The Skinny Scotland June 2015

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June 2015 Scotland Issue 117

Music Hudson Mohawke Outfit Jenny Hval Catholic Action Fist City

Film Edinburgh Film Festival Peter Bogdanovich Walter Hill Mark Adams Alex Ross Perry

Art Anthony Schrag Dundee Degree Show Tim Dalzell Grace Schwindt

Books Dark Horse Poetry Louise Welsh Clubs Ezup Festivals Round-Up

Comedy Edinburgh Magic Festival Dracula Zoo Nights

John Maclean introduces his cinematic debut, Slow West MUSIC | FILM | CLUBS | THEATRE | TECH | ART | BOOKS | COMEDY | FASHION | TRAVEL | FOOD | DEVIANCE | LISTINGS

23

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23976_003 CW The Skinny 340x280 June 2015.indd 1

20/05/2015 11:02

P.51 Art News

P.26 Listen up Philip

June 2015 I N DEPEN DENT

CULTU R AL

JOU R NALI S M

Issue 117, June 2015 Š Radge Media Ltd. Get in touch: E: hello@theskinny.co.uk T: 0131 467 4630 P: The Skinny, 3 Coates Place, Edinburgh, EH3 7AA The Skinny is Scotland's largest independent entertainment & listings magazine, and offers a wide range of advertising packages and affordable ways to promote your business.

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4

Contents

Nicola Taylor Tom McCarthy Claire Collins Becca Strahan Kyla Hall Lara Moloney Sophie Kyle

THE SKINNY

Credit: Tim Dalzell

P.32 Tim Dalzell

Credit: Howard Wood

P.16 Jenny Hval

Contents LIFESTYLE

06 Chat & Opinion: Welcome to the maga-

zine – get your fix of last minute news with Stop the Presses; midday culinary musings in What Are You Having For Lunch; plus Spot the Difference, Shot of the Month and the eerie clairvoyance of Crystal Baws.

31

Deviance: Our Deviance ed tried her hand at Naturism and she bloody loved it. Plus how to date a feminist.

32

Showcase: One of the Phoenix graduates of GSA, Tim Dalzell reveals some of the sculptural work he’ll be showing in Glasgow this summer.

34

Travel: Have selfie culture and social media transformed the experience of travel? One writer yearns for a lost time of human connection and hostels without wifi.

35

Fashion: This year's Heriot Watt Fashion grads display in the Borders this month – here are some of the highlights.

36

Food & Drink: Taking a closer look at upcoming food festivals around the world, plus the month’s event news and Phagomania continues its quest to dub this The Year of the Sandwich.

08 Heads Up: Stuff to do – so much of it, in

fact, we’ve lovingly arranged it in calendar form for your planning convenience.

FEATURES

10

John Maclean reveals how he went from making music promos with his bandmates from The Beta Band to giving directions to Michael Fassbender on fairytale Western Slow West, his debut feature.

12

Hudson Mohawke (aka Ross Birchard) talks trap, spreading his wings and giving up childhood vices ahead of the release of second album Lantern.

15

Being split between two continents and three cities hasn’t managed to stop Outfit from making one of the year’s best albums. They tell us about being free from expectations.

REVIEW

39

Music: Fist City tell us all about police brutality and ponder the meaning of punk, while Catholic Action discuss religious guilt and resembling Bobby Gillespie.

Also new records from Leftfield, Sun Kil Moon, Major Lazer and Everything Everything.

49

Clubs: We talk to the hedz behind Glasgow's Ezup, and look forward to the higlights of the summer festival calendar across Europe.

51

Art: Reviews of Liz Larner and Eat Abstractly, plus exhibition highlights for June.

heads to EIFF with new screwball comedy She’s Funny That Way in tow. Hint: does not contain genitalia-in-zipper gags.

52

Poetry magazine Dark Horse celebrates its 20th birthday this month with a series of massive parties. Editor Gerry Cambridge talks us through the highs and lows of the last two decades.

Film: Indie whippersnapper Alex Ross Perry’s third film, Listen Up Philip, comes to our screens and Jonathan Oppenheimer follows up The Act of Killing with the similarly bracing doc The Look of Silence.

53

22

Participatory artist Anthony Schrag Is walking to Venice from Aberdeenshire – he tells us what that’s all about.

DVD / Books: A classic (Paper Moon) and two stinkers (The Interview and Jupiter Ascending) head to home video.

54

25

As the Traverse announces its hotlyanticipated Fringe programme, Artistic Director Orla O’Loughlin guides us through some of the highlights.

Theatre: Some words with Kiwi comic Barnie Duncan, and reviews from Dance International.

55

Comedy: Zoo Nights – how to party in Edinburgh Zoo.

26

Alex Ross Perry's new comedy Listen Up Philip concerns an obnoxious young novelist's struggles with entitlement; he tells us about arguing with himself

55

Competitions: You could win tickets to Groove Festival or Electric Fields! Find out more here.

56

Listings: Your essential guide to events across the country in June.

62

We look forward to Edinburgh Magic Festival by letting Fred Fletch interview a Dracula.

16

Jenny Hval chats to us about her latest record, Apocalypse, girl, an intensely delivered, multi-faceted deconstruction of issues around sexuality, capitalism and femininity.

18

Ahead of this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, we speak to its newly appointed artistic director, Mark Adams, and the subject of its retrospective, Walter Hill, America’s greatest living action filmmaker.

20 Veteran director Peter Bogdanovich

21

29

Kicking off 2015’s graduate showcases, Dundee Degree Show offers a wealth of exciting new artists. Here’s what we made of it.

Artist Grace Schwindt reflects on her feature-length film, which through structured choreography questions the possibilities for freedom.

30 Louise Welsh talks to Russell McLean

about new plague-themed novel Death is a Welcome Guest.

June 2015

Contents

5

A

s we all finally come to terms with the fact that it is now 2015, so begins June. It’s officially summer now (ignoring the fact we’re still wearing woollen hats) and the next three months are set to be pretty epic round our way. As mentioned last month, our tenth birthday approaches in the autumn, and we’ve got a super exciting programme of events to celebrate it kicking off next month. Selection has begun for our EAF graduate showcase, as this year’s degree show season begins with Dundee. We had a scope around the exhibition and came to the conclusion that Ceramics Are Back. Add that to the proclamation pile, alongside the statement This Is The Year Of The Sandwich, once again expanded upon in Food this month.

Gracing our cover is a rather lovely still from new film Slow West, the big screen debut of John Maclean, ex of Beta Band and The Aliens. We had the opportunity to catch up with the man himself and hear more about what led him into filmmaking, and the presumably unique experience of the first professional actor he shot being Michael Fassbender. It’s a big month for Film elsewhere, as the Edinburgh International Film Festival rolls into town with a new director in tow. We hear more about his plans for the programme, and take a closer look at a few of our film team’s programme highlights from p18 onwards. We also hear from cinema legend Peter Bogdanovich about the state of contemporary cinema as he promotes his new screwball comedy She’s Funny That Way, and have some words with Listen Up Philip director Alex Ross Perry.

In Music, Hudson Mohawke talks to us about new album Lantern, his love of happy hardcore, and life producing for that Kanye West. Liverpool

band Outfit muse upon the poetics of long distance relationships as they introduce new album Slowness. Norwegian polymath Jenny Hval discusses Apocalypse, girl, her new album exploring gender, the media and the crutch of religion; Canadian surf-punk band Fist City share their just rage with new album Everything is a Mess; and Glaswegian new blood Catholic Action bring some religious guilt to the table as they drop new single The Real World (see them on our stage at Electric Fields this August).

In Art we have the aforementioned Dundee degree show summary. Ceramics. Are. Back. Our Showcase for the month is Tim Dalzell, one of the Phoenix generation of GSA graduates who will be showing in the Telfer Gallery this month before his year’s belated degree show in July. In further GSA news, keep an eye out round Glasgow for the bespoke degree show supplement we have lovingly produced for them. We also speak to Anthony Schrag, whose unique brand of participatory artwork has led him to embark on a walking pilgrimage from Huntly in Aberdeenshire across Europe and the Alps to that most holy of places, the Venice Biennale.

Books goes on a bit of a versus bent this month, celebrating the twentieth birthday of Dark Horse Poetry magazine with some words between its editor, Gerry Cambridge and local literary vagabond Michael Pedersen. We also set crime fiction author Russel Mclean the task of interviewing Louise Welsh on the subject of her new plaguethemed novel Death is a Welcome Guest. Finally, we hear the first ominous rumblings of that there Edinburgh Festival as we take a look at the Traverse’s Fringe programme, recently announced. Here comes the summer! [Rosamund West]

Spot the Difference

jockmooney.co.uk

Editorial

Crystal Baws With Mystic Mark

TWO DONATELLAS No fashion show, awards ceremony or supermarket opening is complete without the glamorous, sun-seared visage of apparel wizard Donatella Versace. I mean look at the two pictures of her here, being all chic on some red carpet or other.

But if you look really closely you’ll notice a discernible difference between the two Donatellas.

If you reckon your peepers have been able to decipher between the two, head to TheSkinny. co.uk/competitions and outline your findings.

Do it! You could win a copy of the ace Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth, courtesy of our pals at Canongate.

ARIES You’re alarmed to find that your period has begun blotting dark red advertising messages onto the inside of your sanitary towels. This month’s reads ‘Why not try a cool refreshing Fosters?’ You wonder how they’re getting access to your uterus.

TAURUS This month the airport police in Bali find the wrap of MDMA you forgot to take out of your wallet and you’re sentenced to 500 years in the electric chair.

GEMINI You’re used to grabbing each day by the balls, never giving a moment’s thought as to why a day even needs reproductive organs. But one day in June you grab the day’s balls so hard it tears the delicate reproductive ducts inside the testicles meaning that tomorrow never comes, and you’re stuck inside today forever like a neverending glass-cock dry-hump.

CANCER As much as people love cat videos on the internet, they don’t seem to be too keen about the videos you made about the inside of their cats.

LEO This month you meditate so hard you start to pick up Capital FM.

VIRGO Your dog doesn’t love you. It secretly fantasises about being owned by the next door neighbour.

LIBRA In this month’s episode of the XXXFactor, Simon Cowell rolls his eyes as he stops you in the middle of your limp, half-hearted soapy boob wank and dismisses it as the worst he has ever seen.

SCORPIO In the pursuit of soft skin and a great complexion, you read in Elle that Cleopatra used to bathe in ass milk.

Inspired, you spend all month milking your bum on the rim of your bath before climbing in and rubbing the cold, nou-rishing, luxuriant liquid all over your naked body, just imagining how soft and kissable your skin is about to become.

SAGITTARIUS This month you convincingly disguise yourself as your brother’s wife and deceive him into having sex with you, but during the act he accidentally calls out your real name and you’re left a little bit freaked out that you’re even related to this weirdo.

CAPRICORN Capricorns are very sensitive to wasted time; not wanting to misplace a second in their busy schedule they brush their teeth in the shower, drive while they sleep, bash out spreadsheets while they make love and shit out breakfast while eating lunch.

AQUARIUS This month you manage a telepathic breakthrough in communication with your cat. Melding your mind with the consciousness of your pet, it tells you quietly but firmly to get out of its fucking house.

PISCES The marketplace meets your demands as a consumer this month when it produces an ultra-realistic whoopee cushion, one that leaves a small red and brown stain on sofa cushions and follows-through at weddings.

twitter.com/themysticmark facebook.com/themysticmark

Competition closes midnight Sunday 28 Jun. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Our Ts&Cs can be found at www.theskinny.co.uk/about/terms-and-conditions

6

Chat

THE SKINNY

The Arches in Crisis With the long-term future of The Arches still uncertain as the venue appeals moves to shut down its clubbing operation, we ask actors, writers and musicians for their views on the Glasgow arts institution

T

he Arches’ arts programme will continue as planned until June, after the Glasgow multiarts venue announced that Creative Scotland and Glasgow City Council have agreed to provide an advance on its 2015-16 funding.

The venue will receive its pre-agreed funding to help it carry out its current programme of events, while also receiving ‘specialist advice to enable it to properly consider all future options’.

The Arches has also announced that it will appeal the decision by the city’s Licensing Board to restrict its opening hours, effectively outlawing its clubbing operation.

Last month, hundreds of creatives from across Scotland and beyond signed an open letter in support of the venue; we’ve asked a few figures from across the creative spectrum to explain what The Arches means to them – here are their responses.

Rob Drummond: “Without the Arches where would I have gone?”

“Without the Arches I might not have made it.

I’d still be the same me with the same talent but

T

he line-up for the T Break unsigned bands’ stage at this year's T in the Park festival at Strathallan Castle (10-12 July) has been confirmed.

Rock'n'roll quartet Tijuana Bibles, "staccato grunge pop" group Schnarff Schnarff, experimental sixpiece The Claramassa and Glasgow four-piece Catholic Action (who you can read much more about elsewhere this issue) are among the bands set to join a lengthy list of T Break alumni from across Scottish music. The roll call for past T Breaks is something of a who's who of Scottish music over the past two decades, with last year's line-up featuring Tuff Love and Fat Goth. The T Break 2015 bill is rounded out by Gerry Cinnamon, Amatrart, Dead Man Fall, Apache Darling, Our Future Glory, Be Charlotte (AKA Charlotte Brimner), Crash Club, The Van Ts, DIVIDES, Ded Rabbit, Other Humans and Spring Break.

Quiz-Man-Du! A night for Nepal. Head along to the Kilderkin on 7 June for some charitable quizzing and the chance to win some top notch prizes including a meal at La Petite Mort (that’s right, it’s a restaurant called The Orgasm), a bunch of LuckyMe shiz and a year’s free entry to Sneaky Pete’s. All proceeds go directly to water purification projects in Nepal. Kilderkin, Edinburgh, 7 Jun, 7pm.

We’ve made a special supplement for Glasgow School of Art, celebrating their 2015 degree show and taking a look at what’s in store for the Phoenix Bursary graduates’ exhibition this summer. Keep an eye out around the city for your free copy.

The ten-strong shortlist for the 2015 Scottish Album of the Year – aka The SAY Award – has been announced. The debut albums from duos Happy Meals and Honeyblood both make the list, as

June 2015

without the Arches where would I have gone in the early stages of my career to try things out? As Andy Arnold might have said, where else would have given me the ‘right to fail’ coupled with the support to succeed? This is the worrying situation that may face hundreds of new artists in the coming years if the Arches goes under.

“The job Jackie Wylie [artistic director] has done is astounding. She has picked up where Andy left off and morphed that place into a powerhouse of European live art – a hugely respected, world renowned arts venue that should be the pride of Scotland. I know, because I have just finished an on-off two-and-a-half-year world tour with an Arches show, Bullet Catch, which was the launch pad to my career as a full time artist.

“And all this is now under threat. Because a night club closed. Think about that. This is the ludicrous situation we find ourselves in; petitioning for the reopening of a night club to save an arts venue. I’m sure there are many compelling reasons for the club’s late licence to be reinstated, as others more qualified than me will attest, but how crazy is it that one of those reasons is, so that

do LPs from returning techno duo Slam and indie mainstays Belle and Sebastian. Young Fathers – who won the 2014 award for Tape Two – make the shortlist once again, while Paolo Nutini’s Caustic Love won the public vote for a guaranteed place on the shortlist. PAWS, Errors, Kathryn Joseph and now-defunct trio The Amazing Snakeheads complete the line-up. The 2015 SAY Award will be presented at the O2 ABC in Glasgow on Wed 17 June.

The shortlist for the 2015 Dundee International Book Prize has been announced. featuring ten debut novelists drawn from four different continents, selected from the record 500 entries received by organisers Literary Dundee. A judging panel will decide which novelist will win a publishing deal with Cargo Publishing and £10,000, with the winner to be announced at a gala dinner during the annual Dundee Literary Festival in October. The prize is now in its 11th year, with previous winners including Nicola White in 2013 for In the Rosary Garden, and Amy Mason’s The Other Ida last year. Extracts from the top ten will shortly be published on the Literary Dundee website to allow book-lovers to pick their own favourites for the Prize. The full 2015 shortlist is: Rainbirds (Clarissa Nathania Goenawan), The Adventures of Us (Melanie Napthine), The Chicken Soup Murder (Maria Donovan), Fire Eater (L. Andrea Mosier), Take Away People (Alison Napier), A Life Out of Key (Aesa Strand Vidarsdottir), Devil Take the Hindmost (Martin Cathcart Froden), The Historian's Daughter (Rashida Murphy), The Angel with a Solemn Face (Lee Randall) and We Arrive Uninvited (Jen Knox).

RM Hubbert: “No other venue provides such an experience” “It’s hard to imagine doing what I do now had The Arches not been there. From promoting Mogwai there in 1997 through to supporting artists such Rob Drummond is a playwright and actor; Bullet Catch won the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland as Tortoise and Godspeed You! Black Emperor (CATS) award for best new production in 2013. alongside headlining a good few of my own shows plus writing and performing in my first theatre proTam Dean Burn: “Utterly unique” duction (Whatever Gets You Through the Night) “The Arches are a home alone for avant-garde waifs as part of an amazing ensemble, The Arches has and strays. The Victorian caves-become-venue consistently provided myself and many, many really are utterly unique to Glasgow and everyone others with not only a venue for our artistic outwho enters them senses that. I’m sure even the pourings, but a well-run and more importantly, cops who were ordered in to patrol recent club inspiring team of people in the background to help nights found themselves struggling not to fall us do so. under their dark invincible spell.

“That’s before we even get to the cultural im“The reasons behind [attempts to close down pact. Where else does experimental theatre sit the venue] are even murkier than the darkest cor- (literally) side by side with a hard house club? ner of the Arches. There’s no sense in it whatsoever. International touring musicians alongside contemFor the individual and socially, alcohol is a much porary dance events? This criss-crossing of art more potent, addictive and dangerous drug than forms helps all to evolve and learn. We’re exposed ecstasy – I should know as I lost my younger brother to wonderful things that we might never have known to it – but no one anywhere is suggesting we go back about had it not been for these disparate audiento alcohol prohibition. ces mingling in the bar or hearing a snippet of some“Instead of blind useless drug laws, criminali- thing new and exciting between the rooms. sation and zero tolerance prohibition we need to “I don’t know of any other venue in Scotland have a grown up debate, decriminalisation and joi- that provides such an experience. If The Arches ned up policies on drugs. The Arches has been op- has to go, I suspect that experience will go with it.” erating the safest club environment in the UK and RM Hubbert is a musician; he was awarded the 2013 Scottish Police Scotland must be stopped from their harAlbum of the Year (SAY) Award for his second album Thirteen assment of the venue. How dare they demand the Lost & Found.

Arches changes its pioneering business model!” the arts can continue to be funded. How about this? Let’s fund the arts properly in the first place.

If one good thing can come out of all this it is to highlight this almost-beyond-parody situation.”

Tam Dean Burn is a film, television and theatre actor.

Shot Of The Month Screaming Females, Broadcast (Glasgow) 22 April, by John Graham

‘Honesty’ – Rachel Blair, Silversmithing & Jewellery 2015

Opinion

7

Paul Harrison, Sketches Games

Mon 8 Jun

Tue 9 Jun

After a successful inaugural outing at the Commonwealth Games, Vic Galloway et al return to do it all over again – with this year's BBC Introducing at the Quay featuring an eight-strong cast championed by BBC Introducing, amongst them SAY Award nominees Honeyblood, Glasgow posthardcore noisemongers United Fruit, Glasgow-Ghana rapper Kobi Onyame, Mull songstress Sorren Maclean, and more (see listings for full line-up). BBC Pacific Quay, Glasgow, noon, free

Eccentric English singer/songwriter Robyn Hitchcock returns to Scotland to play an intimate set at Glasgow's Mono, as part of his mini summer tour, with any luck dipping heavily into most recent LP The Man Upstairs – a stellar collection of original tracks and covers, breezing along on Hitchcock's candid vocals, whispery harmonic murmurs, and flutters of cello. Support comes from recent collaborative partner, Emma Swift. Mono, Glasgow, 7pm, £13.50

After the release last month of their inaugural poetry anthology and double compilation LP #UntitledOne, the Neu! Reekie! literary merrymakers return to host their biggest live outing yet – #UntitledLive – headed up by in-demand Scottish hiphop trio Young Fathers, plus stints from DJ/producer Andrew Weatherall, electronic unit Finitribe, and a duo of 'spoken word stars' they're keeping under wraps.

Dirty teases. Central Hall, Edinburgh, 6pm, £18 (£15)

Credit: Peter Marsden

Sun 7 Jun

United Fruit

Robyn Hitchcock

Young Fathers

Sat 13 Jun

Sun 14 Jun

Mon 15 Jun

After last year's Glasgow School of Art Fine Art Degree Show being cancelled in the wake of the devastating Mackintosh fire, this year it returns as big and bright as ever – showcasing the fruits of a new crop of budding artists' endeavours across the schools of Architecture, Design, and Fine Art, coinciding with the MFA degree show taking place at The Glue Factory on the same dates. Glasgow School of Art (various buildings), Glasgow, 13-20 Jun, free

With 14 June marking World Gin Day, Summerhall plays home to the sophomore Scottish Juniper Festival, a three-day gin splurge with not one, but two bars – a G&T Bar and a Cocktail Bar – bolstered by various gin sampling, boutique fashion stalls, expert-led talks, and tours of Summerhall's own on-site gin distillery, Pickering's Gin. To sum up: loadsae lovely gin! Summerhall, Edinburgh, 12-14 Jun, various timeslots, £21.50 (£17.50)

If you missed his two sell-out Edinburgh Fringe stints, American author, radio contributor, and allround literary funnyman David Sedaris stops by Edinburgh's Usher Hall this month as part of his current UK tour, delivering snippets and quips from his succession of acclaimed novels, including Me Talk Pretty One Day and When You Are Engulfed in Flames, as dry, unassuming, and deliciously profane as you could wish for. Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 19.15pm, £28.50

Euphrosyne Andrews, Painting and Printmaking 2015

Scottish Juniper Festival

Glasgow's noisiest sons Mogwai celebrate their 20th anniversary with summat a little special – a series of dates marking 20 years, to the week, since they first gathered in a Glasgow livingroom to rehearse. They kick off on Scottish soil, taking over Barrowland for two nights with a selection of their fave acts – among them The Vaselines, Forest Swords, and Sacred Paws – before hitting up London for a six-night bill.

Barrowland, Glasgow, 20 & 21 Jun, 7pm, £26.50

Wed 24 Jun

Thu 25 Jun

Fri 26 Jun

Taking another dip into the EIFF programme, Live Live Cinema give Roger Corman's cult classic Little Shop of Horrors the bells'n'whistles treatment – with the screening live soundtracked by four actors/ musicians (amongst them Barnie Duncan, who won The Skinny's Genius Award at the Fringe last year), performing the musical score and sound effects, while also lip-syncing along to the onscreen characters.

