere of Lesley Hart’s highly-anticipated adaptation of classic story of love, betrayal, and patriarchal oppression Anna Karenina at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum (13 May-3 Jun).

This year’s Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival (20-28 May) sports a tantalising lineup of theatre, music, and cultural events, including Scottish Opera’s Pop-Up Opera and A Play, A Pie, and A Pint’s Leopards Ate My Face

Fred Deakin will debut his immersive show, Club Life, at Edinburgh’s Summerhall (25-28 May). The piece is described as a riotous joyride through the club scene of the 80s and 90s – a cast of dancers invites the audience into this unique experience.

Glasgow will be haunted by Visible Fictions’ new event, Ghosthunter.

Designed for older teens and young adults, this interactive show is described as "part immersive theatre, part expansive escape room" in which audiences will assist a team of paranormal experts as they investigate a haunted house. Audiences can access transport to the space from the Tron Theatre. (30 May-17 Jun). [Rho Chung]

You’ll be pleased to hear that May’s a bumper month for books! Start your summer early with a trip to the Isle of Arran for the McLellan Poetry Fringe Festival (11-14 May). There’ll be appearances from William Letford, Magi Gibson, Kevin P. Gilday and last year’s winner of the McLellan Poetry Competition Annaliese Broughton. Or, if you’d prefer to be loch-side, head to Ullapool Book Festival in the northwest Highlands (5-6 May). Writers Alan Bissett, Kirstin Innes, Michael Pedersen and Don Paterson will be among those in attendance.

For those wanting to stay closer to the central belt, why not pop along to Portobello Bookshop on Edinburgh’s North Sea coast. Events this month include Kae Tempest launching their new collection Divisible by Itself and One at Assembly Rooms (4 May); Heather Parry is discussing her debut short story collection This Is My Body, Given For You (16 May) in the shop. Also premiering a short story collection is comedian Josie Long – her book Because I Don't Know What You Mean and What You Don't will be launched at Freemason’s Hall on 22 May. Rounding the month off is Nadine Aisha Jassat, who is releasing her debut middle-grade novel The Stories Grandma Forgot (and How I Found Them) on 30 May, also in the book shop.

Elsewhere in Edinburgh, Chris Carse Wilson’s debut Fray will launch at National Library of Scotland (4 May). Toppings & Co will host nearly twenty writers this month, including broadcaster Sally Magnusson with her latest novel Music in the Dark and some viral TikTok BookTok faves – Olivie Blake (author of The Atlas Six) will launch One for my Enemy alongside fellow YA writer Susan Dennard with The Luminaries (23 May), and Rebecca F Kuang will be discussing her book Yellowface on 31 May.

Glasgow too will be packed with writers over the course of the nine-day Aye Write Festival (19-28 May). There’ll be appearances from Ruby Wax, Darren McGarvey, Leila Aboulela, Val McDermid and Janey Godley, among dozens of others. [Nasim Rebecca Asl]

20 It’s! A! POP! Special! We take a dive into the world of pop, featuring Popgirlz Scotland, the radical potential of a pop platform, dance-pop crossovers and a rundown of artful pop(ular) films of the 21st century.

26 Alt-pop act BC Camplight discusses The Last Rotation of Earth, an album borne of personal turmoil.

28 Glasgow sibling duo Comfort on new album What’s Bad Enough?

29 Like any good 90s pop magazine, we’ve got a problem page! Ask Anahit is here to solve your petty- to medium-sized drama.

36 We explore Alberta Whittle’s create dangerously – her expansive, generous solo exhibition in the National Galleries of Scotland.

39 Edinburgh Printmakers’ Uprooted Visions show emphasises the importance of elevating marginalised voices.

40 Cambodian-French filmmaker Davy Chou introduces Return to Seoul, the story of a Korean adoptee travelling to her homeland.

43 Director Daniel Goldhaber and editor Daniel Garber on How to Blow Up a Pipeline.

44 We meet Berlin-based DJ Patrick Mason ahead of his Riverside Festival debut.

47 One writer meditates on the themes of Caleb Azumah Nelson’s second novel Small Worlds

48 Josie Long discusses her short story debut Because I Don’t Know What You Mean and What You Don’t

49 Hannah Lavery and Natalie Ibu on Protest, a play which seeks to inspire hope through action.

On the website...

A rundown of the Edinburgh International Festival programme; a whole bunch of reviews (Terminal V, Paramore, Tim Heidecker, the list goes on…); details of more free film screenings with MUBI; The Cineskinny podcast, new episodes every fortnight; and a chat between Alice Slater and Heather Parry about true crime and snails.