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £17.50

This year's Glasgow Jazz Festival takes a foray into clubbing, with Ministry of Sound resident and Schiehallion label owner Rebecca Vasmant hosting a special edition of her Modal night – taking to Sub Club with dancefloor-friendly jazz troupe Ray Harris and The Fusion Experience, bolstered by a DJ set from the lady herself alongside Optimo's JD Twitch. Here's hoping you jazz types can make it through 'til 3am... Sub Club, Glasgow, 11pm, £8

For their summer exhibition – and an early preview of one of the exhibitions making up this year's Edinburgh Art Festival programme – The Fruitmarket Gallery host the Scottish solo debut of sculptor Phyllida Barlow, showcasing a selection of her materially-focused and immersive sculptural installations made from simple materials such as plywood, cardboard, fabric, and plaster.

The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 26 Jun-18 Oct, free

8

Chat

Des O'Gorman and Ross Hepburn

Blindtext

Little Shop of Horrors

The Vaselines

Rebecca Vasmant

Credit: Beth Chalmers

Sat 20 Jun

Credit: Marc Farrimond

Fri 19 Jun

Des O'Gorman and Ross Hepburn host another outing of their nostalgic standup collab – Science Fiction Double Feature – with each comic delivering a solo set centred around their favourite classic film from the glory years of the 80s: Ghostbusters (for O'Gorman) and Beetlejuice (for Hepburn). And, if you're lucky, they might dress up in character (aka they will). Also at Glasgow's The Admiral, 27 Jun. The Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh, 7pm, £5

Credit: Gareth Van Niekerk

Thu 18 Jun

Once again commandeering your midsummer's, Solas Festival pitches up in the scenic grounds of The Bield at Blackruthven (in Perth) for its multi-arts kneesup – with music highlights including Tuff Love, Honeyblood, The Vaselines, RM Hubbert in collab with Emma Pollock, Bill Wells, Hector Bizerk, and more, plus a programme of spoken word, theatre, dance, and visual art. And, y'know, a petting zoo! Blackruthven, Perth, 19-21 Jun, £85 weekend

Eagulls

Credit: Adam Akins

With touring their life-blood, Leeds quintet Eagulls alight in Edinburgh for the first of their summer batch of gigs and festivals, taking to Summerhall for the latest installment of the Nothing Ever Happens Here gig series – filling the Dissection Room with their motorik beats, screaming guitars, and frazzled energy, before appearing at the likes of London's Field Day and Germany's Hurricane Festival later in the month.

Summerhall, Edinburgh, 8pm, £9

Credit: Rich Ferguson

As the month of midsummer's comes around, the Meadows Festival, BBC Introducing at the Quay, Eden Festival, and Solas Festival all take their chances in the great outdoors; but, ne'er fear, you can still hide away in a darkened room for a twelve days during Edinburgh Film Festival...

Phew.

Edinburgh Printmakers host a mini showcase of print works by artist Paul Harrison, with Epigenetic Landscapes exploring aspects of Epigenetics – a field of biomedical research interested in changes in gene expression, phenotype and heredity as a result of external or environmental factors. Coinciding with The Wellcome Trust Waddington Symposium on epigenetics in Edinburgh (1-4 Jun).

Edinburgh Printmakers, 2-6 Jun, free

David Sedaris

Mogwai

Phyllida Barlow, untitled

THE SKINNY

Credit: Jassy Earl

Compiled by: Anna Docherty

Wed 3 Jun

Credit: Alex Delfanne, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Heads Up

Tue 2 Jun

In celebration of its 20 year – and anniversary issue – transatlantic poetry mag The Dark Horse takes to a party setting for a one-off programme of poetry, visuals, and music, including readings from Alasdair Gray, Douglas Gunn, Vicki Feaver, and Claire Askew, music from Findlay Napier, and an introduction from founder/ editor Gerry Cambridge.

The celebrations then continue in London (12 Jun) and New York (20 Jun). The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, 7pm, £6 (£4)

The Dark Hourse

Credit: Gerry Cambridge

th

Fri 5 Jun

Sat 6 Jun

Experimental talent nurturer Cryptic Nights takes to its home of CCA for another sensory-messin' outing, with brothers Jamie and Lewis Wardrop presenting The Dwelling Place – a multimedia installation bringing to life an abandoned family home discovered in the Outer Hebrides, told using original footage, music, spoken word, and video projection. Opening night postshow discussion (8.45pm show). CCA, Glasgow, 4 & 5 Jun, 7.30pm & 8.45pm, £7.40 (£4.40)

The open green space of The Meadows – the lungs of Edinburgh's southside come BBQ season – comes to life for the annual volunteer-run Meadows Festival weekender, with myriad curiosity stalls snaking their way up the Meadows' pathways, bolstered by a live band schedule from Red Dog and Fortune Promotions, plus a performance area, local food sellers, a Pickering's Gin bar, and the obligatory waltzers'n'candyfloss action.

The Meadows, Edinburgh, 6 & 7 Jun, free

The Dwelling Place

Credit: Jamie and Lewis Wardrop

Thu 4 Jun

Thu 11 Jun

Fri 12 Jun

Following an outing at Glasgow's Tron Theatre's Mayfesto festival last month, the collaborative force of Glasgow-based company Birds of Paradise and writer Nicola McCartney bring Crazy Jane Edinburgh-way – a fierce dance theatre piece recounting the tale of Moulin Rouge star Jane Avril, backed by an original live score from Scottish hip-hop troupe Hector Bizerk. Also playing Dundee Rep, 13 Jun. Summerhall, Edinburgh, 9 & 10 Jun, £12 (£10)

The lush Raehills Meadows again play home to Eden fest, a family-friendly outdoor wonderland of music, performance, drive-in cinema, and more – this year headlined by returning R'n'B star Ms Dynamite and hip hop's illustrious Grandmaster Flash, plus the likes of The Cat Empire, Portico, Son of Dave, and Mungo's Hi-Fi across nine different stages (including one bike-powered!).

Raehills Meadows, Dumfries, 11-14 Jun, from £75 weekend

Embassy hosts its annual festival of independent and grassroots artistic offerings – Annuale – playing host to a varied programme of DIY exhibitions and events across the city during its 17-day run (1228 June), with myriad local galleries taking part, plus various one-off and popup spaces, and even a multimedia club night under the banner 'Daddy's Got Muscles'. Keep an eye on annuale.org for more details. City-wide, Edinburgh, 12-18 Jun

Crazy Jane

Grandmaster Flash

Wed 17 Jun

Glasgow art rockers Franz Ferdinand and LA new wavers Sparks take to a live setting to unveil the fruits of their transatlantic new project, under the name FFS, offering gig-goers a first live listen to tracks from their debut collaborative LP, before embarking on a European tour at the end of the month, including jaunts to Brussels, London, and Paris, winding up with a set at Berlin's legendary Lollapalooza come September. The Art School, Glasgow, 7pm, £returns only

Edinburgh International Film Festival opens this year's twelve days of cinematic heaven (running 1728 Jun) with the world premiere of The Legend of Barney Thomson, the directorial debut from Scottish actor Robert Carlyle, based on Douglas Lindsay's 2011 novel The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson, with Carlyle himself taking the lead role as an awkward barber who inadvertently stumbles into serial murder. Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, 9pm, £15

FFS

Credit: Beth Chalmers

Tue 16 Jun

Credit: Sam Brill

Wed 10 Jun

Mon 22 Jun

Tue 23 Jun

Following its weekend opening, Gray's Degree Show continues until 27 Jun, this year celebrating a mighty 130 years of of raising creative profiles in the north east – offering a chance to view and buy the work of more than 150 fledgling graduates, across the schools of Photography, Design, Fashion Design, Contemporary Art, Painting, and Three Dimensional Design. Expect a wonderland. Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen, 20-27 Jun, free

Live comedy swapfest Joke Thieves returns to Edinburgh's The Stand for another outing, with another handpicked batch of comics – Vladimir McTavish, Chris Forbes, Jamie Dalgleish, Pearse James, Julia Sutherland, and Scott Gibson – performing a selection of their own jokes, before – holy comic sacrilege! – stealing one another's to pass off as their own, all under the watchful eye of host Jo Caulfield. The Stand, Edinburgh, 8.30pm, £8

Credit: Neil Jarvie

Sun 21 Jun

Natalie Wood, 3D Design

Sun 28 Jun

Mon 29 Jun

Following the release of her new LP Upper Hell back in April, Glasgow-based Polish chanteuse Ela Orleans is currently busy giving said LP the proper tour treatment – pleasingly squeezing in another date on home soil – inventively using loop pedals to sync otherworldly synth chords, silken vocals, sampled melodies, and scuzzed-up programmed percussion: essentially sounding like some kind of hallucinatory angel of the night, more's the joy. CCA, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £8

Following an Edinburgh outing earlier in the month (19 Jun, see listings), the Rally & Broad literary lasses skip across to Glasgow for round two of their end of season specials, with guests A. L. Kennedy, Findlay Napier, Michael Pedersen, Kirsty Logan, and Maud The Moth helping them draw Season Three to its official close (ne'er fear, though, they'll be back with Season Four come October). Stereo, Glasgow, 2.30pm, £5

We round off the month with regular Mondaybrightener Red Raw, which takes to Edinburgh's The Stand for its weekly openmic beginners' showcase (aka be gentle on 'em), bolstered by a selection of old hands roadtesting new material, with the beauty of it being that you never know quite who/what you're going to get... Oh, and it's only two quid in. Also at Glasgow's The Stand weekly Tuesdays. The Stand, Edinburgh, 8pm, £2

June 2015

Credit: Ian Scott

Sat 27 Jun

ElaBlindtext Orleans

Michael Pedersen

Embassy Annuale

The Legend of Barney Thomson

Taking over all three stages of Òran Mór's sprawling building (that's basement, bar, and gargantuan auditorium), the fourth annual West End Festival AllDayer rolls around – once more boasting a 14-strong cast of suitably stellar local acts, among them The Phantom Band, Remember Remember, Tuff Love, Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat, RM Hubbert, De Rosa, and Stanley Odd. See listings for full line-up. Òran Mór's, Glasgow, 3pm, from £15

Remember Remember

The Meadows

Pearse James

Ashley Storrie

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Way Out West For his debut feature film, John Maclean has ventured where few UK filmmakers have gone before: the wild expanse of the Old West. The former Beta Band knob-twiddler talks about going from making films with his bandmates to directing Michael Fassbender

Interview: Sam Lewis

T

he American West is a landscape that has loomed large over movie history. Westerns moved from the shadows of the ‘pulp’ literature they superseded at the dawn of film to become the predominant genre of modern cinema's most formative years, the 40s and 50s. As such, heavyweight directors ever since have found themselves drawn to the Western: Robert Altman, Quentin Tarantino, Jim Jarmusch and the Coen brothers (among many others) have all engaged in different ways with the American West and the titans of film who drew its cinematic boundaries – John Ford, Howard Hawks and Anthony Mann, and later Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah.

As such, it's a bold move for your first step into the world of feature film to be taken on the prairie. But that's exactly what John Maclean has done with Slow West, his visually arresting and ethereal tale of a melancholic, well-reared young Scot (Kodi Smit-McPhee) making his way west across the American continent to find and protect his childhood sweetheart, under the guidance of Michael Fassbender's morally ambiguous, brooding cowboy.

Maclean made the move into cinema after making his name as a mainstay of the Scottish music scene, first as part of The Beta Band and then in The Aliens. He describes how his interest in cinema can be traced back to his early days at art school in Edinburgh where he worked “at the Cameo cinema, watching double bills and getting a film education there, and then when I was studying art in London I worked at the Gate cinema. I was always working in cinemas and interested in film.” His first experience behind a camera came shooting promos for his group. “Straight away I said to the record company that I'd like to do the music videos for the band, and that was the next education – starting to work with crews, and how to edit, and make films with no money, and use The Beta Band as my actors.”

Music videos were an invaluable crash-course in how to shoot something striking on a tight budget. “I was trying not to make a single video that was just a performance of the band playing,” he says. “They were all kind of short films in themselves. Some of them had bits of dialogue and sound.

It felt like I was trying to make little bits of short films, with stories.” As a result, “it didn't feel like a massive leap after I got out of being in bands to start making short films.”

Slow West is actually the third collaboration between Maclean and Fassbender, the duo having previously worked together on two short films, including the BAFTA award-winning Pitch Black Heist (2011). “I got to know Michael's agent,” Maclean explains, “and he showed him some of The Beta Band videos, and Michael saw something in them.

One evening I managed to meet him and he was shooting at the time, but he said ‘I've got a day off, do you fancy doing something?’ It started off professionally, and then on each project we did we got more and more used to collaborating – it became very interesting.”

The shift in gear from filming bandmates in music videos to working with one of the world's foremost actors isn't lost on Maclean. “It's crazy that I went from basically my friends acting to Michael being the first professional actor that I'd ever shot!” Was he nervous shooting him for the first time? “Yeah! It was comedic. I almost fell over.

I'd been used to people not taking what I was trying to do seriously, mates basically too coy or shy or cool to do the ridiculous things, or to have the confidence to really ‘act’. And then all of a sudden he

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THE SKINNY

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switches it on, and he becomes somebody else. It really hit me the first time I saw that.”

The choice of a Western was partly informed

by Fassbender's allegiance to Maclean's work (the part was written for him after he agreed to be a part of Maclean's first film), and partly by the videos Maclean had been working on.

“The narratives for the videos for The Beta Band were almost like silent movies; they weren't really script-heavy. With the first film I did with Michael I took a bit of that ethos, which was to try to make a visual story, rather than trying to do something really wordy.” Part of the appeal of the Western to filmmakers is its sheer ‘openness’ – the landscapes can play just as big a part as any character, while the canonical tropes of the genre are there to be played with and subverted as well.

Trained as a visual artist, Maclean sees the appeal of “genre in general, because you can keep dialogue to a minimum. When you're making a noir, or a thriller, or Westerns, you don't have to have people talking for long periods of time.” Indeed, although Slow West's dialogue is authentic and engaging, it's the film's visual palette that proves its most arresting feature, with Maclean turning his New Zealand locations into an American landscape full of gangsters, charlatans, and honest people trying to earn a buck, or running away from dark European pasts.

It was important for him to have this European element central to the story – the idea of a Scottish character displaced to the American West was where it began. “I think you have to stick to the truth. I'm sure ET was about dealing with

June 2015

the loss of a parent or a friend. For me, Slow West felt like the love story of a Scottish boy who was in love with a girl who was out of his league. So, that felt like an element of truth! Or seeing America through a European's eyes, of a traveller, rather than making a film that's really about Native Americans or about the politics of America.”

“It's crazy that I went from basically my friends acting to Michael Fassbender being the first professional actor that I'd ever shot!”

John Maclean

When we draw comparisons with Paris, Texas, Wim Wenders’ similarly plaintive exploration of American landscapes and lost love, Maclean is eager to concur, describing it as a “a dream-like European vision of America,” one in tune with his own

formative experiences of travelling through the States with The Beta Band and, earlier, on a road trip with friends. “I was always fascinated by America. The real America, where you travel around and you meet people and they're friendly and accommodating, and the landscape's stunning. And then there's the other half of me that saw ‘cinema America’: when you're in small towns you think of David Lynch, when you're in New York you think of Scorcese, when you're in LA you think of Chinatown. It's so filmic – that appealed to me.”

Maclean enthuses about the films that informed Slow West, explaining his desire to “avoid the Spaghetti Westerns, because they've been done as well as they could have been done. When people try and do it now, I think that's when you start seeing clichés. So I was looking much more at early Westerns like John Ford, Shane, High Noon and Red River.” There's also hints of Altman's classic McCabe & Mrs Miller in Slow West's emotional subtly, and of the Coens’ black humour in the film's more violent passages.

Nevertheless, it was the fiction of the time that Maclean turned to to conjure a sense of the real dramatic landscape of early America. “Instead of reading ‘history of the West’ books and looking at mythical documents, I was really reading a lot of books written at the time of the West – the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and reading Mark Twain and Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ambrose Bierce, which gives you much more of a flavour of the time. Even some accounts of Scottish people who would go out to America.”

Maclean worked on the film's lilting folk sound-

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track alongside Australian composer Jed Kurzel (The Babadook, Snowtown). Their first aim, he says, was “to stay away from Morricone, because it's just untouchable, so I wanted to look at something else. I was going back to traditional music and thinking about European music mixed with American music – 3/4 waltzes, staying away from anything that couldn't have been done at the time, like electric guitars and keyboards. I wanted melody; I collect film soundtracks and there's so many droney soundtracks now that I really wanted something melodic again.”

Slow West presents the sweep of the American desert as a blank slate waiting to be written over and reinterpreted by anyone gutsy enough to take it on, an expanse that can either be read as melodically romantic as film's soundtrack or as existentially threatening. In Kodi Smit-McPhee's Jay Cavendish we are presented with a dreamer thrust into the harsh truths of life at the dawn of a nation, a battle between idealism and realism that informs the film throughout. As Maclean explains, he wanted “a certain different flavour of the West than the revisionist, mythical stuff.

That was important.”

As those early travellers discovered, the West can make or break you. Only at the start of his journey, Slow West shows promise enough to mark John Maclean out as a pioneer with a real future ahead of him.

Slow West is released 26 Jun by Lionsgate

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“I want to make music that lifts your arm hairs” The LuckyMe, Warp, and GOOD music linchpin has a prolific work rate, but Hudson Mohawke is only just getting round to releasing his own second album. He talks trap, spreading his wings and giving up childhood vices Interview: Tom Short

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uch has changed since Ross Birchard graced the cover of The Skinny back in 2009. Having signed to Warp with only a few 12-inches under his belt, he released a debut album, Butter, whose dayglo palette was well-received in some circles, but still seen by many as a niche concern. His ascent since then has been so rapid that it reads almost like an internet fairytale. Much has been made of HudMo's sudden encounter with Kanye, the extensive contributions to Yeezus and his signing to the production arm of the GOOD music imprint. Yet while the Louis Vuitton Don has plucked many a producer out of obscurity (Paul McCartney, anyone?), few can claim responsibility for a sound that has been so fundamental to the pop agenda in recent years. Birchard's supergroup with Canadian producer Lunice under the TNGHT moniker has been the blueprint for club ready, maximalist hip-hop ever since Higher Ground's demented horns burrowed their way into our ears back in 2012.

The endless string of collaborations which followed in this period may have prevented HudMo from working on a follow-up in his own right until recently, but the eventual release of Lantern, his second album, could not be more perfectly timed.

With a captive audience which ranges from serious musos to EDM bros, the producer now has a golden opportunity to showcase his own uncompromising ideas. It's an enviable position, he agrees over the phone before he jets off for another mini-tour of America: “I feel quite lucky to be in these circumstances. To be able to combine working with people like Antony [Hegarty] alongside R'n'B people and completely unknown people… it's that sort of blend of genres and aesthetics that I always wanted to bring together.”

Inevitably, the success that HudMo has achieved in the intervening years since Butter means that some will have fairly rigid expectations of how they'd like this album to sound. Not that he cares.

Daringly, the tracklist of Lantern doesn't feature any rappers at all, instead comprising a number of vocal cuts which hark back to Birchard's beginnings making R'n'B bootlegs: “This project last year was working with 40 rappers. Everyone expected me to make a rap album or something like that. But I've been wanting to make a song-based record.”

Equally bold is Birchard's determination to collaborate with friends, many of whom are relative unknowns. The advantages of this decision are evident in the brilliant, controlled performances he coaxes out of his guests, whose gameness ensures that they aren't drowned out by his production style: “People like Miguel, he's someone who I've been in touch with for years, since before he was an established artist. He's one of those few people who gets himself into that position but is still in touch with his roots as well.”

One thing Birchard has borrowed from Kanye's playbook is his collaborative method of production.

For the purists, this approach might seem like sacrilege. Birchard argues that it makes the process

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more spontaneous, more musical and more refined: “I feel like it gives more energy to the project to have a bunch of people working on it rather than to have one guy sitting in the studio at like five in the morning, alone. That's not vibey, its more methodical. This way opens you up to new approaches. And when you're working with a bunch of people, less is more.”

Thanks to Birchard's more mature style of songwriting, direct influences are harder than ever to spot on the album, though he cites Dilla and Madlib as two major touchstones: “I had the pleasure of meeting J Dee in Glasgow before he died, back in 2002. To have the chance to have a little conversation and shake hands was something. As far as Madlib… we're not like super tight or anything.

But these are the people who were my idols when I was growing up. I just love their approach to production, it was so nonchalant.”

“The UK underground electronic scene is kind of po-faced. That's not something I've ever been into” Ross Birchard

It's easy to draw comparisons between HudMo and his heroes on a track like Ryderz, where a manipulated D.J. Rogers sample is played for a full minute and then pitched in every possible direction with gleeful dexterity. But there's another common tendency among these producers to go far beyond what anyone might expect from someone who primarily deals in samples. Arguably the strangest track on the album isn't electronic at all: the minioverture of Kettles. Building from passages of whirling woodwind to fanfares of triumphant, densely orchestrated brass, it could pass as an excerpt from a Mahler symphony. It's a track Birchard is especially proud of, though he's a bit worried about how it's going to be received: “I'm still not sure whether people are gonna be like, ‘What the fuck is this?’” he laughs. “It was something that I definitely wanted to include. It was an experiment for me; rather than beat-making I was writing a piece of classical music.” He intends to perform it live with a full orchestra at some point, so expect to see him towering over the conductor's podium, Goldie style, in the near future.

For many who will listen to Lantern, it will be hard not to notice how far Birchard has departed from the sound that brought him an international audience. When compared to the swaggering hooks on the TNGHT record and the glut of watered down

‘trap’ music which came in its wake, the sophisticated arrangements on Lantern provide a more refined thrill. Is this a conscious effort on his part, given the dubstep style backlash which that sound has since received? Far from washing his hands of the TNGHT sound, Birchard is still bowled over by its game-changing success: “I thought it was really fun when that record came out because that whole EDM thing hadn't happened yet. You had DJs from all sorts of genres playing this record, from Richie Hawtin to Calvin Harris; it was a universal thing. It kind of reminded me of what I hear about the socalled ‘hip hop’ DJs of the 70s and 80s who weren't really about playing one specific genre; they'd also be playing disco or breakbeat. That project exposed me to a wider audience, a lot of people who listened to TNGHT weren't aware of my earlier music. I'm curious to see how they all react to this project.”

One of the unexpected consequences of HudMo's hit-making phase is that it has led people back to his earlier music: “Some of the stuff that I play when I DJ are old songs of mine, from four or five years ago, and people are like, ‘What's that?’

When the first album came out, people were a bit confused by it. It's almost like people talk about that record more now.” Though always careful to avoid a humblebrag, he cannot disguise his satisfaction with the fact that the world has finally

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caught up: “Its flattering to see the kind of nods here and there within a lot modern pop stuff to stuff that myself and Rustie and a lot of Numbers crew in Glasgow were doing five or six years ago.”

Perhaps, The Skinny suggests, one of the reasons people didn't know what to make of his music at first was because so much of it is overwhelmingly happy. Birchard is animated on this point: “I want to make music that lifts your arm hairs, rather than falling into line with some purist underground attitude. This is no disrespect to anyone, but the UK underground electronic scene is kind of po-faced. That's a kind of British attitude I guess. It's not something that I have ever been into. It's probably because I grew up listening to a lot of hardcore and stuff that's very high energy and euphoric.” As anyone who reads HudMo's Twitter account will know, the Glaswegian has a refreshingly juvenile sense of humour for a producer who works with Kanye West, the man who never smiles. After our early morning call about the serious business of his imminent return, his response to the question of what he would advise the HudMo of old brings some levity. “Probably eat less pizza.”

Playing Parklife Weekender, Manchester on 7 Jun. Lantern is released on 15 Jun via Warp hudsonmohawke.com

THE SKINNY

LA CHEETAH CLUB - JUNE 2015

Friday 5th June LA CHEETAH CLUB PRESENTS...

DJ TLR & NEVILLE WATSON (LIVE)

Friday 19th June DEVIATION PRESENTS...

BENJI B & KENNY DOPE

Saturday 6th June LET'S GO BACK BOSCO & ROB MASON (ALL NIGHT)

Saturday 20th June BATON DE DEBAUCHEE -

ENTRY - £5 BEFORE 12 / £7 ON THE DOOR

ENTRY - £5 ON THE DOOR

Friday 12th June FOR THE RECORDMIRRORS & RESIDENTS

Friday 26th June EZUP DJ HAUS (3 HOUR SET)

Saturday 13th June PISTOLS AT DAWN x MELTING POT RESIDENTS (ALL NIGHT)

Saturday 27th June NOCEUR RESIDENTS & SPECIAL GUEST

ENTRY - £10 EARLY BIRD / £12 AFTER

ENTRY - £10ADVANCE

SHAHAA TOPS, ADAM WELSH & JACK BUCHANAN, HAMBOOM

ENTRY - £6 EARLY BIRD FROM / £10 ON THE DOOR

ENTRY - FREE BEFORE 12 / £3 AFTER

ENTRY - £5 BEFORE 12 / £7 AFTER

73 QUEEN STREET, GLASGOW, G1 3BZ | T: 0141 221 1379 | www.lacheetahclub.co.uk | www.maxsbar.co.uk June 2015

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A Relationship in Pixels From Liverpool's next big thing to a band sprawled across three cities and two countries, Outfit sound closer than they ever have before Interview: Simon Jay Catling Photography: Andrew Ellis

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relationship through pixels is a strange thing, a stasis held via a connection that maintains the dull glow of a laptop screen switched on late at night. Skype curates a version of your partner, their facial expressions skipping and pausing in a patchwork of the familiarity you remember. Their voice is there but not there, disembodied and muffled, the crackle of the line cutting the nuances that used to make your heart flutter. Attempts at intimacy are broken down into kilobytes, spat out thousands of miles away.

Holly Herndon's Platform, recently released on 4AD, and her attitudes around the potential for emotional resonance with online communication and smart technology are important and refreshing antidotes to a narrative still borne out in music criticism of machines evoking a disconnect and coldness in their users’ music. Yet if she speaks positively of such technological kinship then it's timely that, on the other side of the world, Outfit are releasing a new record in Slowness that in part ruminates on the process that someone would have to go through to reach the same outlook.

Sat alongside his older brother Nick, the pair drinking red wine from cups in the shade of a veranda hidden within the labyrinth of their former abode, the 20-bedroom Croxteth Lodge in Liverpool, frontman Andrew Hunt considers the impact of his own long-distance relationship on his perceptions. Although now married and living permanently in New York with his wife, most of the previous three years has involved much transatlantic toing and froing, interspersed with long bouts of longing.

“The laptop was quite a sentimental place for me during that time,” he smiles. “It was almost like a weird shrine. Particularly at night there'd just be the glow coming from there and it'd feel like this portal to another place that felt very comfortable – and it did feel very real. We'd go to sleep with each other, she'd fall asleep and I'd be up doing something. I don't think those things are cold.”

Slowness makes good on the refinement hinted at when The Skinny caught Outfit trying out new material in the upstairs of Gullivers in Manchester last autumn. With their 2013 fulllength debut, Performance, offsetting sweetly delivered pop hooks against a moody hue of coolly detached vocals and carefully considered krautrock and house influences, the five-piece looked to be gearing up for a future assault on the dancefloor. Instead, though, they've veered the other way, stripping back and intentionally limiting their sound palette so as to allow certain elements to come to the fore. The tick-tock of David Berger's percussion on Happy Birthday laments the passing of time; the portentous oscillating swells of spine-tingling finale Swam Out comes punctuated by Skype sound effects – Hunt premiered the song individually to fans who called him up across the video call app; while Thomas Gorton's fizzing synth smear effect often provides the sole corrosive in tracks unafraid to push bright piano melodies and nakedly emotional vocal pirouettes. As progressive pop made within the orthodox structure of a guitar band on these shores, it sits easily unmatched so far this year.

“With the first record you don't hear the in-

June 2015

dividual sounds as such,” comments Nick. “There's great ones in there but because it was so layered you could mute half the tracks and it would still sound really good,” adding with a laugh: “we should've remixed that record with half of the sounds there.”

At Slowness's core lies disconnection, between Andrew and the UK, and between bandmates themselves (synth player Gorton now lives in London, for example). It's an album that easily pulls apart music journo clichés around an organicsounding album indicating a natural creation process; the group, restricted by how often they could all get together in Liverpool, recorded it in two pressurised blocks across the road from where we sit now in their self-made studio. “It was a bizarre decision to make this a live band record because we weren't actually together for a long period,” Andrew admits. “When we worked on the album we tended to be together, it wasn't all emails and file swapping. But the distance came into it more in terms of lyrics on the album and a general emotional feel of it, the sense we're all kind of displaced a bit and remembering who everyone is and who we are in relation to the people that we love.”

Central to that is the relationship between the younger Hunt and his wife. The album's title track deals with what he describes as the “language of images” that made up his relationship while they were apart. “Be it images of something that's happened or images you've composed in your head,” the singer adds. “To an extent it's always a fiction the way you put them together – and then when you're reunited you have to come to terms with the almost jarring reality of what it's actually like when you're in a room together.”

On Happy Birthday that feeling of awkwardness around someone you know so well's physical presence is recognised in the doubting vulnerability of the line “Is it the right time that I've chosen to be here, to see you, to want it?”

“We used words like ‘water’ or ‘air’ a lot and they're really suitable, because in any relationship you have to change,” comments Nick. “After three months of not seeing each other I guess you can't go back to that original state, although that's the case in any relationship too. You have to change, you have to move.” Elsewhere, Genderless stands out in contrast to the rest of the album's spacious, richly melodic textures. It instead judders through a claustrophobic series of propeller-like electronic rushes before finally breaking through. “It's really trying to get at a sense of isolation from your body,” Andrew says. “When I was apart from my wife over here I was essentially living a life of a single person, but without the sexual purpose. It's looking at yourself in terms of a relationship, or lack thereof – not having that mirror to hold up in front of you.”

Feelings around detachment manifest themselves in other ways than the group's personal relationships. Take The Smart Thing, written by Andrew as he pondered coming home to New York to vote; he describes watching the leaders debate as “an anchor to back home.” Talking in the raw aftermath of a general election that saw the establishment of a Tory government, there's a general sadness between the two brothers,

not just at a result that's seen the country shift further to the right, but also at the reaction of the left.

“We've seen so many Facebook statuses about how evil people are for not being considerate to other people, this sort of snake-eating-itself kind of attitude: ‘What a worthless shit you are for not understanding other people's opinion,’” Nick muses. “Not saying that everything's relative and there is no right decision, but I guess it's that sort of cheesy thing of being the change you want to see in the world. Chasing other people's minds is kind of an irrelevance in terms of the things that work on yourself.”

“It wasn't all emails and file swapping” Andrew Hunt

Outfit aren't political in the sense that some old hacks would like today's musicians to be, but then theirs is a position shared by many peers – that blunt rally-crying and closed-off judgement isn't particularly beneficial. “Writing about our internal experiences and spiritual dimension is a bit more universal than trying to write or communicate political ideas, certainly in the type of music that we make and the people we are on stage,” comments Nick. “We're a band of five white lads – would us hectoring people about socialism communicate to the same degree as talking about our personal experiences in a way that transcends some of those more tribal things?”

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Away from their personal lives, Outfit's perception of themselves as a band has altered too.

2013’s Performance came out off the back of a move to and subsequent return from London; the band commendably disregarded their own early hype to ensure that the debut LP was something of a slow burner. That they're previous tour mates with Manchester's Reich-influenced tunesmiths Dutch Uncles is telling; there are definite parallels to be drawn between two groups who've written great pop songs that sit a little too off-centre to ever become pop hits – a triumph of artistry if not commercialism.

“I think we'd recognised over the course of releasing the first album and touring it that we're not really ever going to be a very Radio 1-like ‘singles’-type band,” says Nick. “We're too odd to ever be a full pop band and so it felt like rather than landing between those things, it'd just be better to admit who we are and work more towards a different sort of thing.” Andrew admits an element of “pig-headedness” coming into the new record “like, ‘we've just made all these melodic pop songs and no one gives a fuck,’” but it's clear that maturing beyond a careerist bent has ultimately benefitted them in the making of Slowness. “Free from the burden of expectations,” he laughs. “I totally envy us. But, yeah, I'm excited already about writing a third record” – something you wouldn't bet against happening no matter how physically far apart the are: some relationships transcend physicality.

Slowness is released on 15 Jun via Memphis Industries facebook.com/outfitoutfitoutfit

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What Are We Taking Care Of? Daring Norwegian polymath Jenny Hval rejects being an artist and questions everything from religion and capitalism to femininity, gender roles and sexuality on her stirring new LP

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iven that Jenny Hval's 2013 album, Innocence Is Kinky, evolved from a silent-film concert through various forms, including a book and a sound installation, before crystallising into an LP, you wouldn't expect the process around her follow-up to revert to anything approaching orthodox – even if it has been done amidst a jump in label profile, from the experimental Rune Grammofon of her native Norway to Chicago-based Sacred Bones. Around the release of her previous album's frank exploration of gender identity and materialisation of sexuality, Hval told the website Frontier Psychiatrist, “I'm the type of artist who benefits from not having to sit down at a piano and think to myself, ‘So, I'm going to make an album. Now what?’”

So it proves, as her latest record, a paradoxically icy yet emotionally delivered big picture of an LP in Apocalypse, girl, came out of formative creative musings that initially weren't intended to be an album. “’Kinky had come out and I had some time over the summer so I just did a lot of improvisations, but I didn't really feel like starting from scratch,” she explains over Skype from her Oslo home. “I needed something to start me off and I was in this head space where I didn't want to be feeling like I was an artist. The artist space has been so standardised,” she furthers. “Anything you put out is always just mirrored back on you, so everything seems so planned and cynical in a way. The life of an artist is very much caught in a capitalist net, as well as being copied by the capitalist system and the system of social media. Things like selfie culture and identity, this constant selfconsciousness.”

Hval's efforts to avoid feeling like she was falling once again into that world involved taking inspiration from things like instrument demonstration clips and karaoke cover versions on YouTube, instances where she felt music was being created without artistic expression at its core. Additionally she recorded demos that took the form of

Interview: Simon Jay Catling

what she describes as “really horrible, pre-made background music; the sort of music you'd put on your wedding video.” It induced a feeling of liberation. “I've never been a karaoke person; I can't really do it,” she says. “But I guess I effectively created karaoke bars in my home, sang very embarrassing songs that I made up, and out of it came this energy. Energy that was very destructive but very liberating and very happy in a way.”

The former University of Melbourne creative writing student (she also studied literature at the University of Oslo) has a CV that suggests someone who struggles to reconcile being pushed into the channels and structures that dictate the conventional industry release of an album. Apocalypse, girl will be the third under own name; she also has two under the moniker Rockettothesky, has recorded with renowned producer John Parrish, toured with Swans and St Vincent, and has a slew of other EPs and collaborations under her belt.

Other works include a master's thesis on Kate Bush, a novel in 2009’s Pearl Brewery, as well as numerous essays and ruminations on everything from Patti Smith to Paris Hilton's 2004 sex tape, One Night in Paris. The sound installation that informed Innocence is Kinky came from the idea of the female face on-screen as presented in Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc. Hval confesses she felt a greater kinship with visual artists during the making of Apocalypse, girl (“At a certain point I realised ‘you're all embracing the mainstream music scene more than I am’”) and describes the record as a series of scenes rather than songs. Towards the very end of our chat, she admits: “I don't have that much faith in the interview as an art form. Reading out a lyric loud explains more than any explanation of it would.” There's the suspicion that it in-part acts as a gentle shutting down of a conversation that's wound up too close to promotional campaign protocol around a release that's just one of many

different mediums and ways in which Hval constantly seeks to express and further herself. She's most likely correct.

However, it's hard not to ask more about an album that, in exploring gender roles, media propaganda surrounding ideas of femininity, why people choose religion and, at the root of it all, desire, delivers a critique on many of the West's socio-political wounds with a sharp intelligence that doesn't hinder its emotional heft. On an album influenced by conversations with Norwegian noise veteran Lasse Marhaug – which led to both the decision to focus on an album and to hire him as producer – and featuring contributions by Swans’ percussionist Thor Harris, Welsh improviser Rhodri Davies and Jaga Jazzist pianist Øystein Moen, among others, it's Hval who soars highest.

“The life of an artist is very much caught in a capitalist net” Jenny Hval

In content and delivery, her vocal performance is at once poised and perturbed, swinging between hushed spoken word to soaring operatics that feel like they're straining to reach the heavens she frequently seems to be trying to make sense of. This is notable, of course, on the track Heaven, a perfect mirage of minimalist electronic pulses and graceful string arrangments that break through a woozy twilight hue – “I'm 33 now, that's Jesus’ age,” she whispers at one point. Then there's perhaps the album's thematic centrepiece, That Battle

is Over, which over a shuffling beat that bears distant allusions to a hip-hop break, pools textures of rich drones together and pulls in all of her questions under an overriding sense of growing older and a search for more.

Hval grew up in the Bible belt of Norway and found herself disconnected at high school, sharing classrooms with students whose parents were often high up in church circles. “On the one hand we were all friends, on the other hand we were violently opposing each other's worldviews and I'd always just wanted to escape it,” she ponders. “But then it came back [for this album] and I thought maybe I'm revisiting it because I realised I was also kind of envious of the way that my fellow high school students could explore things like religious ecstasy and devotion. This kind of energy that I just could not connect with and maybe felt like was a taboo or something in my life.”

America, a place of increasing interest to Hval thanks to her new label and recent touring, is referenced both at Apocalypse, girl's beginning and end and she admits it was perhaps the catalyst for re-examining a previously uncomfortable period of her life. “I was constantly confronted with the idea that I would burn in hell, and that's very violent even though you just think it's crap and it makes you laugh. The song That Battle is Over is speaking about trying to deal with ideas that are thrown out at you all the time, that you don't agree with but they become part of you anyway.

Or you realise that in some crazy way they resonate in some way with you to the point where you have to deal with them.”

Personal confrontation is a constant theme, the line ‘Feminism's over. Socialism's over’ perhaps the most powerful of many that intentionally put their creator in the shoes of those whose ideas she opposes, in an attempt to empathise with rather than simply dismiss them. “I need to challenge my own prejudices, and maybe I also have ideas that are misogynistic or anti-socialist in me that I have to also face. We have different reasons to be on the outside or to lean towards the left, and there are different motivations, and to understand how they are different and where we come from is something that's deeply interesting.” That's something the UK could certainly do with taking on board in the current circumstances, although the politics and messages of fear that the right-wing press utilised so successfully in the recent general election aren't tools used only in our country. “Living in Norway is weird because on the one hand we are very liberal, but on the other hand we have tabloid media and they're all over our daily lives,” Hval says. “They keep pushing out these horrible news stories about research and statistics. It places so much guilt and shame on the individual, it's like all this health advice that's written about: you'll get this type of cancer if you eat this. It's weakening us and making us fear ourselves.”

Hval's brilliance comes in the concise and extremely, well, human way in which she structures her thoughts, her music both a jarring mirror held up to the world but also at its root providing a very simple, affecting ode to love and its necessity in ongoing battles for parity against societal ills. And she's right as she finishes by simply pointing out that Apocalyse, girl is “a journey that speaks for itself.” It just so happens to be a particularly breathtaking one.

Apocalypse, girl is released on 8 Jun via Sacred Bones jennyhval.com

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June 2015

Illustration: Verbal Picks

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fat-free underground boxing pic Undisputed from 2002, via drum-tight thriller Trespass, noir fairytale Johnny Handsome and two more excellent Westerns from the mid-90s, Geronimo and Wild Bill, there are gems to be discovered. Heck, even a chance to see his pilot episode for HBO series Deadwood, his other take on the Wild Bill Hickok legend, on the big screen would have been welcome.

“If you think you're going to be an action director and also be a critical darling, you're crazy” Walter Hill

Action Movie Poet Today's cinema owes a great debt to the stylish action pictures of Walter Hill. He talks about the trials of being a genre director and his influence on filmmakers like Nicolas Winding Refn ahead of an Edinburgh International Film Festival retrospective

W

alter Hill is speaking to The Skinny from a cupboard in his LA home. “My wife's given me this little broom closet to do my work in. Only a director when you leave the house, you know.”

If you think it strange that America's greatest living action filmmaker writes his pictures from a spartan office, then you've clearly never seen his films. They are pure cinema, unadulterated and pared down to the bone. Not only can you fit their plots on the back of a fag packet, you'll get most of his taciturn protagonist's dialogue on there as well. Hill doesn't waste time on concerns like backstory or exposition: he favours forward momentum. Running time rarely crosses the 100 minute mark.

In interview, Hill is as straightforward and as unpretentious as his movies. When we ask if he was aware at the time of being part of a golden age of American cinema in the 1970s, he says “Oh, Christ no. We were just a bunch of people out there trying to make a living.” And when we suggest his movies were overlooked by critics on their release he fires back, “Look, I'm not complaining: if you think you're going to be an action director and also be a critical darling, you're crazy.” At one point he catches himself referencing an old interview of his: “Not to quote myself,” he chuckles.

“I realise that's an ego beyond ego.”

We're speaking to him ahead of a mini-retrospective of his work at Edinburgh International Film Festival, which will take in his first seven films, from 1975 Charles Bronson-starring bare-knuckle boxing

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saga Hard Times through to 1984’s gloriously pulpy rock'n'roll odyssey Streets of Fire. In between these pictures there are four masterpieces: the effortlessly cool existential getaway driver thriller The Driver; The Warriors, a neon-lit New York street gang movie by way of Homer; western The Long Riders, the finest telling of the Jessie James story; and thinly-veiled Vietnam allegory Southern Comfort, in which a band of National Guardsman get their asses handed to them by some back-water bayou trappers. There's also 48 Hrs, from 1982, the movie that launched Eddie Murphy's acting career and invented the 80s love-hate buddy movie. Thank it for Lethal Weapon and condemn it for Turner & Hooch – or vice versa.

How does Hill feel about EIFF's upcoming tribute? “It kind of depends on the time of day that you ask,” he says. “One response is, ‘Christ, I'm not dead yet!’” He should be getting used to these types of accolades. Time has been kind to the sinewy, existential pictures he created three decades ago. They feel as fresh as ever and they're steadily being reissued and reexamined. “I will say this,” says Hill, joking aside, “it's not the worst feeling in the world to see that someone wants to take a look at something you did 35 to 40 years ago. It might still bring some pleasure to an audience, and that's a nice feeling.”

There was little fanfare for the films on their original release, however. While the movie brats (Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg et al.) were soaking up the plaudits throughout the 70s, Hill and fellow

Interview: Jamie Dunn

genre specialists like John Carpenter toiled in relative critical obscurity, in America at least. They were seen as New Hollywood footnotes at best.

“We make genre movies,” he says of himself and Carpenter. “I'm an action director, John was always doing horror, and these are back porch stuff. Movies are judged a great deal by their subject matter.

I'm not speaking out of regret or anything – I love the kind of films I make – but the kind of high and low art assumptions, as they are in literature and various other creative forms are very extant in Hollywood, then and now. It took Elmore Leonard I don't know how many years before it was understood that he was a very fine artist. But he didn't win the Pulitzer Prize or anything.”

Genre labels are merely matters of the moment. In the same way that the French critics of the 1950s turned the world on to the artistry of Hitchcock's thrillers and Ford's Westerns, so too today's critics (most vociferous among them those who subscribe to notions of “vulgar auteurism”) have turned the tide on Hill and Carpenter's artistic legacies. The festival retrospectives and lifetime achievement awards have begun to roll in.

Despite this retroactive praise for Hill's extraordinary early run of films, his less consistent output from the mid-80s onwards has yet to be fully appreciated. If there's one disappointing note about Edinburgh's Hill retrospective it is that it didn't take the opportunity to go digging in this more erratic latter phase of his career. From Reagan-era shoot-’em-up Extreme Prejudice to his

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Hill, in a rare moment of blowing his own trumpet, is in agreement. “Those early movies caught the wave with the time they were made and with critics more so than other periods of my life, but if you ask me, ‘Do I think they were the best?’ I would say no,” he explains. “I thought I became a better story teller in the late 80s and 90s.” Like his films, Hill is incapable of being didactic, however. “That doesn't mean I'm right. There are many texts in the end. A film may mean one thing to his maker and may mean a nuanced but different thing to its audience. That's the way of it.”

Does he have a favourite of his own films?

“Well, I never say. They're all your children. And it wouldn't be very fair of me to say that one of my children is my favourite.”

We put it another way: is there one of his “children” that he thinks was particularly underappreciated by audiences and critics? “All of them,” he laughs. “I think it was Truffaut who said that even when the films are appreciated, they never appreciate the right things and they never appreciate it enough.”

What makes Hill's work so appealing in today's action movie climate is their stylish economy. The convoluted Marvel universe or the bloated Fast & Furious pictures overstuff their plots but undercook their characters. Hill's films are their inverse.

“I was once quoted as saying all my movies were Westerns, but they never really mention the other part of the quote,” he explains. “I think of them as Westerns because the narratives tend to be simple but the dilemmas tend to be rather complicated and the character reactions to the dilemmas tend to be at one level rather stoical, but at the same time there's a difficult moral choice.”

Hill's influence is all over modern cinema.

You'll find his DNA in Michael Mann's urban crime dramas, which trade in the same neon-lit streets and fluid action, and whose heroes carry around the same existential anguish. Nicolas Winding Refn's arthouse smash Drive, meanwhile, pays slavish homage to The Driver. Both concern taciturn getaway drivers, both are set in near mythic versions of LA, and both star blonde pretty-boys named Ryan (Gosling and O'Neil) whose characters have no back story and are simply named Driver. Hill has no beef with his imitators, though. In fact, he and Refn are fast friends. “I know Nic. He's been over here to the house. Bill Friedkin [The Exorcist] introduced us and we both immediately said, ‘Well, we both know that we've stolen from Jean-Pierre Melville.’ And Jean-Pierre Melville stole it from This Gun for Hire. Everybody's connected. There's a great connected collective out there and we all do variations on one another.”

You can join these dots yourself during Edinburgh International Film Festival's Walter Hill: The Early Years retrospective.

Edinburgh International Film Festival runs 17-28 Jun

THE SKINNY

Balancing Act

Recommended We suggest ten films to seek out at this Edinburgh International Film Festival

EIFF has a new artistic director in Mark Adams. We pick his brains on what to expect from the festival under his tenure

Words: Jamie Dunn 45 Year Andrew Haigh's last film, Weekend, was a deeply felt story of a fledgling gay romance. In this one, a hit at the Berlinale, he's examining of a hetrosexual relationship where the passions have cooled.

19 & 21 Jun

Interview: Jamie Dunn

A

nother year, another Edinburgh Film Festival, and another artistic director steps into the breach. Enter Mark Adams, who takes the AD baton from Chris Fujiwara, who stepped down from the post after three years, during which EIFF bolstered some of its critical reputation but failed to fully replicate the kind of significant impact the venerable festival once had on UK film culture.

Like his predecessor, Mark Adams is a film journalist – he was chief critic for Screen International before he took up the artistic director role three months ago. Although Adams wouldn't be drawn on discussing his predecessor, there is a sense that his approach will be markably different.

Fujiwara brought a very specific, cinephile flavour to his time at the festival, which sometimes rubbed audiences up the wrong way. Take, for example, the three films he chose to open the festival with during his tenure: Killer Joe, Breathe In and Hyena. None could be described as crowdpleasers. Adams' tastes seem more catholic and his approach to programming more diplomatic.

“I'm not some splendid, dictatorial artistic director coming from on high and saying, ‘You must do this!’” he tells us. “What I'm doing is working with a team, who are amazing, to present something that we feel is really balanced and fun.

It's a mixture of accessible films, provocative films, challenging films, films that no one's ever seen before.”

When we speak to Adams by phone, he's just returned from Cannes, and the EIFF programme is still a week away from being announced. He stresses the chief challenge of curating the festival is that “you have to be all things to all people.”

“You have to show films that people want to come and see. And equally, you have to show brand new films so the media will come up and write about it. And when they write about it, the industry will see that it's worth them working with the festival because their films are getting good profile. And when they get good profile, you get good films, you get the audiences, and then you get the media. So you go round in a cycle.”

One particular stick the Scottish media like to beat EIFF with is its Scottishness. Or, more accurately, the press often ask the question, ‘Why aren't there more major Scottish films in the programme?’ Early announcements should have put paid to that particular criticism. The festival will be bookended by two world premieres by local talent.

It'll open on 17 June with the directorial debut from Robert Carlyle (The Legend of Barney Thomson), and close 11 days later with the sophomore feature from Shell director Scott Graham (Iona). Was this a tactical move?

“It wasn't particularly,” says Adams. “The driving force is always about whether the films were good enough. I think we were just very lucky that Barney Thomson just came along. I know that other festivals have been looking at it, and I know that Robert has been trying to finish it, so we happened to be at the right time when it's available. It's happenstance rather than grand design.”

Throughout our chat, Adams is keen to remind us of the serendipitous nature of festival programming; he mentions it three times. “In many ways you are only as good as what films are out there and what's available to you,” he explains. “You might wish you had a certain type of film coming

June 2015

Amy Fresh from Cannes, Asif Kapadia follows up his extraordinary Senna with another sensitive doc about a fierce talent (Amy Winehouse) who died tragically young. 18 & 20 Jun

Cop Car Jon Watt's thriller is reportedly B-movie gold, but we're most looking forward to seeing Kevin Bacon in something that's not advertising a mobile phone provider. 19 & 24 Jun

Iona EIFF's closer will hopefully be as powerful and poignant as its writer-director (Scott Graham)’s first film, Shell. 28 Jun

Maggie Arnold Schwarzenegger in a zombie movie. Need we say more? 20 & 23 Jun

Meet Me in Montenegro

Maggie

out at the right time that suits our scheduling, but you can't always rely on that.” He insists the secret to consistent success is to “have really good relationships with the UK distributors, with the international sales agents, with the national film bodies [BFI, Creative Scotland, etc], and with the city.

You have to have all these things in place for this big, complicated machine to work.”

“EIFF have to be all things to all people” Mark Adams

Adams also emphasises the importance of keeping the festival, well, festive. “What we try and do beyond [the Gala films] is punctuate the period with a series of great events, special screenings, or with parties and music events.” He gives the example of the newly introduced Doc of the Day series, which will see a spotlight turned on a different non-fiction film each day of the festival.

“We have to offer little bits of excitement every day, because at a festival you don't just stop; it has to continue being exciting to people; it has to keep on breathing.”

So what of this year's festival? Will the old gal be wheezing and out of puff by her third day?

A week after speaking to Adams the line-up is revealed, and our first thought on seeing the programme is that there has been a concerted effort to make the festival more approachable. A redesign has made its brochure, with its intimidating 150 plus films and events, much easier to

navigate. “It's a very visual medium and you have to use the images to your full advantage,” said Adams when we spoke to him.

Adams also seems to have brought some of the balance he spoke of above. There's a finely judged mix of films from some of cinema's most exciting young filmmakers (Andrew Haigh with 45 Years, Asif Kapadia brings Cannes hit Amy), and these sit shoulder-to-shoulder with titles with attention-grabbing stars attached (who wouldn't want to see Arnie in brooding zombie movie Maggie?). There's also evidence of EIFF's continued commitment to supporting indie filmmakers, with festival favourites like Kyle Patrick Alvarez and Alex Holdridge back with new films (respectively The Stanford Prison Experiment and Meet Me in Montenegro).

The In Person strand, traditionally the highlight of past EIFFs, has also been given a shot in the arm with the inclusion of Ewan McGregor. No offence to recent guests like Noel Clarke and Don Johnson, but the Trainspotting star is the first bona fide A-lister the festival has attracted for one of its on-stage talks in quite some time. His presence in the city alone will add a buzz that's been sorely missed over the last few years. Will the programme prove as chewy and rich as it has been over Fujiwara's more low-key tenure? Only time will tell. But from first impressions the festival looks to be breathing steadily – no emergency CPR required. Let the festivities commence.

Edinburgh International Film Festival runs 17-28 Jun Follow The Skinny's coverage of the festival at theskinny.co.uk/film

FILM

Alex Holdridge last movie was the glorious In Search of a Midnight Kiss, from almost a decade ago. What's he been up to since? Making this film, about a filmmaker who last made a movie around a decade ago.

26 & 27 Jun

Sleeping with Other People Director Leslye Headland describes her new film as “When Harry Met Sally for A-holes.” As one of the A-holes who adored her much maligned acid-in-your face debut, Bachelorette, I'll be first in the queue.

18 & 27 Jun

The Stanford Prison Experiment Easier with Practice director Kyle Patrick Alveres brings another based-on-reality tale to EIFF, this time a gripping dramatisation of the notorious 1971 behaviour test of the title. 18 & 21 Jun

Welcome to Me A woman with a personality disorder goes off her meds, wins the lottery, and uses the cash to broadcast her own Oprah-style talk show. There are two movies at this year's festival featuring Kristen Wiig (aka the funniest woman on the planet), the other being The Diary of a Teenage Girl, but this one's outlandish premise tickles us more. 21 & 23 Jun

The Wolfpack This great-looking doc follows six teenage brothers who've never stepped foot outside their parent's Manhattan flat, where they spend their days watching DVDs and remaking their favourite movies, casting themselves as the stars. 26 & 27 Jun Edinburgh International Film Festival runs 17-28 Jun edfilmfest.org.uk

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Bringing Up Bogdanovich Once the 70s wunderkind of American filmmaking, now one of its elder statesman, we chat to Peter Bogdanovich, whose new film, She's Funny That Way, an effervescent screwball throwback, heads to Edinburgh International Film Festival

Interview: Jamie Dunn

P

eter Bogdanovich's cinema is one of elegy; he's always looking back. “I guess a certain number of my pictures have an elegiac quality,” the 75-year-old veteran of American cinema tells us by phone from his Bel Air home. “Making period pictures is interesting because you're recreating something that existed, but you're also trying to find a contemporary interest in that past. When you do a film set in the past you illuminate the present in some way, by the changes in behaviour patterns and so on.”

He has transported us into the past in period pieces like The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon and Daisy Miller, but even in his films with contemporary settings there's a sense that he has one foot in cinema history. Take, for example, his debut feature Targets – one of the finest productions made under the tutelage of legendary B-movie cheapskate Roger Corman – which juxtaposes a gun-nut's killing spree with the story of an ageing horror star (played by ageing horror star Boris Karloff) who realises his scary movies are an anachronism in modern, violent America. In the film, the horror star's agent (played by Bogdanovich) actually says the line: “All the good movies have been made.”

Speaking to Bogdanovich ahead of the release of his new picture, She's Funny That Way, there's no doubt that he agrees with his character's sentiment. “I don't have much interest in the contemporary cinemas,” he admits. Comic book movies?

“They bore the shit out of me,” he says. “Once the special effects department have proved they can CGI anything, I lose interest. It's fake.” Modern comedies? “There's nothing to them once you eliminate the things that most comedies today rely on: body fluid humour, or shock value, you know, somebody getting their cock caught in a zipper. Those kind of jokes don't amuse me.” He reckons that this is what happens when you get older: you reject the new generation's pop culture. “Whatever kind of films your childhood is full of you tend to gravitate back to those.”

This may explain his penchant for returning to the cinematic modes of the past. And one genre he's often drawn back to is the screwball comedy (most famously with 1972’s What's Up, Doc?), those quick-talking romantic farces from the 30s and 40s, which usually revolve around a live-wire woman running rings around a straight-laced dope, and it's the period he's channelling in his latest. She's Funny That Way centres on Issy (Imogen Poots), a New York call girl, whose night with her client Arnold, a wealthy theatre director (Owen Wilson), ends with a happier ending than usual when he offers her £30,000 to give up turning tricks and follow her dream of becoming an actress.

It's hard to imagine this Pretty Woman premise playing well without the screwball spin.

Bogdanovich creates a movie world so far from our own reality that we forgive the seedy scenario.

That the story is told to us in retrospect by a slightly older and wiser Issy, who's now a successful actress being interviewed for a magazine feature, adds to this distancing effect. “The framing device, the wraparound we call it, it helps to personalise it a bit,” says Bogdanovich. “On the face of it it's a kind of troubling story, and I think by having her tell the story it sort of makes it more human, and warmed it up a bit.”

In true screwball-style, the plot is a labyrinth of convolutions and coincidences. At one point, Issy's belligerent shrink (Jennifer Aniston) points out they live in a “city of eight million people and everybody knows everybody.” The day after Issy

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gives up prostitution she goes for an audition.

Guess who's directing the play? Arnold, of course.

Bogdanovich piles on the comic complications, including Issy's ex-client who's nuts for her, a private eye who looks like he's straight from a Pink Panther movie, and Rhys Ifans as an unlikely matinee idol who's also acting in Arnold's play and wants to rekindle an old love affair with Arnold's wife. While watching the film we stopped taking notes and started drawing Venn diagrams. The result looked like a maniacal spirograph sketch.

As all screwball comedies should be, She's Funny That Way is bright and breezy; it feels light as a feather. Getting it made, however, proved a Sisyphean task. The original draft was written sometime in the late 90s: “Louise Stratton and I wrote it for John Ritter [who'd acted for Bogdanovich in Noises Off and They All Laughed] to play the theatre director. Louise would play the escort and Cybill Shepherd would play his wife.” They were all set to make it in 2003 when Ritter died suddenly. “It was a real shock and a tragedy, he was a dear friend of mine and a wonderful actor. We put it on the back burner for a couple of years because we couldn't find an actor who could play it.”

The film was eventually recast, but finding a successor to Ritter wasn't easy. Given how sleazy the character is on paper, the replacement had to have very particular qualities to make him palatable. “It needed someone who was attractive and charming, but not threatening,” explains Bogdanovich. “And when I met Owen Wilson, I just thought he'd be terrific. We did a rewrite for Owen; we took out some of the physical humour that John Ritter was particularly good at.” Wilson's comic

skills, Bogdanovich suggests, are more verbal. “He thinks like a writer. He would often ad-lib a number of things in the script, and we would almost always keep them.”

“Somebody getting their cock caught in a zipper – those kind of jokes don’t amuse me” Peter Bogdanovich

The initial idea for the film goes back much further: to the late 70s, and the set of Bogdanovich's Singapore-based character study Saint Jack. The 1979 movie tells the story of a Stateside dropout (Ben Gazzara) who wheels and deals with the Singapore underworld to open a brothel. “Dealing with that world I got to know some of the local escorts and we used them in the picture,” recalls Bogdanovich. “A couple of them told us they wanted to stop being escorts, so we gave them money so they could give it up and go home.” That's when Bogdanovich had his brainwave. “I thought: wouldn't it be funny to give somebody money to stop being an escort, and if the guy was married and got into trouble for it.”

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As much as Bogdanovich is skeptical of modern filmmaking, it's the clout of two up-tothe-minute filmmakers, Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, who helped get the film made when they came on as executive producers. The Last Picture Show director is clearly very fond of both of them.

“They're fans of mine and I'm fans of theirs,” he says “They call me Pop and I call them my sons.”

Bogdanovich has another influential fan in fellow cineaste director Quentin Tarantino, who has an outrageous cameo in She's Funny That Way. Maybe Bogdanovich getting a leg up from the filmmakers who grew up worshiping his movies is some sort of cinema Karma. After all, Bogdanovich famously put up his own movie hero, Orson Welles, in his LA home for years when the legendary filmmaker was down on his luck. And he is still trying to do right by the Citizen Kane director, three decades after his death. Bogdanovich's next feature to be released in cinemas won't be one of his own productions, but The Other Side of the Wind, the unfinished and thought lost movie Welles had been toiling on for most of the 70s, which Bogdanovich has been tirelessly trying to restore and complete.

“I expect we'll finish the film for Orson sometime before the end of the year,” he tells us. A true cinephile and a real survivor from Hollywood's last golden age, we hope the good Karma continues to shine down on him.

She's Funny That Way screens at Edinburgh International Film Festival 19-20 Jun and is released in selected cities across the UK by Lionsgate Bogdanovich's Paper Moon is out now on Blu-ray from Masters of Cinema Help Bogdanovich finish Welles's The Other Side of the Wind: indiegogo.com/projects/finish-orson-welles-last-film

THE SKINNY

Cantering into the Literary Limelight After being edited for a period from Hugh MacDiarmid’s cottage, boasting Seamus Heaney as a lifetime subscriber, and publishing high calibre contributors including George Mackay Brown, The Dark Horse is a thoroughbred. It’s now 20, and its time to party – we speak to editor Gerry Cambridge Interview: Michael Pedersen Illustration: Jayde Perkin

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he Dark Horse magazine is 20 years old. Hurrah.

Two decades it's been spearing out unwaveringly high-brow, hard-edged, top quality work into them international literary circuits and it's time to throw a party. I mean, of course, a carefully curated series of events of superlative cultural merit, featuring readers of an appropriate tonal timbre and temperament; but yeah, fuck it, let's just call it a splash of parties throughout June.

One in Edinburgh, one in London, one in New York.

Started in “a moment of madness” by editor Gerry Cambridge and named (coincidentally, Gerry claims) after a former pub in Kilmarnock, The Dark Horse holds its own with any of the UK's long lasting top-tier literary slabs – having published works by the likes of Seamus Heaney, Kay Ryan, Edwin Morgan, Wendy Cope, Alasdair Gray and Richard Wilbur. Other tomes that'd likely fall into that category would be PN Review, Times Literary Supplement, The Poetry Review, The Rialto, London Review of Books, Edinburgh Review and a few others.

It's safe to say that to many writers of a younger ilk, most of them there magazines feel impenetrable and, dare I say it, out of grasp to all but the poetry elite. Whether that's heresy/poppycock is not for us (rather me) to decide right now; what I would mutter is that The Dark Horse, whilst retaining the faith and fortunes of the upper echelons, also draws on a noteworthy pool of fresh-faced talent over the past few issues: Richie McCaffery, Niall Campbell, Claire Askew and Helen Mort to name but a few. “We believe in poetry as possibly the highest literary art,” Cambridge comments, “and take it with all the seriousness, if not solemnity, that such an idea merits.”

The Anniversary Issue is a prime example of the rich and varied buffet of treats these pages proffer; it includes a hilarious work by Jim Carruth (Glasgow's newly appointed Poet Laureate) focusing on a farmer caught in bed with a young pig/ sow (post-coitus). Pages away from this is Anne Stevenson's piece on the Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy, hacked to death by Islamist fanatics. I will admit that I also have a piece in the magazine, but testament to this fact, the main protagonist is a Durham student prone to masturbating in public, in the bushes outside the nearby all girls college. On the flipside is a 7,000 word groundbreaking essay by Dr Miriam Gamble (Oxbridge graduate/currently one of the Deputy Directors of Edinburgh University's Creative Writing Course) on the New Zealand poet and novelist Janet Frame.

The Dark Horse has laid its head down in a curious spread of stables; most beasts of its calibre are commonly hosted from shopfronts in Bloomsbury Square or studios within riverside arts centres. Gerry comments that “The magazine was founded on the kitchen table-top of a 28 foot long caravan in Ayrshire, where I lived for 20 years, out in the Ayrshire countryside: the lowest temperature I recorded was minus 19.8 ° C (which I wrote about in a poem of mine, ‘Frost’, in Madame Fi Fi's Farewell). For ten of those years I had no running water. I also edited The Horse out of Hugh MacDiarmid's cottage for two years when I was Poet-in-Residence there from 1997 to 1999; it's

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a registered museum. So I guess a caravan and a museum class as a bit unusual. I was a ‘lonely literary amateur’ in Dana Gioia's memorable phrase.”

Now located in the depths of Lanarkshire, the magazine's subscriptions are going “up and up, and have been, actually, since the recession – and since Facebook, which has made a big difference.”

This in a time when many other paragon publications are shifting to online only. The Dark Horse too has a transatlantic output – with a US Editor and stateside office. Cambridge notes this came as a result of the “American contacts which I established when I worked with another little magazine, Spectrum. But I've always been interested in American poetry. The American poet-critic Dana Gioia was a major supporter of the journal in its early days.”

“We believe in poetry as possibly the highest literary art and take it with all the seriousness that such an idea merits.”

Gerry Cambridge

They've been plenty of gems landed into the submission pile of The Dark Horse, examples of which are an unsolicited prose piece from Heaney on MacDiarmid; also “New poems by the likes of Kay Ryan, Eddie Morgan, George Mackay Brown.

An especial pleasure was getting Philip Hobsbaum (who had known everyone, including Hughes and Plath at Cambridge) to write little memoir type pieces about those early encounters: Ted Hughes at Cambridge; Patrick Kavanagh in Dublin; Peter Redgrove, etc. He was also a dear and much lamented personal friend.” (He died in 2005).

Not all interactions with the literary community have been so friendly or fruitful. “Of course, literary magazines always annoy people, especially folk who believe they should be published in them.

There was the case of a New York professor who returned a defaced copy of an issue to me, all the way from New York, after I rejected his work and was silly enough to give reasons — silence is always better — with all the poems in the issue that showed, he thought, the faults I'd pointed out in his rejected submission marked up. And another submitter who sent a single blank page after a rejection with the statement, unsigned, on it as follows: ‘YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, DON'T YOU.’ This seemed potentially quite disturbing.

However, I often keep cover letters from submitting poets, and was able to match the handwriting on the envelope to a cover letter. So I knew who had sent it. Knowledge is power!”

The Skinny: It's safe to say you're a bit of an aficionado when it comes to design and typography — how important is the aesthetic to you in publishing? There must be a few tricks of the trade you can share with us?

Gerry Cambridge: “I've learned ‘on the hoof ’ about this aspect of publishing over the last 20 years. Good typography and design can help credibility, though I also quite like the thought of something quite scrappy and shabby which, qualitywise in terms of content, is superb! I'm a self-confessed type-nerd, yes, and I have a visual background from my late teens and early twenties as a natural history photographer, so I combine all that. I often try out new typefaces in an issue of the magazine, and I regard each cover now as, in a small way, a new creative project and try and make each issue look as different from each other as possible, with one point of constancy, which is the magazine's logo.”

The Skinny: You've collected a flock of winning plaudits over your years in circulation, including letters and support from Seamus Heaney; can you tell us a bit more about that?

GC: “Seamus Heaney was an early supporter of The Horse, being born just a few miles up the road from my mother. Twice he donated to the magazine, so was a lifetime subscriber, the second

BOOKS

time with a cheque for 500 euros — after the magazine had ran a feature which heavily criticized a version of a poem he'd translated of Sorley MacLean's! He was a magnanimous and generous spirit.”

The Skinny: two decades on and not a single event to be seen nor heard of – why start now?

GC: “I guess because very few so-called ‘little’ magazines last longer than ten years. So I think that's worth a bit of celebrating.”

To the shows: They are simply riddled with literary top dogs and savants, the likes of (2014 Forward Prize Winner) Kei Miller, (one of the UK's biggest selling contemporary poets) Wendy Cope, (OBE & Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry Winner) Douglas Dunn and a close cadre of revered others.

An impending performance worth highlighting is a poetry set from long-time Dark Horse supporter and author of seminal novel Lanark, Alasdair Gray. Something to behold, I'm sure you'll agree.

Tickets are currently on sale for The Dark Horse birthday parties in Voodoo Rooms (Edinburgh, 4 Jun, featur. Alasdair Gray, Douglas Dunn, Vicki Feaver, Claire Askew, Findlay Napier); Vout-O-Reenee's (London, 12 Jun); and Poets House (New York, 20 Jun) thedarkhorsemagazine.com

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and Italy, he will position himself complicatedly, as he problematises the Venice Biennale's relationship with its site, but without a fixed site during this time. “I would argue possibly that I aim to have more of a responsibility to the places I actually visit than a lot of the Biennale sites which are there for six months of the year.” Instead, between his eight hour shifts of walking every day, his goal “is to arrive at the place and to meet someone and live in their life and to live as they do in that moment and understand what they do, be limited by their rules and by their places.”

It is also in this final form that the form of the pilgrimage became relevant. Named directly after St Anthony, the patron saint of the lost, whose feast day falls on 13 June, Schrag thinks of the trip as “Just going and getting lost.” And as is conventional for the pilgrim, Schrag will take tokens that people give him to Venice, like relics. In particular, Schrag might take with him the acorns of Joseph Beuys's oak trees in Kassel, first presented as part of Documenta, leaving one in Venice, “making a triangle between two of the biggest art situations in the world and Huntly, Aberdeenshire.”

“I'm challenging the Venice Biennale but it doesn't know I'm there”

Credit: Stuart Armitt

Anthony Schrag

Cheaper than Flying Scotland-based participatory artist Anthony Schrag will spend the next three months walking to Venice, in the process questioning the value of the Venice Biennale Interview: Adam Benmakhlouf

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ith too much pomp and infinite prosecco, the Venice Biennale unleashed its 2015 incarnation at the beginning of last month. Though Scotland's presentation by Graham Fagen has already been covered with a five-star review online, Scottish art will also be making its way to Venice over the summer in the form of Anthony Schrag.

On foot, he'll be making the artist's pilgrimage to Venice. With distinct suspicion, he remarks that Venice is thought of as “like Mecca. Every good Muslim must go to Mecca once in their lives; every good artist must got to the Venice Biennale once in their lives.”

Lasting for three months in total, Schrag's journey has been carefully route-planned to take in several pilgrimage sites. Giving a sense of the scale of his endeavour, his path has also been modified to take account of the curve of the earth.

With 450 hours of walking to be completed, Schrag has in front of him a summer of eight hour days of walking at a swift pace. “It's a blessing. I'm just about to finish my PhD, I've got all these questions about my practice, what next, turning forty, and I get to have three months just to think about them.”

Then again, he's “also got the Alps in the way, they're not going to be warm.”

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As well as these broader questions facing Schrag, for this project he sets out to address a more specific question: “What does Venice offer?”

This question is particularly relevant for Schrag's mainly participatory artworks, which in general are not represented in the Biennale. “As with any kind of art,” Schrag describes that participatory art “comes with its own set of languages, its own understanding of aesthetics, power politics, and yet it's not really welcomed into Venice because it's not considered art.”

It was with these issues in mind that Schrag developed Lure of the Lost: A Contemporary Pilgrimage, along with Huntly-based Deveron Arts. Schrag is a long term collaborator with the arts organisation and describes them as “kind of rock and roll, because they don't subscribe to the normal tradition of what art is.” Conventionally speaking, “Art is so much about the production of an object, about the display of those objects and about places.” So it's particularly impressive to Schrag that 20 years ago, Deveron Arts decided to deviate from these norms.

Schrag describes his relationship with Deveron Arts as “agonistic,” which is also how he describes his and Deveron Art's relationship to the Biennale

in making the Lure of the Lost project. “Agonism” as a concept, Schrag derives from political theorist Chantal Mouffe. He describes it a “A productive conflictive relationship – that's the kind of relationship I find most proactive.” Proceeding this way does not entail tearing down an institution, but instead “to propose an opposition, to work uncomfortably together, [and] to challenge each other.”

It was in this spirit of this kind of “agonism” that Schrag and Deveron Arts considered a project which they situated entirely within Venice, and which would import Deveron Arts’ locally based ethic to Venice. 'The town is the venue' is the motto for Deveron Arts, who actively engage with their town Huntly, its history and people. For this first proposal, the idea was to engage with the non-transient population of Venice: “The everyday people that live there, that run the shops, and try and actually do something with them.” This was an attempt to cast some doubt on the usual strategy of Biennale exhibitors, who “export an idea that's fully-formed.”

Taking this outsider approach to the festival further, Schrag will now spend only a few days in Venice itself. Instead, over the course of his 450 hours of walking across Britain, France, the Alps

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As well as the conceptual demands of the trip, Lure of the Lost is also something of a physical trial. “I'm doing training, and I'm physically up for it. Undoubtedly I will have endless blisters, there will be chafing, it will be painful.” This kind of physically demanding work isn't new to Schrag, who for a number of years has continued a work entitled Wrestling Artists. “I wrestle artists to figure out who is the better artist.” For example, he lasted 10 seconds before a collective of six (including the national judo champion) brought him down. “There's a satisfying enjoyment in pushing yourself. You feel good for doing it. I've always really enjoyed the physical side of things much more.”

Nevertheless, he does concede that although the physical element of Lure of the Lost is not a worry, “it's the psychological side that's more concerning.” He doesn't plan on spending all of his walking time alone, however. “We are inviting people to walk along but basically they have to understand that I have a certain speed to keep up. I can't dawdle.” Schrag and Deveron Arts hope that some of the people he meets on his way to Venice will join him in the final six to eight hours of the journey, rather than staging an arrival performance. Instead, “We're all part of this entering Venice.”

As well as a physical and psychological trial, Schrag believes “It's a trial for Venice as well.” He likens it to his project last year, when he invaded Iceland. Since Iceland currently doesn't have an army, Schrag tried invading the country to see if anyone would stop him. “I was having this war with a country that didn't know I was having a war against it.” This is just the same for Schrag with Lure of the Lost, “I'm challenging the Venice Biennale, and asking all these questions about it.

But it doesn't know I'm there.”

Here's hoping Schrag will fare as well against the Biennale as he did in Iceland. “I planted my flag at the parliament, no one stopped me. I am actually the supreme ruler of Iceland, by the way.”

Anthony will leave Huntly on 14 Jun and walk through Edinburgh on 20 Jun To help him with funds towards his supplies and equipment, he has launched a crowdfunding campaign at wefund.com/project/lure-of-the-lost-a-contemporarypilgrimage/p67015/

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THE SKINNY

Traversing the Fringe With their programme launch on June 2nd, The Skinny asks artistic director Orla O'Loughlin for an overview of what The Traverse has to offer at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Interview: Emma Ainley-Walker

The Christians

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he beginning of the summer months in Scotland means only one thing: festival season. The Traverse theatre, home to exciting festivals throughout the year such as Manipulate and Imaginate, has long been dubbed Scotland's ‘new writing’ theatre and this spirit is never more alive than during the Edinburgh Fringe festival.

With their programme launch on 2 June, the Traverse are this year bringing ten premieres to the festival, including four world premieres, with a particularly international flavour to their programme. Speaking about the festival programme, artistic director Orla O'Loughlin, who is undertaking her fourth Fringe with the Traverse said: “We present the work of a number of thrilling international companies and writers all of which add to a timely examination of the complex times in which we live and what the future may hold. It is a privilege to curate such an exciting and eclectic mix of work from artists and companies who I trust will challenge, move and inspire our audience in true Traverse Festival style.” This is clearly apparent in the Traverse Breakfast Plays series, set to return with six plays from six different countries: Canada, China, Egypt, Scotland, Turkey, and Ukraine. The plays have been commissioned by recently appointed associate director Zinnie Harris, and will each have a two-performance script-in-hand reading in the final two weeks of the festival.

Also presented by The Traverse Theatre Company is the world premiere of Swallow, written

by Olivier Award winner Stef Smith, and Crash, returning after a successful run at A Play, A Pie And A Pint and having just been nominated for a CATS Best New Play award, the winner of which will be announced on 14 June. Swallow, which will be performed as part of the Made In Scotland series, is directed by Orla O'Loughlin and headed by a cast of three women. Dealing with the everyday demons people must face and with music from LAW, this is set to be an exciting new production with women and women's issues front and centre. Crash will star Jamie Michie of HBO's Game of Thrones, and tells the story of a trader who tries to rebuild his life in the aftermath of a traumatic event.

Also in the Made In Scotland showcase will be Glasgow based company Vanishing Point's new show Tomorrow in Traverse One, exploring dementia and the concepts of needing care and needing to care, as well as Gary McNair's A Gambler's Guide To Dying in Traverse Two. It is an intergenerational tale, telling the story of one boy's grandad who won

June 2015

a fortune betting on the 1966 World Cup, then chose to gamble it all on living to see the year 2000 after being diagnosed with cancer. Offsite, the Made in Scotland showcase brings us Zinnie and John Harris's operatic version of The Garden, originally commissioned by the Traverse as a short play in 2009. This dystopian tale of a couple at the end of their tether was commissioned by Sound and premiered in Aberdeen in 2012.

In addition to this Scottish series, the National Theatre of Scotland are bringing their new musical adaption of Alan Warner's novel The Sopranos, in a co-production with Live Theatre. Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is adapted by Lee Hall, author of Billy Elliot, and tells the tale of six single teenage girls on the cusp of a national choir competition, and much much more.

Also returning to the Fringe are Gates Theatre who are bringing new play The Christians, an exploration of faith and community. The company will be reflecting this spirit using a community character from Morningside. After success at this year's Dublin Fringe, Irish company Corn Excange in association with Cusack Projects bring their adaption of Elimear McBride's hugely successful novel A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing. Audiences who have not yet read the tale can be surprised, whereas those who have can enjoy the intricacies of the adaptation. Rough Magic presents the UK premiere of How To Keep An Alien by Sonya Kelly.

Over in Traverse Two, artist Bryony Kimmings brings her new work Fake It ‘till You Make It as part of the British Council Showcase. Made in collaboration with her partner Tim Grayburn, following a theme of working with family after the hugely successful Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model with her niece, this new piece provides an honest look at clinical depression and being in love.

Writer, director and performer Valentjin Dhaenens returns with Pardon/In Cuffs, unraveling the complex relationship between criminal and judge. The audience's allegiance comes into question through staging as well as performance. Also hailing from Belgium, Ontroerend Goed return to the Traverse with A Game Of You. This experimental theatre piece takes six audience members through a series of rooms, asking them questions about themselves and each other. It is people watching in the extreme and with few spaces and a five day run, likely to sell out fast.

Australian company One Step At A Time Like This bring show Forever Young, inviting one audience member to take a seat in the Traverse foyer, awaiting a phone call. With a cast of teenage Irish actors the play looks at youthful idealism, taking one audience member at a time on an outdoor adventure.

Unlimited by the late night slot, Unlimited Theatre present the Scottish premiere of Am I Dead Yet? performed by Jon Spooner and Chris Thorpe.

Inspired by research into contemporary developments into resuscitation science, and made in collaboration with emergency care professionals, this play offers an insightful look into death and why we don't talk about it. Spooner and Thorpe hope to change this with stories and songs, hopefully bringing some light to this dark matter.

It is a season for returns at the Traverse, as well as premiering new work. From Crouch's An Oak Tree to possible best new play Crash to the mind games of Ontroerend Goed, there is something to pique the interest of every Fringe theatre-goer at Traverse as they stand confidently behind their performers and their programme. O'Loughlin calls it a “bold and dynamic programme that once again marks the Traverse Festival out as the home of compelling, contemporary drama” with pride. It is clear to see the boldness and diversity ahead from the theatre and its artistic director, both confident in their work.

Tickets on sale from 2 Jun, various dates and times in Aug traverse.co.uk

“Thrilling international companies and writers all of which add to a timely examination of the complex times in which we live and what the future may hold” Orla O'Loughlin

Traverse One will also play home to Tim Crouch's An Oak Tree, which is returning to the Traverse after 10 years. This Obie and Herald Angel award winning show has played worldwide. In each performance, Crouch invites a professional actor who has never seen the script or the show before. It follows a similar formula to Fringe success White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, but in addition to the text, each actor must explore the emotion in the piece which examines themes of loss and suggestion on a personal level.

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A Girl Is A Half Formed Thing

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Portrait of the Artist as an Abhorrent Young Man Alex Ross Perry is one of the most exciting names in American indie cinema. We chat to the 30-year-old writer-director about his latest film, Listen Up Philip, a caustic comedy centred on an obnoxious young novelist played by Jason Schwartzman Interview: Patrick Gamble

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he title of Alex Ross Perry's third feature, Listen Up Philip, a witty New York-set literary comedy, refers to the film's tremendously narcissistic protagonist, Philip Friedman (played by Jason Schwartzman). However, director Alex Ross Perry also suggests the film's moniker is a nod to the influence of American novelist Philip Roth. “We kind of gave Philip Roth to anyone looking for it,” says the 30-year old by phone. He's clear that Schwartzman's character isn't a stand-in for Roth, but the film could be perceived as a riff on the author's 1979 novel The Ghost Writer, a story about a young writer who accepts an invitation to the rural home of an older, prize-winning novelist. The mentor figure in Listen Up Philip is Ike Zimmerman, played with tremendous hubris by Jonathan Pryce.

Perhaps he could be a proxy for Roth? “There's a lot of authors that orbit around the way a guy like Ike is,” Perry explains. “Another writer whose pull and sensibility influence the movie is Richard Yates. I'm a huge fan of his. He was a notoriously hard-drinking tough guy.”

Philip occupies an extremely strange world, a timeless epoch where characters listen to vinyl and there isn't a mobile phone in sight. Was this a statement about our growing reliance on technology, or a pining for a bygone era? “It's just a nicer way to spend a couple of hours when you go into a movie theatre,” Perry suggests. “When you go watch a film you shut down your phone – it's probably the only time during the day you're not checking it – and you enter into a world where a lot of the distractions that exist in your life are not present in the film.” Listen Up Philip's hypnotic jazz score and gorgeous 16mm cinematography feels like a paean for a lost time, a period Perry clearly yearns for. “I really regret not being alive during the time where authors like Ike were

famous enough to be met on talk shows and dominate the cultural conversation.”

This sentiment is echoed by Philip in one scene when he wistfully evokes Zimmerman's heyday as a time when “women were looser” and more likely to be impressed by writers. It's a misogynistic reading of the era, but one that Perry agrees with in principle. “It's really interesting that this wasn't 50 years ago: it was close enough in my lifetime that a writer of fiction could be a bona fide celebrity. Now there are perhaps five writers who are that prominent, but in 1980 there were 50.

I wanted Ike to be one of those writers, so I borrowed a lot from the East Coast writers of the time whose work really blows my mind.”

Listen Up Philip isn't your average American indie comedy. It's a pastel-shaded bildungsroman with numerous novelistic digressions, complete with narration from an off-screen storyteller (voiced by Eric Bogosian), a device that brings together the film's literary pretentions with its cinematic aspirations. This type of omniscient narrator is a tool notoriously sneered at by cinema purists, something Perry vehemently disagrees with. “When you're not using a device like that you have to rely on dialogue to piece together the intricacies of the relationships or backstories between the characters and I find that dialogue to be fairly tedious. Some people are always going to recite some information that they vaguely remember hearing in a film class 20 years ago, that there are devices that are better left on a page, but I don't understand why those people take something they were told by a film professor who has never made a film so literally.”

It would be easy to assume that Philip's story is an autobiographical one about a young upcoming artist struggling with his ambitious

personality. The film doesn't merely focus on the relationship between Philip and Ike, however.

Perry also takes time to observe the women who surround his male characters, specifically Philip's girlfriend, Ashley, played by Mad Men's Elizabeth Moss. “Philip's a young man who's roughly my own age and who wears clothes that I like,” says Perry, “but there's a lot more about me in Ashley's lifestyle and her relationship with her own career [as a photographer], and the seriousness with which she takes it, than there is with Phillip's angry indifference to be a necessity of his lifestyle.

The fun of the movie for me is that Ike, Phillip and Ashley represent different aspects of my personality. The whole point of the movie for me is taking a situation, splitting it into diametrically opposed perspectives, and then letting it play out.

The characters argue with one another because that's two sides of me arguing.”

“The characters argue with one another because that's two sides of me arguing” Alex Ross Perry

Perry isn't one to rest on his laurels. While Listen Up Philip has been held up in distribution purgatory in the UK, he's already completed and screened his follow-up, Queen of Earth, a feminist exploration of jealousy that marks a tonal, if not entirely thematic, departure from the misanthropy of this film. So what prompted this remarkable shift in style? “Well, mostly it was how close together they were made, and an interest in not repeating myself,” he says. “Thematically the films have a great deal in common and they deal with the same types of people – it's just told in a slightly different way. Queen of Earth is a women's story instead of a story of how strong women prevail

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over weak, terrible men. That was just one of the fun ways we inverted what we'd done before.”

The overriding theme in both films is society's current relationship with entitlement, something Perry is keen to discuss. “It fascinates me. A lot of great fiction has been written about characters that struggle with that. In Philip you have a character that feels entitled to success and the trappings of success, and in Queen of Earth you have characters that feel entitled to privacy.

Entitlement can take on any number of forms, but there's something very interesting to me about someone who genuinely feels 100% in their soul that they deserve something. The point is watching them adjust to a world where either they get it, like in Philip, or they don't, like in Queen of Earth.”

On his first two films, Impolex and The Colour Wheel, Perry made effective use of non-professional actors. In these most recent pictures, however, he has proper film stars interpreting his characters. How's he found the transition? “I had no reason to assume I could get [professional actors] when I was putting Philip together. My previous films were all made with my friends, so it's really great to have these well-known actors who have been on hundreds of movie sets be like ‘these guys are alright, these guys know what they're doing.’ It was a real surprise to learn that these people are great collaborators, and take what they do very seriously, that was really exciting and humbling.”

While he's relished the opportunity to work with talented young actors like Schwartzman, Moss and Katherine Waterston (who stars with Moss in Queen of Earth), he seems most stirred by the prospects of the British audiences’ reaction to Jonathan Pryce's performance. “I'm very excited about the film's release in the UK,” he tells us.

“I think people over there are going to understand and appreciate what Jonathan Pryce does in this film. For me it's some of the most impressive acting I've ever seen and one of the most exciting things I've ever been involved with, so I'm thrilled for the film to have a kind of new life over there.”

We can only agree. Pryce's turn is acerbic, funny and deeply sad. A bit like the film, really.

Listen Up Philip is released 5 Jun by Eureka! Entertainment

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What is Freedom?

Grace Schwindt reflects on her feature-length film, which through structured choreography questions the possibilities for freedom Interview: Franchesca Hashemi

Credit: Fraser Douglas

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Alexzandra Frances Moncrieff

Down the Rabbit Hole This year's Duncan of Jordanstone fine art graduates display a resurgent interest in traditional techniques, twisting their uses to create something refreshingly unique Words: Rosamund West

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he first of 2015’s Scottish degree show crop, Dundee kicks things off with its rabbit warren of an exhibition, the labyrinthine structure of the school adding a hallucinogenic edge to the exploration of this year's fine art graduate displays.

The front door has moved in recent years, changing the orientation of the whole show. Gone is the surety of the Cooper Gallery opener, home of the firsts. The viewer is now left to navigate the building without a compass, and take each student's display as it comes. It's an egalitarian policy that removes the possibility of a shortcut for the roving visitor. Each show is displayed equal, and should be considered as such.

Ceramics is enjoying a resurgence at DJCAD. Ten years ago the art schools were all closing the doors of their kilns and waving goodbye to their pottery tutors (presumably to the sound of The Righteous Brothers), but now the material is being reassessed and repurposed as a shiny, technicolour, malleable tool in the sculptor's arsenal.

Mary Watson has created a witty exploration of humanity's competitive nature, manufacturing a horde of trophies in candy coloured glazed ceramics. The hotly-contested Prettiest Teeth Award has a stem of actual teeth, and celebrates the gnashers of luminaries from Julia Roberts to Dale Winton. She explores such idiosyncratic awards as Wife Carrying Championships, competitive milk chugging and the World Gurning Championship.

These are all real things. The focal point of the display is a throne and ceramic crown, where she holds crowning ceremonies for self-proclaimed prize winners among the audience.

Nearby, Eleanor Paul has also worked in ceramics, but with a looser, more intuitive style. She embraces the duality of the ceramic product, at once cherished and delicate but with a tendency towards kitsch. Her largest piece, Our Lady of Perpetual Consolation draws upon the iconography of the Virgin, but this Mary is flicking the victory Vs and surrounded by some lovely teacups.

Nearby, a gold embellished cat lies on its back atop a pillow, tangled in a ball of golden wool. She gives

June 2015

physical form to the sayings of received wisdom – Curiosity Killed the Cat But Satisfaction Brought It Back.

It's always a highlight to see some proper large scale sculpture in the degree shows. David Evan Mackay has created a wooden Tower of Babel, a buckled pylon accompanied by a throbbing sound piece. He questions the white noise of all the world's information – will we too break under the unprecedented power overload?

Bobby Sinclair is concerned with print techniques, using the subject matter of anonymised photographs of strangers taken in the street. Here these black and white images are blown up and printed onto aluminium, the sheets bent and mangled like crumpled paper. It's an ambitious process that delivers freestanding print sculptures of near monumental proportion.

This year's shameless embrace of the colour bomb comes courtesy of Alexzandra Frances Moncrieff, who has created a space of astonishingly lurid psychedelia, a room painted entirely in undulating colours including similarly decorated mannequins. Allow the siren call of the colour to swallow you whole, she entreats. It's a mind spinning, eye melting moment of sheer trippy joy.

Opposite this madness, Joletta Thornburn has created life-size collages of photographic nudes and organic drawings. Her representation of human flesh is unflinching, a monochrome realism in counterpoint to the Photoshopped perfection we are confronted with in the new normality. In contrast, her fantastical drawings wrap around the nudes, marine forms and birds’ nests clinging close to the human bodies in a desperate embrace.

As always, Dundee offers a worthy start to the degree show year. Leaving, blinking into the daylight, it's difficult to process the sheer breadth of the school. The class of fine art 2015 present a broad range of diverse practices, and lean more towards a reinvention of traditional practices – ceramics, photography, printmaking – than a use of new media. Curiouser and curiouser.

race Schwindt's feature length film Only a Free Individual Can Create a Free Society exhibits at Tramway until 7 June. As an 80-minute film of robotic yet politically loaded speech delivered by a troupe of oddly strewn dancers requires, this work requires an attention prescribed to fineneedle work.

Over the course of several scene changes, which includes a London cityscape backdrop acting as an image of reality in this materially perplexing world, the artist brings to life a conversation between herself and a German cabbie.

“I chose this guy because he wasn't going to offer me a solution,” she explains. “What is freedom? There are different ideas on how to live freer, as with the student movement, revolution and family, all of which are palling. These situations relate to the film's set.”

During one scene, two performers paw the stage as fictional horses ride onto the set. It communicates stealth through the animal form, which is in turn objectified as language through artefact.

This type of dance oozes grace and structure, yet the focus on linework and breaking or rejoining them is all part of the wider construction.

The dancers themselves appear as 11 sexless creatures. Exuding androgyny, there's the potential for complete interchanging between performers and characters. With the awareness “that dancers become characters, and people want to identify with the character, fall in love and hate them,” Schwindt “would switch performers and switch roles if I felt they were becoming too dominant. It was the same for male and female dancers, because I felt [gender] wasn't important.”

There's a material richness to the work, too, with its 30 different costumes, made variously from silk, velvet, aluminium and cardboard. The result is a subtle comparison of manmade and natural forms, with a large furry brown neck ruff on one performer and a side shield of bark adorning another. It could be an ode to the dishevelledness of suburban roadsides, lest we forget this film's composition mirrors the shifting landscape of the taxi driver's journey.

While Schwindt's costumes’ silks, velvets and furs may be obviously elegant or sensual in some way, Schwindt resolutely does not seek to “dictate what is right or beautiful.” In fact, the creative polyglot completely rejects the notion of value.

And rightly so.

One point of critical reference comes from Frankfurt, Schwindt's place of birth. More specifically, the Frankfurt School's critical teachings spilled into Grace Schwindt's home life. With this comes certain readings of the work as a meditation on the freedom and unfreedom of communication, which we're led to believe is open to as many interpretations as the seer pertains and not just cultural associations assigned to the ‘norm.’ As a take-down of these kind of indolently habitual assumptions, the film can be experienced as questioning whether language is not in itself a selfreflexive and metalinguistical form.

Thinking of the film within this specific context, the rigour its organisation and structure seem to suggest that there cannot be a break in structure without the building of it first; exclusion and possibility hail from a constructionist viewpoint.

Along with the forces of construction and destruction, Schwindt intends also a space for fragility. “I wanted the bodies to appear still. Not because I'm optimistic about humans – I'm not, but to show that if you cut a body it will bleed.”

“There are different ideas on how to live freer, all of which are palling” It's not surprising then that, if there is a language or structure to OFICCAFS, it oscillates between order and a kind of structured aleatory.

At times the set and choreography are subject to tightly planned arrangements. Then, portions of the group may split and rejoin, seemingly at random, while others move vertically and horizontally with the grace of a drunk person's alphabet.

Grace Schwindt's take on the public sphere, rife with immortality and desire, ‘religion and capitalism’ illustrates the bleakness of society.

As the Frankfurt-born artists says: “There is a very limited possibility of freedom in capitalism, because you never reach promise, and that's my point.”

Until 7 Jun, Tramway, Glasgow

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It Started With a Cough Serial literary monogamist Louise Welsh is looking more long term with the publication of the second of her Plague Times trilogy. She talks to crime author Russel D. McLean about extending this post-pandemic world

“T

Credit: Steve Lindbridge

ypically, people would die over a period of time. It might be some days. But if a flea injected you in an artery, you'd fall down dead in the street.”

As early afternoon sunlight slips into the living room of the novelist Louise Welsh's top floor Glasgow flat, we discuss the plague over freshly brewed coffee and chocolate biscuits. It's a touch surreal to discuss death in such a comfortable setting. The best-selling author of The Cutting Room is a vivid, intelligent presence, with an infectious enthusiasm for her work that makes you warm to her instantly, even if she is describing the terrible effects a viral outbreak could have upon an unexpectedly fragile society.

Death is a Welcome Guest is the second in Welsh's Plague Times trilogy, set in a post-pandemic Britain that has been effectively destroyed by the aftermath of such widespread sickness. Her portrayal of the symptoms of ‘The Sweats’ is based on chilling and meticulous research. “Reading about the influenza outbreak after the First World

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Feature

War,” she says, “There were accounts of people dropping dead in the street then, as well.”

She coughs a few times as she speaks. Welsh assures me she's recovering from a cold, but it's hard not to feel a little nervous amidst all this talk of deadly disease. After all, The Sweats’ initial symptoms are flu-like, making it hard to know that you're infected until it's too late.

This is the first time Welsh has attempted a sequel to any of her novels. She describes herself, in literary terms, as “a serial monogamist. I go from one book to the next, and while I'm there, I'm there really intensely.” She pauses. “And then I go away.

Onto something else that I'm totally and utterly engaged with.” She relishes challenging herself with fresh places, approaches and ideas, and a trilogy is something she has never attempted before.

“Can I do this? Can I extend a world over more than one book?” She is adamant that there will only ever be three novels in the sequence. “However enjoyable it is, when it comes to the third; that will be the end. I can see the progression quite clearly in

my mind.” Despite the challenge, however, she has clearly enjoyed revisiting the world she so compellingly crafted in the first novel of the trilogy.

The new book follows on from 2014’s A Lovely Way to Burn, but it introduces a new cast of characters and a subtly different take on a country brought to its knees by a terrible disaster. “I think the world is the connection. The world and the pandemic. Stevie [the heroine of the first novel] does feature fleetingly, so the books do intersect.”

This time, Welsh follows the fate of Magnus McFall, a stand-up comedian who is arrested after trying to prevent a sexual assault and being mistaken for the perpetrator. He is transferred to the secure wing of a local prison as The Sweats break out, and forced to share a cell with a man named Jeb who seems reluctant to talk about the reason he's been put in prison. “I wanted [Magnus] to hook up with somebody he couldn't trust. I think under these circumstances… he would be so lonely.” The two men couldn't be more different in physicality, attitude and psychology. Magnus is resolutely normal; a person with ambitions who might or might not achieve them. Jeb is tougher, more worldly, and a man of secrets. The book could be seen as a post-apocalyptic literary take on the buddymovie, but as ever, there's a great deal going on beneath the surface. Welsh has an enviable ability to take apparently simple ideas and weave in a subtle complexity that allows the reader to find deeper meanings in the space between the words.

Magnus and Jeb spend the first part of the novel locked up in prison, increasingly aware that something is going wrong in the world outside.

But the screws tell them nothing and increasingly ignore the welfare of the prisoners under their protection. There's a sense of isolation to this early part of the book that truly builds the suspense.

But Welsh had other, more subtle, ideas about what she wanted to achieve with this early prison setting. “With the first book I was thinking very much about the health service, about corruption, about drug companies owning these drugs and making money from them… drug trials that are not publicised. I started this book thinking about the penal system, the way that people are treated in jail.” It's clear that it's something she gave a great deal of thought to. The unfairness of the system – Welsh is quick to clarify that she is not criticising those who work within it – sometimes seems designed not so much to rehabilitate offenders but “make them feel more dislocated from society.”

Her thoughts on prison, and her desire to use it in part as the setting for the opening of this novel emerged from two radio programmes she hosted, including one with the title How To Go To Jail, With Louise Welsh (the comma, she notes, is extremely important).

During her research, she also examined events in New Orleans prisons during Hurricane Katrina: “There were prisoners there who drowned because the jails were not a priority.” Thinking about this in the context of an event such as The Sweats influenced the novel's powerful opening third.

Welsh is known as a crime writer, but her work frequently defies that classification. Death Is a Welcome Guest uses elements of the speculative novel in its examination of a meaty ‘what if?’ question, leaving more traditional crime elements until later in the narrative. She doesn't mind the description, however. “I don't feel constricted or inhibited by it.” Neither of her publishers have ever attempted to push her towards writing a straightforward procedural or investigative novel. “I think

BOOKS

Interview: Russel D. McLean

there's a great amount of skill involved in that, but for some reason that's not what I'm drawn to doing… the genres that appeal to me have something that a lot of sci-fi, horror or crime typically possess. Which is a fast pace, a strong narrative… the quest element… high jeopardy and strong characterisation.” All of these qualities are apparent in Welsh's work, but especially in this latest novel, which mixes high concept with deep characterisation and thrilling pace. The elements of the crime novel are superbly handled, but it's her skill at portraying a fractured world that stays with the reader.

“With the first book I was thinking very much about the health service, about corruption, about drug companies… I started this book thinking about the penal system, the way that people are treated in jail” Louise Welsh

Part of that world is informed by the idea that certain things we take for granted – the internet, mobile phones, public transport – are suddenly, conspicuously, absent. There's a historical precedent for this, Welsh remarks: “When the Romans leave Britain, they take all of that brilliant stuff that they brought with them.” Leaving the indigenous population with a small problem. “They've got these bathhouses, and they're asking, ‘Do you know how that works?’” She tells me about pots in the museum of Scotland that demonstrate attempts to recreate Roman artistry. None of them seem quite right; the skills are no longer present. Something is missing. In her fictional world, The Sweats have not just taken people, but essential skills and infrastructure that might be irreplaceable.

But all is not lost. Welsh allows hope to leak subtly and believably into her strange, new world.

“There's always hope,” she says, thoughtfully. “I guess I believe in the indomitability of the human spirit. Dreadful things do happen, but people will, hopefully, survive.”

Death is a Welcome Guest is published by John Murray, 4 Jun, RRP £14.99

THE SKINNY

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In The Deep End

ST Y LE

“HALT! ABORT! YOU'RE NOT WEARING ANY CLOTHES!” – The story of Deviance's debut skinny dip with Glasgow Continental Words: Kate Pasola Illustration: Dale Crosby-Close

P

icture the scene: you're in what feels like a staffroom with around fifteen people. A reassuringly scratchy carpet underfoot, the familiar crackle of polystyrene cups buckling in idle hands.

Conversation is easy, everything is normal. Run-ofthe-mill, even. Oh – except everyone's absolutely bollock and nipple naked. Including you.

For many, the scenario above is the stuff of brie-before-bed nightmares, a screengrab from an archived 4oD documentary, or a stage-fright coping technique. For me, it was Sunday night, and I'd been invited to join Glasgow Continental's weekly naturist swimming event – an opportunity for a wee dip, Lycra-free at Arlington Baths. We were sharing a cup of tea (naked) and I was working up the nerve to go swimming (also naked). After all, when in Arlington, do as the Romans did. Or something like that.

Attending a naturist event was a terrifying prospect. I'm a total prude when it comes to my own body, and have been since childhood. My grandmother learned this in Beamish when I fell into a puddle and she made the mistake of trying to publicly remove my wet t-shirt. My four year old self wrestled her to the floor, incensed that I'd been subjected to such exposure in full view of the Great Beamish Public. Outside the Pockerley Railway too, of all places.

As it turns out, trying out naturism is just like riding a bucking bronco. You never think it'll happen to you, but if it does, just don't overthink it. Stepping naked into a room full of strangers feels like skydiving and remembering you've forgotten the parachute mid-fall. It's actually quite hard to jump into a pool when your brain is screaming “HALT! ABORT! YOU'RENOTWEARINGANY CLOTHES!” I was joined by all types of punters. There were the relaxed naturists who rested ankle over knee-cap with all the confidence of Gary Barlow at the Brits. There were the nude-curious, who'd whetted an appetite after engaging in skinny dipping abroad. There were even other first-timers, identifiable by their intermittent eye-widening,

visibly re-realising that they were bare-arsed in the middle of a room of strangers.

Pre-swim, I spoke to a friendly guy called Billy. He'd gotten into naturism in order to come to terms with having his bladder replaced with an external urostomy bag as part of his cancer treatment. “I thought, how am I going to have the confidence when meeting women with this thing?” he told me, semi-indicating the plastic pouch attached to his pelvis. I accidentally looked, but Billy was unfazed.

“The batshit part of the brain that does backflips at the sight of an airborne schlong is tranquilised” He encouraged me to go for a swim and try out the acrobatics equipment suspended from the roof. I passed on the latter, but he gave me a demonstration.

There are some things a person can't unsee; for instance, a starkers gentleman hanging from a trapeze rope and flying inexorably through the air of a public swimming pool, as if participating in an unclothed Ultimate Wipeout. But, quite frankly, I don't want to unsee it. Billy looked liberated. He very literally couldn't give a flying fuck if anyone looked at his pelvis. Funnily enough, no-one was looking. In a room full of nudity, the batshit part of the brain that does backflips at the sight of a schlong – airborne or otherwise – is tranquilised.

And that's just the start of the awesome parts of naturism. I remembered what human bodies

looked like, resetting my conditioned little brain, hitherto deprived of the sight of normal nipples, dimpled backs and thighs that look like mine.

Also, with no sartorial cues to hand – save a wedding band/executive decisions in the pubic realm – I found myself searching for something, anything on which to anchor a conversation. I quickly realised – horror of horrors – that we were going to have to put in some work to get to know one another; asking questions and actually listening to the answers.

But, for me, the most exhilarating part of public birthday-suiting was being reminded that

my naked body needn't necessarily be sexualised.

In the clothed world, even an unfastened button is politicised. It leads to unsolicited discussions, saliva-soaked catcalls, upward eyebrow movements. But the naturist community are blazing a naked trail. My nudity wasn't seen as an invitation for praise, analysis, attention or assault.

Being on the receiving end of such respect was deeply refreshing, and something that a textile world could – and should – learn from naturism.

Find Glasgow Continental on Twitter @scotskinnyswim bn.org.uk/community/calendar/event/2590-glasgowcontinental-at-arlington-baths

How to Date a Feminist (Tip #1: Don't assume they're a dominatrix). Deviance questions the fetishisation of feminism and its consequences for sexual liberation

A

s a feminist dating within straight relationships, I often feel I'm expected to live up to the fantasy of the dominatrix. The deviant. The casual shag who'll take the reins because I'm liberated. And do you know what? I'm sick of this expectation.

“You're into kinks? So you're a feminist, right?”

– Tinder man, 2015.

Exhibit A: The well-meaning Tinder acquaintance, assuming that sexuality and ideologies are necessarily related, and that kinks and feminism are synonymous. I hate to say it but sometimes I just like to be fucked. Dominated, not dominant.

Yet people seem to have a hard time entertaining the idea that a feminist might be into submissive, rough and hard fucking. And that can be really

June 2015

Words: Harriet Protheroe-Davis

inconvenient. “What? I mean, like, yeah I'm down with that but you're a feminist!” (another Tinder guy, 2015).

It seems that I've gotten myself into the position of being told – even by those who are very politically thoughtful – what my sexuality should be. To me, this subtly cries of hegemony. Hegemony which causes people (typically cis men), to project feminist fantasies onto liberated women.

These fantasies create a restrictive expectation that feminists perform an identity which is no longer defined – or chosen – by themselves. I'm just going to be blunt and call this out as inverse patriarchy.

Feminists have continually tried to drive a stake through the heart of the essentialist beast that says women are a static category with a uniform set of needs. Yet for some reason this similar

conception hasn't translated to understanding ‘the feminist’ itself. Feminists don't all think the same, don't all act the same, don't have uniform needs, expectations or aspirations. So why, when dating, do I continually feel like I'm being put into a restrictive ‘feminist’ box?

Why should feminism be used as a way to sneakily re-incarnate hegemonic ideas about dominant women? Sexual liberation in which women may attend to their own sexual appetites and desires is one of the most important gains for feminism. Yet this liberation, in my experience, is frequently used to homogenise expectations of strong women.

Why this has me furiously bashing the shiny letters of my keyboard is because women under these expectations often begin policing their own sexual choices. Wondering what type of sex they

DEVIANCE

should enact in order to uphold the ideas of strength and power. Does first date sex make me a bad feminist? Does withholding first date sex make me a bad feminist? What will submissiveness say about my politics?

I will confess, all of these questions run through my head when dating. I feel like my choices are limited and expectations weigh heavy on me.

Feminism declares that women can choose what they want to do with their bodies, yet the added epithet of the necessarily strong woman too often becomes an expectation that women play out a fantasy of domination.

So the take-home message for all you straight guys dating a feminist is the following; I'll dominate yah honey, sure thing, but don't presume I want to because of my politics.

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Tim Dalzell T

im Dalzell studied Sculpture & Environmental Art at Glasgow School of Art (2014). After graduating he co-founded the YAKA collective, an art collective that aims to connect with emerging artists and preliminary spaces around Glasgow.

Through this he helped to deliver their first exhibition So It Is (2014) which featured the work of 30 artists across four venues. Dalzell was selected for the recent New Contemporaries exhibition at The Royal Scottish Academy and was awarded the Sir William Gillies Bequest Award. He was also selected for a follow-up show New Scottish Artists (2015), which recently opened at The Fleming Gallery, London. Upcoming exhibitions include ‘if any, before’ (2015) at The Telfer Gallery, the GSA Phoenix Show (2015) and Black Hole (2015), an upcoming project with the YAKA Collective.

Of his practice he says, “I'm interested in how the development of virtual space, accessed through media such as the internet, games consoles and 3D modelling software, has in recent years provided the opportunity for the creation of entirely new environments and situations. I'm particularly drawn to those that create a psychedelic atmosphere through their inability to truly replicate reality. When making work, my interest falls towards content that has been rapidly abandoned in the manic development of digital space. By recycling forgotten imagery and translating it into tangible three-dimensional space, I aim to reinvigorate ideas, drawing attention to the compelling awkwardness of rudimentary computer graphics.

Whilst I employ digital processes to assist in the making of work, the construction primarily relies

on the hand and so minor inaccuracies are inevitably maintained within the forms themselves. Yet these flaws ultimately add further translations to the original ideas, allowing the work to expand its own discourse and provide a more weighted spectacle.”

At 32,000,000 Metres (ii) (2015) reveals a physical cross-section of a suggested place, in order to conceptually construct an environment that, through our imagination, is projected way beyond the discernible edges of the installation itself. The ambiguous forms, despite their blatant artificiality, trigger strong associations with exotic landscapes.

Rich 16khz shows at the Phoenix Show and will explore the identity of AT&T's voice-generated American male ‘Rich’. The voice has already been

made infamous through its use in millions of videos online, but this new work will assign both appearance and personality to the mysterious character through the use of various computer applications. Though the entire identity will be created through synthetic means, the media that allow Rich to exist will all maintain elements of human touch. ‘if any, before’ an exhibition of new works by Francis Caballero, Tim Dalzell and Caitlin Merrett King opens at The Telfer Gallery, 84 Miller Street, 5 Jun, 6pm (runs until 21 Jun) The Phoenix Exhibition runs 24 Jul-2 Aug, Reid Building, GSA timdalzell.co.uk

Rich 16khz (2015), Digital drawing, Proposal for Phoenix Exhibition, Glasgow School of Art

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SHOWCASE

THE SKINNY

June 2015

SHOWCASE

Credit: Jen Martin

Credit: Jen Martin

Credit: Jen Martin

At 32,000,000 Metres (ii) (2015), Redwood, MDF, acrylic, LEDs, lighting gels, emulsion, speakers

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Travelling in the Digital Age Has social media made us anti-social? An honest insight into the world of 21st Century travel...

time. People had changed. It was as though selfie fever had swept across a whole generation, and I was standing in the midst of an epidemic.

I watched as those around me moved like drones, their functions mechanical, their impulses guided by the light which shone like beacons from the screens of their smartphones. I couldn't help but feel a little sad.

‘Has social media changed us that much?’ I wondered. ‘Has our obsession with selfies made us selfish travellers?’

“I can't but feel a little sentimental as I think back to how travelling must have been before smartphones and Twitter feeds”

I

n March this year, the Musee d'Orsay in Paris decided to lift its ban on photography. Some say it was a decision made after the pressure of public demand; others would argue that it was made in haste, after the culture minister Fleur Pellerin made a bit of a faux-pas by breaking with policy and uploading a cheeky shot of a rather nice Bonnard onto her Instagram account (#oops).

Either way, it was a move that would prove controversial, and after visiting the gallery myself last month, I was left wondering whether it may be a decision officials would come to regret.

The problem? Selfies. That's right; selfies.

Now I'm not an art snob by any means, nor am I adverse to the odd moment of iPhone portraiture; I do, however, think that there is a time and a place for selfies, and prestigious art gallery it is not.

As I stood in the Post Impressionist room, I found myself staring not at the artwork, but at a swarm of tourists whose behaviour had caught my eye.

I watched, entranced, as one-by-one they repeated the same, monotonous process: finding a painting they vaguely recognized and throwing a cursory glance at the name plaque, before promptly turning their back on the said artwork, outstretching their arm to find the most flattering angle (of their own features, I should add, not the painting) and finally, a quick sort of the hair before SNAP!... another addition to the Facebook timeline was borne.

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Lifestyle

I was speechless. Here we were, standing in one of the most renowned galleries in the world, surrounded by some of the most significant creations in modern art, close enough to see the bloody brushstrokes, and people were more interested in their own reflections than their environment.

I looked around the room, as though hoping to find reassurance that what I had observed was just an anomaly; the more I searched, however, the more evident the scale of the problem became.

At every recognisable painting, three or more would-be photographers hovered like vultures waiting to swoop on a rotting carcass. For every moment of silent contemplation that was had, another was interrupted by the sounds of shutters snapping. With every frustrated member of staff that tutted and tsk'd, another retreated to a dark corner in defeat. I got the distinct impression that they were fighting a losing battle, and their faces said it all: ‘Welcome to the d'Orsay, the epicentre of 21st Century narcissism.’

For me, the tipping point came after a near collision between the elbow of a surly American lady and my left eye as she jostled her way into the prime selfie stance.

‘I'm sorry,’ I felt like snapping. ‘Am I spoiling your view of you?’

I held back, but somewhere in the distance I'm sure Gauguin would have been spinning in his grave.

It was only three years since I had last visited the gallery, and yet so much had changed in that

The truth is, things have changed. We live in a digital age, and things are constantly evolving.

What was once considered an ironic display of selfpromotion has now become standard and accepted behaviour. The way we interact with others has changed, and so it's no wonder that the way we interact with the world around us will change too.

While technology has certainly made travelling easier, it's also enabled a generation to visit sights across the world without really visiting them. By that, I mean the people who will spend hundreds of pounds travelling to Giza, only to spend an hour at the foot of the pyramids, and then dedicate half of that time to tweeting about how truly #amazeballs the experience was (slash is).

With the pressures of social media always lingering at the back of our minds, we feel compelled (and I say ‘we’ because we're all guilty of it…) to share our experiences as and when they happen, as though somehow if we didn't, it would change the fact that they had actually happened at all – which is crazy, if you think about it.

And then there's the social aspect of it all, the fact that when we bury our noses into our devices, we close ourselves off from those around us, whether they are friends, family or strangers.

Because social media is a relatively new phenomenon, the research into its sociological implications is only just beginning to emerge; already the results are worrying, with one recent study by Edinburgh's Heriot Watt University identifying a clear link between selfies and the breakdown of relationships.

It seems a little ironic that social media could be making us more antisocial, and yet the evidence is stacking up. It's an issue I became aware of when backpacking two years ago. Before setting off on my round-the-world trip, I'd built up a pretty romantic notion of what it would be like staying in hostels, with visions of late nights spent around bonfires and impromptu road trips coming to mind. In reality, it wasn't quite like that.

I'm not saying that I didn't have a great time, or that I struggled to meet people on the whole, but I don't think it's exactly a coincidence that the best hostels I stayed at were the ones which didn't offer free WiFi. Where once, backpackers would have congregated in common rooms, sharing tales and advice over boxes of chep wine, now they bickered over

TRAVEL

Words: Izzy Gray Illustration: Lydia Brownlee PCs, or hid themselves behind the familiar screens of their tablets. Of course, there were those who genuinely preferred their own company, but there were also those who lacked confidence and struggled with homesickness, and I couldn't help but wonder whether their daily obsession with messaging friends back home was helping the problem or compounding it.

I'll never forget a conversation I overheard between a young Scottish girl and her mother back home: “I want to come back. I'm so lonely.” She sniffled into her laptop screen.

“Of course you're not,” cooed her mother.

“You've been having a wonderful time. I've seen all your photos.”

“I haven't made any friends.”

“That's not true. I've seen you tagged with lots of other people.”

“Yes. You've seen me tagged, but I haven't made any friends.”

The poor girl wanted to go home, and yet her own mother, misguided by the façade of her Facebook page, had no idea.

It made me so sad that we, as a society, feel the need to maintain our happiest appearances online, when often we can be feeling anything but below the surface. We seek comfort in online validation, and yet it's virtual. Beneath it all, we're still human, and somewhere down the line, the cracks will begin to show. This lass learned the hard way that you can Instragram all you like, but there's no filter for real, bitter loneliness.

Travelling is tough. It's one of the most exhausting, overwhelming and testing things a person can do, and there should be no shame in admitting that. It'd be really refreshing to read a genuinely honest timeline narrative, yet somehow I think ‘I'm lonely and miss home’ is about as likely a status update as an admission to having a mosquito bite the size of Vesuvius upon your buttcheek… true story…

Travelling in the digital age certainly has its challenges, but it's not all bad. In fact, many would argue that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

Who would have thought, twenty years ago, that you'd be able to book a hostel at the touch of a button? That within seconds, you could compare flight prices from around the world, and plan your entire route without even leaving your sofa?

That a phone could replace a map?

The advances in online communication have made travelling easier, cheaper, faster and more accessible; they've inspired a generation to plan, to share ideas and explore the world in a way never before imagined. They've also enabled us to keep in touch with friends and family back home, to let them know that we're OK, to be able to see their faces when we're feeling low.

And yet, I can't but feel a little sentimental as I think back to how travelling must have been before smartphones and Twitter feeds. Would it really have been so bad to just rock up in a town, with nothing but the bag upon your back and a map in your hand? To send a postcard rather than the occasional ‘like’? To get lost once in a while? To choose a hotel without reading reviews first… OK, maybe Tripadvisor can stay…

I suppose like all things it's about getting the balance right. By all means, tweet about a place, just don't forget to enjoy it too. Don't be afraid to head off the beaten track, and do things you haven't read about in six different blogs first. Be considerate. Meet others, meet travellers, meet the locals, but don't be afraid to have private moments too. Don't go to a gallery and act like a wanker.

And don't forget to take a few mental pictures too. You'll be surprised how long they last.

THE SKINNY

Heriot-Watt University Fashion Show We speak to graduating designer Joanne Thomas for an insight into the Class of 2015

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he annual Heriot-Watt Graduate Fashion show sees BA Fashion and Design for Textiles and BSc Fashion Technology students present their graduate collections on the runway to family, friends and members of the press. The renowned fashion programme at Heriot-Watt explores the creative process of fashion design from the initial research stage through to collection, creation and production, while also studying and exploring the different types of market sectors (from fast fashion, high street and luxury), both within the UK and the global market. This gives the graduating students a personal fashion style, as well as a broad understanding of the worldwide fashion industry. Previous graduates of the course have gone on to create their own labels – for example, Samantha McEwan of Isolated Heroes who, among her many award nominations and prizes, has most recently won Best Scottish Independent Online Retailer 2014 at The Herald Fashion Awards – as well as those who have gone on to work with high-profile companes such as Paul Smith, Jasper Conran, Anna Sui, Oasis, Marks & Spencer, Next, LeviStrauss, John Lewis, Berghaus and Nike.

The 2015 edition in June will include both womenswear and menswear collections, with a fashion-forward, contemporary approach and also a focus on wearability. The inspiration and themes explored by the students include the ‘tactile, convertible and the recyclable,’ as the show aims to celebrate the work of the graduates and the skill, expertise and innovative design that they have learned throughout their time at HeriotWatt – the culmination of this being a small collection made within their final year. Designed for the A/W15 season, the collections include sustainable garments created in fabrics produced

June 2015

Interview: Fern Logue

from waste plastic material as well as bananas (!), a decontextualisation of men's traditional Scottish dress (‘fit for the modern urban warrior’), and garments that can be converted from jackets to trousers and skirts to tops.

Ahead of the show, we catch up with Joanne Thomas, one of the graduating class of 2015 to find out more about her work, studying at HeriotWatt and what she has planned for the future.

Thomas explains, “I wanted to create a collection which had a strong conceptual theme and create garments which are a mix between classic and contemporary.” With this in mind, she has produced a collection that explores the sensation of becoming blind. Thomas's six-piece collection delves into the the loss of vision as an experience. This is a concept inspired by conversations with her grandmother – to produce works that focus on the “journey into the dark world of blindness.” The sense of the emotions and feelings of sight-loss are mimicked through fabrics, layering and knotting.

As Thomas tells us: “Using fabrics such as chiffon and raincoat plastic layered on top of other garments, I created the illusion of what was underneath being blurred and distorted.” The muted pastel tones of lilac, grey and midnight blue reflect the lack of vibrancy experienced during the loss of sight, and the muted skies and landscapes experienced during the degeneration of vision. The feelings of vulnerability and being trapped are emphasised by large tied knots and the restriction of the wearer's arm movement – giving an insight into losing your independence and relying on those around you to carry out everyday tasks for you.

Using the slogan ‘All We Have is Words’ as a repeat motif within her work, Thomas reflects on

the importance of description, and the reliance upon the descriptions of others to depict loved ones, landscapes and even your own reflection.

Garments are embellished with this slogan written in braille, which is embossed in suede and lasercut in crepe, creating texture and highlighting the heightening of other senses, particularly touch.

Thomas has crafted a strong concept and aims to mix classic and contemporary styles in her collection.

“We know how to fully construct every design we create” After graduation, young designer Thomas is focused on finding a creative job within the fashion industry. “I recently completed an internship with Christopher Kane, one of my long-time favourite designers, and would love a job within his creative dream,” she says. “I really admire his design aesthetic and I loved my time with his company.”

Adding that after gaining experience within an established design house she would love to start her own label eventually.

Thomas tells us that the staff at Heriot-Watt were very supportive and she found Heriot-Watt to be “a great place to study; its extensive facilities made your ambitious designs easy to create,” as well as “encouraging you to use various textile techniques such as print, knit and laser cutting

FASHION

along with experimental sewing and pattern cutting techniques.” Thomas also adds that unlike many other fashion courses, they learned to both design and create in equal measure: “We know how to fully construct every design we create, and I think this is very important when going into industry.”

Joanne's work, together with the collections of her Fashion, Design for Textiles and Fashion Technology contemporaries, are hotly anticipated and can be seen on the runway at the Graduate Fashion Show on 5 Jun. The show takes place in the historic setting of Abbotsford House, a 19th century country mansion in the Scottish Borders outside Melrose, on the south bank of the River Tweed and handily near the Heriot-Watt Galashiels campus. It was formerly the residence of novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott and makes for an impressive backdrop, where the stunning gardens will house a marquee purpose-built for the catwalk showcase event.

Graduate shows never fail to show off the cutting edge of design innovation and the future of Scottish Fashion – and this year's crop of HeriotWatt's graduates seem set to impress!

Friday 5 Jun, 7.30pm, Abbotsford House, Melrose Tickets £10, available from borderevents.com/event/ heriot_watt_fashion_show_2015 facebook.com/hwtextiles joanneithomas.com | borderevents.com Courtesy of Heriot-Watt. Garments by Joanne Thomas Photographer: Eden Hawkins, Model: Rosalind Shrinivas, Styling & Garments: Joanne Thomas

Lifestyle

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Sand-which One is the Best?

Our resident Phagomaniac went on the telly earlier this year to say that the sandwich was making a comeback; at the mid-point of 2015, here are a few of his favourite sandwiches from across history

Words: Lewis MacDonald Illustration: Heather More

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he sandwich is, as the kids say, “really having a moment” right now. From your bao and banh mi to a bread roll with half a slow-cooked pig stuffed inside it, there's never been a better time to be a fan of sticking things between bread. With that in mind, let's look at the greats – the rockstars, TV stars and anthropomorphic animals – who have gone before to leave us at this sandwich-happy point.

Elvis Presley – ‘The Elvis’ and ‘Fool's Gold Loaf ’ For starters, nobody else has two signature sandwiches attributed to them. The Fool's Gold is an entire loaf, scooped out and filled with peanut butter, jam and bacon, while his other sandwich, 'The Elvis', comprises peanut butter, banana and bacon. You might have noticed a pattern emerging.

The 'Elvis' is usually fried, and although it seems everyone has their own take on it, we'll assume the original was as unhealthy as possible.

Ernest Hemingway – Peanut butter and onion “One of the highest points in the sandwichmaker's art. For Commanders only.” Hemingway's prose even manages to arouse some desire to try this recipe. The cultural elite of America were apparently rocked when it was revealed that Hemingway's favourite sandwich was rather grotesque and crude. Or is it? Have a drink, try it out, then skim through the Hemingway cookbook to see what else old Ernie has to recommend.

Adam Richman of Man Vs Food – The ‘Adam Richwich’ If you are this far into a Phagomania article we are guessing you are familiar with heavyweight US food series Man Vs Food. It will come as no surprise that presenter Adam Richman's favourite sandwich features a truckload of ingredients. Here’s the full list and the thinking behind it: Sriracha Thai chilli sauce and mayonnaise (for spice); crinkle-cut crisps, or “chips” as he would say (a surprisingly British inclusion that's in there for extra texture); turkey slices (the mandatory meat, but it's lighter than beef which can overbear everything else in a big sandwich); avocado (his favoured vegetable/ fruit for a sandwich); coriander (effectively turns the ingredients around it into a guacamole); sliced pickles (for sharpness); a fried egg (only the second most gratuitous ingredient); and bacon (“meat candy from the belly of the beast"). Yes, really.

Scooby Doo – Dagwood Not to be confused with Scooby snacks, Shaggy and Scoob's classic sandwich stack is always a take on the mighty dagwood sandwich, which despite only displaying visible lettuce would apparently comprise ‘a double triple decker sardine and marshmallow fudge sandwich.’

Paddington Bear – Marmalade sandwiches Okay, there is some debate about this one, largely due to a TV advert for a certain yeast-based sandwich spread. Having espoused the power of the sandwich on television, we feel confident to say the following: Paddington Bear does not eat Marmite and cheese sandwiches, he eats marmalade sandwiches. That's what is in his suitcase, and that's what he keeps under his hat for emergencies. You're welcome. theskinny.co.uk/food/phagomania

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Lifestyle

FOOD AND DRINK

THE SKINNY

We Know What You’ll Do This Summer Subscribe to the Zap: 10 recommended events in your inbox every week

@theskinnymag /TheSkinnyMag Illustration: Jamie Jones

June 2015

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Food News It's a feast of festivals in this month's food news, with gin, science and magic all getting their moment in the sun – and there's a giant model of Edinburgh made of cake Words: Peter Simpson

une begins in calculated and precise fashion, with a pair of tasty events at the Glasgow Science Festival. First up, there's the Gin-o-mics event led by scientists at the University of Glasgow Polyomics department – eagle-eyed readers may remember this lot from their Edinburgh Science Festival event, when we wondered out loud just what their name was punning on. They quickly got on Twitter and set us straight, the moral of the story being ‘don't try to be smart around genuinely smart people’. Anyway, Gin-o-mics explores the science behind gin, with plenty of cocktails sloshing around as well. 4 Jun, 7pm, The Griffin, 266 Bath St, £26, glasgowsciencefestival.org.uk From drinks powered by science to The Perfect Meal, and a talk by every modern chef's favourite experimental psychologist, Professor Charles Spence. Spence, whose work alongside the likes of Ferran Adrià, Paul Bocuse and Heston Blumenthal has been influential in the ‘smoked fish served with a mist of liquified seaweed’ world of high-end dining, presents new research into why we rate some meals over others, and the factors which impact on our perception of what's on the table in front of us. 7 Jun, 5pm, Boyd Orr Building, University of Glasgow, free, glasgow sciencefestival.org.uk Next up, it's a return to gin, courtesy of this month's Scottish Juniper Festival at Summerhall in Edinburgh. There's a wide array of gins from across Scotland, the UK and beyond, talks from the folk behind the bottles, and a genuine (if a little cramped) distillery on site courtesy of Pickering's.

Basically, if you like gin, this is probably the event for you this month. You're welcome. 12-14 Jun, various times, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall Pl, £21.50, summerhall.co.uk If you don't like gin, perhaps you'd like a slice of cake? Or maybe you'd like a scale model of Edinburgh made entirely from cake? You would?

Terrific, because we actually have one of those.

CakeFest takes over the capital's Royal Botanic Gardens with an edible map of the capital, produced by a crack team of home bakers. The map will be assembled throughout the day and devoured in the evening – in the meantime there will be live music, market stalls, and, of course, an entire botanical garden to potter around in. You don't get that on the Bake-Off… 21 Jun, Royal Botanic Gardens, Inverleith Row, free, edinburgh. cakefest.org.uk In further cake-related news, the Talbot Rice gallery in Edinburgh is celebrating its 40th birthday this month with, among other things, an “edible exhibition”. The gallery is inviting artists to whip up conceptual masterpieces that can also be sliced up and sit nicely alongside a cup of tea, and as nibbling on the art is usually frownedupon by galleries, this feels like a chance you don’t want to pass up. 5 Jun, 7pm, Talbot Rice Gallery, Old College Quad, Free, facebook.com/ talbotricegallery Finally this month, magic! Yes, you read that right, magic! Magic a la Carte to be precise, an Edinburgh International Magic Festival event combining close-quarters trickery with a tasty meal.

Leave your credulity to one side and bask in the skills of magicians who know what they're doing… then go home and annoy your friends and family with some half-remembered second-hand dinner table tricks. We're sure they'll appreciate it.

27 Jun, 7pm, Summerhall, £50, magicfest.co.uk

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Lifestyle

Credit: Tourism Authority of Thailand

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Feeling Festive Summertime is festival time, and in the world of food that means smoked meat, happy monkeys, oversized breakfasts and the chance to throw things at each other

While other sections of this fine magazine may suggest that you spend your holidays in a field, surrounded by loud people with their ‘music’ and their ‘iPads’, or running from makeshift stage to makeshift stage in some abandoned railway yard or other, we're here to tell you that there is another way. It's time to swap your earplugs for oven gloves, and eschew your standard music or arts festivals for one of a bumper crop of food festivals taking place across Europe and beyond this year.

Batalla de Vino Ever wanted to throw a glass of wine over a friend in a dramatic, soap opera-style move, but never found a good opportunity to do so? The Haro wine festival's annual Batalla de Vino, or Wine Battle, is the perfect cover for all your rouge-chucking antics. It's an event with all the hilarious pomp and bizarre spectacle of a TV drama – the town's mayor leads battlers up a mountain on a horse, before it all kicks off and everyone starts firing water pistols filled with Rioja at each other. The drinking then continues on back in the town below for the next day or so, leaving plenty of time for some hilariously convoluted drama to unfold.

Haro, Spain; 29 Jun. Grillstock Meat! Whuuh! MEAT! All of the meat! If these are sentiments you can identify with, we have the event for you. Grillstock is a festival of meat and music – the Manchester leg took place last month, while the Bristol and Manchester legs feature rap royalty De La Soul and Grandmaster Flash plus more slow-cooked flesh than you could shake a

leg of lamb at. Need tips on how to barbecue meat without spending four hours trying to cook one sausage, or want to watch people eat for sport, rather than for enjoyment or because they're actually hungry? Grillstock have you covered, leaving you to the business of munching through an entire cow in the space of a weekend. Bristol Grillstock 11-12 Jul; London Grillstock 5-6 Sep. Phelps Sauerkraut Weekend If you bumped into The Skinny in the street, and asked us what we'd been up to, and we said: ‘Not a lot, just researching a three-day sauerkraut festival in the US’, you might look at us like we were mad. Well look again fools, because this is a real thing that's happening! The town of Phelps, New York has held a festival to honour everyone's favourite use of cabbage since 1967, and it's gone from strength to strength every year. Nowadays, the event features carnival rides, a parade through the town, fireworks and a motorcycle show. Attention all food festival operators – ditch that display tent filled with TV chefs trying to flog £5,000 ovens, and replace it with a motorcycle show. Phelps, NY, USA; 31 Jul - 2 Aug. La Tomatina For decades, over 40,000 people descended on the Spanish town of Bunol every August to throw tomatoes at each other, in scenes that resembled Woodstock 1969 crossed with a pan of bolognese sauce.

While some of its renegade spirit has been lost over the years to pesky modern advances like ‘ticketing’ and ‘cutting the numbers to prevent horrendous overcrowding’, it's still an

FOOD AND DRINK

Words: Peter Simpson

anarchic spectacle. Because, and let's never forget this, it's still about throwing tomatoes at strangers in the street on a weekday morning.

Bunol, Spain; 26 & 31 Aug. The Giant Omelette Celebration It's nice to celebrate things, be they birthdays, achievements, or successful eBay purchases. But to really mark an occasion you need to, as they say, ‘go big’. And in terms of big-going-ness, they don't get much bigger than the annual Giant Omelette Celebration in Abbeville, Louisiana. Essentially, it's a self-fulfilling bash – organise an event to celebrate the fact you're knocking up a 5,000egg omelette in a twelve-foot wide pan, make said omelette, and rejoice in the making of it. Still, it's difficult to be too cynical about such wonder. Come on, a giant omelette! Giant! Abbeville, LA, USA; 7 & 8 Nov. Lopburi Monkey Banquet First thing's first – you won't be eating any monkeys, so put away that accusing glare. The Monkey Banquet is, in fact, an almost-literal chimps’ tea party, where every year the residents of Lopburi in central Thailand prepare a feast for the town's primate population. There are invitations, and tablecloths, and eventually the whole thing degenerates into a messy shambles as the guests start throwing the meal at each other and scratching themselves – it's everything you'd want from the classic dinner party, but with none of the tidying up.

And with added monkeys. Lopburi, Thailand; 29 Nov. theskinny.co.uk/food

THE SKINNY

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Fist in the Air

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Surf-inflected Canadian noisemongers Fist City get angry on their excellent new album Everything Is A Mess – we catch up with guitarist Evan van Reekum to talk politics, punk and riding waves in landlocked towns Interview: Will Fitzpatrick Photography: Stuart Moulding

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o put it bluntly, we're fucked. This much is obvious. Just look around you – here in the UK we're still reeling from the victory of a slender Conservative majority vote, with spending cuts and further austerity measures high on their agenda, contrary to received wisdom with regards to reviving an ailing economy. Then there's the US, where communities are still in turmoil after racial tension and police brutality spilled over into riots and murder. And that's just two of the most privileged western countries – think we've got it bad?

You should see what's happening in Iraq and Syria right now. ‘Fucked’ is the only reasonable summation.

And what's our cultural response to this? Well, nothing. Musicians with genuine political ripostes have either been ridiculed by a right-wing-dominated media or remain hidden in the underground, preaching to the converted, away from anything resembling a significant platform. As for mainstream pop… well, one of the UK's biggest bands recently announced they were gonna freak out the squares by dropping their folksy-common-man gimmickry in favour of… bog-standard guitar-based balladry.

More songs about relationships and stuff. The bland leading the bland; a cacophony of musical effluent; a self-conscious, say-nothing artistic black hole.

The fires haven't all burned out, however. Take Fist City: a riotous surf-punk band from Canada's province of Alberta, and on new album Everything Is A Mess, they're seriously pissed off. “When we wrote the album, the Ferguson riots were in full effect. Now it's happening in Baltimore,” says songwriter and guitarist Evan van Reekum from his home in Lethbridge. “This record has a lot to do with police brutality in the United States, and very unjust murders. It's a huge issue. It's terrible what's happening down there. The body count is just huge.”

June 2015

You can hear their righteous response in the furious clatter of recent single Fuck Cops; a posthardcore garage sprawl powered by sheets of ravaged guitar and a powerhouse rumble from drummer Ryan Grieve. It's worth remembering that punk has always been a voice for the disenfranchised – when you're on the bottom rung, you've got to shout upwards. It's all part of this band's raison d'être, as Evan explains: “We all grew up being underdogs in various ways, being bullied.

Keir and Britney [Griffiths, siblings and Fist City vocalist and bassist, respectively] grew up as black kids in a community full of right-wing religious people. It was pretty brutal for them growing up, though they wouldn't want me to make them out as victims.”

The band's last album – 2013’s It's 1983 Grow Up – dealt with similar themes of disaffection, but songs like Never Bored felt more like kids acting out than responding to adverse circumstances. Was there a conscious thematic shift with this record?

“Yeah, I guess we wanted to start taking things a lot more seriously. We'd talked about being a lot more outspoken on issues of bigotry – here it's not uncommon to walk down the street and have someone drive by in a truck and yell ‘faggot’ at you.

Growing up, our lives were full of that. ‘Hipster art fag, blah blah blah.’ I just don't understand those viewpoints at all.”

“But we started writing the record, and the situation in Ferguson was progressing and we were becoming more and more angry. There'd be videos of police killing people with their handguns – I've seen videos of people with both hands being held against a car, and still being shot multiple times.

It's just an abuse of power that was wholly disappointing, so as we were writing the record we became more and more tense and frustrated.”

Lyrical content isn't the only thing that's changed since writing the last record either. Moustachioed frontman Kier was still known as Kirsten until a few short years ago – his gender transition from female to male was still relatively recent even when recording It's 1983. This time around he's audibly much more comfortable with the changes that such a dramatic life choice will inevitably bring. Clearly cautious in representing his friend's personal life, Evan is nonetheless forthcoming in terms of how this affects the Fist City narrative (spoiler: it doesn't really).

“We all grew up being underdogs in various ways” Evan van Reekum

“Kier is the rock of the band,” he say, warmly.

“He's always been the person that's kept it together; the person that any one of us could go talk to at any time. I don't think we'll ever lose that. It's a weird thing for me to talk about on his behalf, but if it has changed the band at all, it's been positive because we're all happier that he's happier.”

By way of contrast, The Skinny notes that Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace became a spokesperson for trans issues after revealing her gender dysphoria in a starkly public manner. Kier, whose transition began in markedly quieter circumstances, is more reticent to raise the subject. Evan nods.

“For sure. I think that Kier is very wary of being outspoken about it. Last year Kier was approached to write a blog post for a trans activist's website and he declined, because it's very much his own journey. I think that's his humble attitude towards it, he doesn't really wanna be the centre of attention, you know? He definitely won't start a conversation about it, but he's open to talking about it. It's a strange limelight. Within the group, we never ask questions. It's just the way it is; this sort of fantastic thing that happened. We're all pretty grateful that it has.”

Conversation returns to the music itself, and the seeming incongruity of surf sounds emerging from landlocked areas like Fist City's hometowns of Lethbridge and Calgary. Sure, bands as varied as The Beach Boys and Man or Astro-Man? have dabbled in (and even defined) some of the genre's signature tricks without so much as picking up a board. So what is it about those evocatively twanging guitars that captures the imagination of dryshoed suburban types? Evan laughs.

MUSIC

“There is a hilarious irony that we just plain can't surf. But with that kind of music it's easy to be punk and badass, and still be interesting and fun.

It's where those two things meet. You can be loud and aggressive and angry, but still make people dance and have a good time.”

Do Fist City define themselves as a punk band?

“The definition is so blurred,” he replies. “I know what people think punk is, as far as pop culture is concerned – like these really terrible mallpunk bands or whatever. When I was working at a record store, this kid pointed at a Hüsker Dü record and said, ‘That's not real punk’. Then he pointed at Rancid and was like, ‘That's real punk’.

I was so flabbergasted by that. But now that the definition of punk has changed and is changing so much, I think we'd rather just be a band.

“If punk still means living in a squat and getting wasted or being totally straight-edge, we do not live that lifestyle any more. We definitely like the subversive values associated with punk traditionally, but personally, when I'm at home on my computer, I think, ‘Wow, I'm the least punk person ever’. I fly fish and I collect records!”

Indeed, Evan fills his time much more efficiently than stereotypical views of punk rockers would have you believe: “I work a lot, kind of a workaholic I guess. I have two DJ gigs per week, and I work at the record store two days a week, I have another full time job doing marketing… I'm always busy. I don't feel there's any other way.”

And what of DIY – is that still central to the band's identity?

“That depends. All of a sudden we have an agent in Europe, and a press person, so I guess technically no. In Canada we book all of our own shows, we do all of our own press, but a lot of DIY bands would probably be pretty pissed if we did identify as DIY. We still make our own videos and that kind of stuff, but just out of necessity. We're just trying to go with the flow, I guess, and not get in anybody's way, you know?”

So where does this leave Everything Is A Mess?

“Good question. I want people to enjoy it, I want people to get it. I guess I want to follow it up with something good, and just tour a lot… I would love this band to be in a place where we could comfortably do our own thing and live the way we want to live without it being a battle all the time.”

He pauses once more, perhaps reflecting on the mess, the anger and Fist City's struggle for selfassertion in a world that keeps trying to shout down voices like theirs. “I guess we're trying to achieve a level of success where we don't feel like underdogs any more.”

Everything Is A Mess is released on 22 Jun via Transgressive Records fistcitycult.com

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LIVE LISTINGS JUNE

MAMA 03 PRONTO + SEA OF CROWNS 05 DEFINITELY OASIS 07 NINA NESBITT 12 GEMMA HAYES 13 DED RABBIT 14 THE BURNING HELL 19 THE RICH PENNER 27 ALDEN + MICHAEL CERA 10 BUTCH WALKER 18 FAT GOTH 26 THE SAINTS JUNE

JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE

JUNE

JULY JULY

+ BLACK INTERNATIONAL + BRITNEY

JULY

CLUBNIGHTS JUNE

05 06

JIVE & DUTY

12

SURE SHOT

13

BEEP BEEP, YEAH!

19

SOLAR BOOGALOO

20

POP ROCKS

27

MAGIC NOSTALGIC

28

SUCH A DRAG

JUNE

JUNE

JUNE

JUNE

JUNE

JUNE

JUNE

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SPEAKER BITE ME

THE

THE SKINNY

Credit: Jassy Earl

Credit: Pete Dunlop

Faith No More

Mogwai

Gig Highlights Words: Siobhan Smith

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une arrives and with it comes the promise of a marginal amount of sun, the official beginning of festival season and a helluva lot of potentially outstanding gigs in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Whatever your scene, whatever the weather, we've got your back.

The month kicks off in scuzzy, post-punk fashion with tireless Leeds outfit Eagulls delivering the next installment of Summerhall's Nothing Ever Happens Here series, with which programmer Jamie Sutherland (also of Broken Records) endeavours to disprove the misconception of a mundane Edinburgh music scene. As one of the last British bands to tear it up on Letterman, there is no doubt that this raucous five-piece are up to the challenge (3 Jun).

LA-based Odd Future member Earl Sweatshirt, aka Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, guarantees a night of explicit content in Glasgow's O2 ABC (8 Jun).

Earl's second studio album IDLSIDGO (I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside, in case you're asking) is a raw, honest, and dare we say mature addition to the latter-day hip-hop canon. A clear progression from the mysogynistic undertones of 2013’s Doris, his new LP marks a shift from angry teenager to the earned confidence and aggression of a man coming to terms with his past.

From LA hip-hop to reformed Britpop, the next night is a big ‘un at Glasgow's Barrowlands (9 Jun) with Blur promising a show of epic proportions. Albarn and co. will be playing material from their understated return LP The Magic Whip, as well as the anthems that helped shape a generation. Along the road, NYC's Godmother of punk Patti Smith will be playing Horses, the record that kicked off her career as a musical libertine, in the Royal Concert Hall.

Meanwhile in Edinburgh, the poetry scene continues to flourish and Neu! Reekie! present one of their biggest shows yet, featuring SAY and Mercury-winning hip-hop trio Young Fathers, resurgent Edinburgh dance collective Finitribe and a set from legendary techno ace Andrew Weatherall. With the usual spoken word to boot, #untitledlive will provide a considerable five and a half hours of entertainment (Central Hall, 9 Jun).

Have yourself a couple nights off before the

vowel-averse Bdy_Prts promise to fill Stereo's dark basement with alt-pop that packs an electro punch (12 Jun). A follow up to last year's IDLU – produced

by Julian Corrie of Miaoux Miaoux – new single Cold Shoulder just recently surfaced and if the shimmering synths are a sign of the album to come, it's officially time to sit up and take notice.

If you prefer your guitars thick with feedback then an apointment with Crocodiles awaits at Broadcast (14 Jun) to see the San Diego garage duo thrash out some reverb soaked gold. They swagger over to the capital to play Sneaky Pete's the following night (15 Jun).

June's comeback game is strong; and this one may be the most highly anticipated of them all.

On 14 Jun alt-metal legends Faith No More will undoubtedly smash the O2 Academy, Glasgow, in an appearance that falls slap bang in the middle of an extensive world tour. Sol Invictus, the San Franciscans’ first new album in 18 years, is an absolute beast of varied textures. Mike Patton's

inimitable larynx acrobatics (the biggest range in rock: fact) are as astounding as ever. This will be a loud one.

If all this explicit content, psych-rock and metal is wearing you out, seek respite in Stereo with the wonderful Katie Crutchfield aka Waxachatchee the following night (15 Jun). Her sincere, introspective songwriting and sparse instrumental landscapes are all the pampering yer lug holes need.

Nutzoid supergroup FFS appropriately kick off their European tour at Glasgow's Art School (16 Jun) after tickets sold faster than we could say ‘so it's Franz Ferdinand and Sparks, together?’

The Glasgow legends will be warmly welcomed back to the circuit in their first ever collaborative live gig with the American quirk-rockers. Ten years in the pipeline, the debut LP (released 8 Jun) showcases the Mael brothers’ acerbic lyrics and Franz's jaunty energy. Expect a theatrical performance.

2015 marks the 20th anniversary of Mogwai.

In June 1995 the young band members gathered in the living room of Stuart Braithwaite's parents to rehearse for the first time. You'd think that two decades in, they might start to get a bit complacent – far from it, as last year's Rave Tapes has gone to show. Playing two nights (20-21 Jun) on their home soil at the Barrowlands, we have a legendary band in a legendary venue. Post-rock perfection.

Rounding off the month with a double-dunter of celebrations. Four of Glasgow's brightest, Poor Things, Pinact, Sharptooth and Halfrican are releasing their split 7" EP on 22 Jun – and they are very excited about it. Choose Edinburgh's Banshee Labyrinth (26 Jun) or The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow (27 Jun) for a serious party. In fact bugger it; just do both.

Do Not Miss West End Festival All Dayer, Òran Mór, 21 Jun Now a staple of Glasgow's West End Festival, this year's Òran Mór all-dayer presents another discering afternoon (and evening) of quaility music from all corners of your record shelf. Why wouldn't you catch the genre-bending Phantom Band, politically focused alternative hip-hoppers Stanley Odd, the aggressively melodic Tuff Love and the wonderfully reflective jazz-speckled wisdom of Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat, all in one day, in one venue, for a mere fifteen of your hard-earned pounds? Then there's a rare live outing for De Rosa, sprawling instrumental star-gazers Remember Remember, The Dirty Beggars , SAY 2013 winner RM Hubbert, and SAY 2015 nominee Kathryn Joseph. If this doesn't peel you off the couch, we don't know what will. [Siobhan Smith]

Credit: Beth Chalmers

Credit: Jassy Earl

Bdy Prts

Aidan Moffat

June 2015

MUSIC

Preview

41

Hidden Door: LoneLady King's Stables Road, 22 May

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Jonnie Common kicking off proceedings in the live-music ‘Long Room’. With the bare bones of the stage exposed, the mechanical combines with the lovingly hand-crafted to provide a more than appropriate setting for LoneLady – the fest's first musical headliner.

Mancunian post-punk Julie Campbell plus full backing band wreaks industrial havoc from an outwardly traditional guitar-keys-drums set-up, offering up a set taut, clipped and intuitive. Opener Into The Cave's ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ promises an evening of shimmying shoulders, and the following tracks from recent record Hinterland make good on that pledge. The 80s infused, slick and twisted Groove It Out is evidently Prince-indebted and the agitated, itching guitarwork on Bunkerpop winks at St Vincent, but Campbell's attack translates these influences into a harsh, futuristic reality.

Special stuff for a special venue. [Katie Hawthorne]

First things first, Hidden Door isn't as hidden as the would-be detective in you might hope. A stone's throw from the Grassmarket, the ‘secret courtyard’ on King's Stable Road is wholly accessible – but that's no bad thing. On discovering room after room of theatre or installations or bars with purposely brewed IPA, it becomes so much clearer how and why the returning multi-discipline project deserves its name. And thanks to the festival's (somewhat controversial) reaping of eager volunteers, the before-and-after photos of the courtyard are impressive, with the previously disused space deweeded, whitewashed and re-dressed in the universal language of fairylights, bunting and artfully distressed, reclaimed tyres.

Friday's sold-out launch night boasts a robust lonelady.co.uk and locally flavoured line-up, seeing C Duncan and

Photo: JayJay Robertson

Gig Reviews

Purity Ring / Born Gold

Where Born Gold have boundless, goofy energy, Purity Ring have vision, and heaps of it. Since touring debut Shrines, with Roddick's innovative rrrrr gemstone-lantern synth rig, this duo have harvested Brush your teeth; tonight's a double helping enough XP to level up the show considerably. For of sugary, Canadian electro-wizardry, and the Art Another Eternity, James sports a skin-tight white School's bustling crowd is hungry for it. The billing's body suit, while Roddick returns to his lanterns, particularly sympathetic, as the support – the hy- only now surrounded by a ceiling-height forest of peractive Born Gold – began life as Gobble Gobble, reactive festive lights. And the procedural, engineewith none other than Purity Ring's Megan James red approach to the new record finally makes sense, and Corin Roddick. when the live event is this damn mesmeric. Who And the genre genes fit: frontman Cecil Frena else plays a light-keyboard with mirrored gloves? is still peddling the same anthemic, turn-of-theThe new album leads the set: the bassy Stranger decade synth-driven electronica, albeit with the Than Earth and Push Pull to start, showcasing the flavours tweaked towards a kind of dark, Nyan Cat- duo's sonic and luminous ambition. Favourites from vibe glitch-punk. As the lights strobe, we catch glim- Shrines are smartly scaled up, satisfyingly paspses of his flopping mop hovering over his neon tel-hued and dazzling (Obedear, Belispeaks and synthpad, or his frantically strummed guitar. The Fineshrines, oh yes). Writ large, Purity Ring are a uptempo dance-music sensibilities keep the ausophisticated act, not soulless but committed, dience hooked, and Frena's earnest banter, nasal synaesthetic, and most importantly captivating. punk vocal, and synchronised dance moves en[George Sully] sure we're ready for the next course.

The ArtSchool, 28 Apr

Photo: Kate Johnston

purityringthing.com

Juice: Daniel Avery

room. One detached, looping female vocal cuts through the smokey silence, drawing us in. On the raised platform, his distinctive blond curls and rrrrr denim jacket loom over his decks: we are reverA cosy, methodical BPM reigns tonight, from ant. Tunnelling, deteriorating industrial sounds both the headliner's set and the atmosphere of the hypnotise us, the muted aches hiding just below room. Sneaky Pete's is, of course, a small venue, the surface; he teases morsels of All I Need, and but at the Thursday institution that is Juice, this what sounds like the skittish faux-piano of the space is intimate, rather than claustrophobic.

Roman Flügel remix. It's been a couple of months And the fact that Daniel Avery – a known name by since New Energy (a collection of Drone Logic reany stretch – has been here six times in the last mixes) was released, and tonight shows he's keen five years, suggests he is drawn to the space's in- to blend, vary and experiment. timacy. Praised debut Drone Logic is characterised He rolls his sleeves up; shit's going down. The by its sense of closeness, a sort of metallic, acid- irresistable copper-tinged scrape of These Nights dipped techno that creates resonant spaces, and Never End lurches through us, into our eyes and all driven by a tempo rarely topping 120. Lounging down our throats, and we raise our hands in supby the bar while the Juice residents incubate the plication. It's a sentiment we all echo; this is never room, he calmly signs posters and chats with club- enough. The loping, progressive advance of Avery's goers, at ease in the throbbing half-dark. set feels a near constant apogee, and to end at all Avery strides through to take the stage, his would have always been too soon. [George Sully] imposing stature exaggerated by the size of the

Photo: Kate Johnston

Sneaky Pete's, 30 Apr

42

danielavery.co.uk

Review

MUSIC

THE SKINNY

Photo: John Graham

Photo: Daniel Harris

Nick Cave

Hinds / Oscar / Kill Surrrf

solo rendition of The Weeping Song is pleasing, rather than engrossing, whereas the barely controlled hysteria of Red Right Hand provokes rrrrr a suitably wild reaction from those assembled; If Nick Cave was taking his seat in the Royal Concert some audience members never quite regain their Hall as an anonymous audience member rather composure. than strolling on stage as the star performer, his A particularly poignant rendition of Into My appearance could still turn heads. Dressed in trade- Arms is slightly spoi-led by the self-centred catmark dark suit and open-necked shirt, his tall frame calls and relentless unauthorised flash photograand slicked back hair mark him out as a man kno- phy that bookend it. wingly making a statement. He describes this look Cave and his legion are too long in the tooth as resembling “travelling oboe salesmen from to be bothered by such relatively minor distracWeimar Germany,” of which there are surely few tions, of course. “I can't understand you,” he casuresident in Glasgow tonight. ally dismisses one shout of undying love. Well into Although billed as a solo show (which one his third decade of showbusiness, Cave's stage initially suspected would concern his recent sepresence, and particularly his voice, have never ries of touring vignettes, compiled as The Sickbag been better, and this is a commanding perforSong), the best moments of the evening are in mance from a man still capable of hitting creative fact those fully involving a surprise appearance peaks. A perfect marriage of early era Cave and from his Bad Seeds – particularly anything wildnew. [Chris McCall] haired sideman Warren Ellis takes the lead on. A

It's not easy to introduce a sour note to a Hinds performance, given the Madrid band's infectious onstage energy and abundant charm. rrrrr Still, one eejit gives it a go with some sexist Taking point on tonight's well-rounded bill, heckling, triggering a chorus of contempt from Glasgow four-piece Kill Surrrf conjure a balmy heat- the rest of tonight's self-policing, zero-tolerance wave through the power of unruffled songwriting crowd. None of which, we might add, fazes the and soupy reverb alone. Surf-pop melodies battle artists formerly known as Deers one bit: Carlotta valiantly through echo chamber distortion, demon- Cosials delivers a heartfelt appeal to have fun, strating an assured aesthetic that's got one foot in and the room duly obliges. Though they've yet to the 50s and another a few steps into the future. release an album, most of tonight's set triggers There's further time slippage during Oscar, a whoop of recognition and gratitude from at whose polished sound harks back to Britpop's least one pocket of the crowd, with Trippy Gums’ heyday. Frontman Oscar Scheller is blessed with a seesawing tempo met with particular enthusiasm. robust baritone and uses it well, its richness help- Also scoring high are the laidback, interweaving ing to moor his romantically inclined indie-pop vocals of Castigadas en el Granero, and the shouty whenever it risks becoming too lightweight. An interplay of San Diego, but it's their cover of Thee unwavering and unashamed catchiness (replete Headcoats’ Davy Crockett that seals the deal, its with whistled melodies, no less) also helps keep barely bridled exuberance tipping the night over things sweet. into full-blown triumph. [Chris Buckle]

Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 26 Apr

Broadcast, 21 May

facebook.com/hindsband

Pity Sex / Get Well / Womps Bloc+, Glasgow, 21 May

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Cymbal bags and guitar cases strewn about at the audience's feet, the setup at Bloc's 12th REPEATER event has all the messy homespun ambience of a flat gig. Between them (a bizarre and rapturously received cameo from rappers The Bin Men notwithstanding), this three band bill comprises a comprehensive review of 90s alternative rock, with Get Well piling on the shoegaze, Womps representing tuneful thrashy punk and Pity Sex channeling a bit of both, interspersed with clean jangle reminiscent of Modest Mouse or Built to Spill's brighter material.

Pity Sex's audacious name belies a cordial and reserved attitude, the band beginning by thanking the venue staff and a packed house, the crowd perched on tiptoes for snatched glimpses at the band. Further rapport is scarce however: Pity Sex seem fatigued and nervous, fumbling awkwardly

between songs and occasionally playing with their backs to the audience.

Some niggling sound issues don't help matters, with guitarist Brennan Greaves’ vocals lost amid waves of distortion, along with some of his more precise finger work. Bandmate Britty Drake's higher register fares better though, and both come through loud and clear for the chorus-pedal soaked refrain of Sedated, a slower number which in Bloc's humid climate becomes a woozy yawn of burnt-out pop bliss. It's also one of several occasions when audience members can be seen mouthing the lyrics, an impressive response for a band with just one fulllength and an EP under their belt playing a bar venue at the other side of the world.

And while it's to a polite smattering of applause that Pity Sex bid farewell, there's a lingering sense of camaraderie amongst the audience almost as thick as the muggy air, the band's workmanlike enunciations of familiar frustrations all the more cathartic in the context of the evening's occasionally taxing logistics. [Andrew Gordon]

Photo: Derek Robertson

Photo: Derek Robertson

nickcave.com

American Football

SWG3, Glasgow, 17 May

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“Honestly, I can't remember all my teenage feelings,” sings Mike Kinsella, halfway through American Football's first appearance in Glasgow since the band originally formed in 1997. Tonight, however; he seems to make short work of articulating his twentysomething worries, as the final show of this UK jaunt sees ageing plaid-shirted emo survivors and backwards-baseball-capped young punks unite in joyous singalongs.

It's difficult to know what to make of American Football's recent reunion: exercise in nostalgia?

Whatever the score, tonight's setlist scatters the contents of their late 90s output with no new stuff on the agenda. If this reformation is anything other than wistful reminiscence, they're doing a pretty good job of keeping schtum.

Onto the music: On Five Silent Miles, Kinsella and Steve Holmes’ guitars positively shimmer;

simple melodic interplay, all sunspots and raindrops; immaculately layered intricacies, as understated as they're subtly devastating. Drummer Steve Lamos’ occasional trumpet adds a mournful dignity to songs already full of uncertainty and regret: if the likes of The Summer Ends are perfect encapsulations of early adulthood's attendant tribulations (‘I'm thinking about leaving and how I should say goodbye / With a handshake or an embrace or a kiss on the cheek / Or possibly all three’), then this re-evaluation, as the authors approach the age of 40, implies their themes are more enduring than mere post-adolescent trauma.

The band's confidence suggests an understanding that some questions never receive answers – but asking them is a universal, human experience.

And as underlined by the rapturous reception for an immaculate Never Meant, a great song in the right context is all it takes to revive the intensity of feelings gone by. [Will Fitzpatrick] americanfootballmusic.com

pitysex.bandcamp.com

June 2015

MUSIC

Review

43

Album of the Month Outfit

Slowness [Memphis Industries, 15 Jun]

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Their 2013 debut Performance didn't spark throughout, but its clutch of on-the-money highlights announced Outfit as an act keen – and equipped – to toy with the staid conventions of pop. Slowness is more accomplished by some distance, and a surer, fuller demonstration of their developing songcraft.

Deftly sequenced, from opener New Air's electro stutter to a clutch of mini symphonies (Smart Thing, Boy) via the mid-set atmospherics of Wind or Vertigo, they confirm their headway with the closing Swam Out, whose epic, ascending coda is a (not so) distant cousin of The Blue Nile's Saturday Night. Indeed, the Glasgow trio's

influence is evident throughout, with Slowness's deceptively full soundboard built on a trim foundation of delicate keys and crisp percussion.

Outfit reference an outlying sector of mid-80s alt-pop, a glossy side road that saw its prime exponents forsake the wiry, nervy guitars of post-punk in favour of synths, beats and – crucially – space.

So much space here: Andrew Hunt's voice lives and breathes within it. It's a careworn but lovely thing, with shades, at times, of Talk Talk's Mark Hollis. This is an album for the small hours, a record you'll turn to as the bottle empties, the ashtray fills and the light of dawn creeps through the blinds. Its scale is modest but its daring is limitless.

[Gary Kaill] facebook.com/outfitoutfitoutfit

Hudson Mohawke

Everything Everything

Woodenbox

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Lantern [Warp, 15 Jun]

Get To Heaven [RCA, 22 Jun]

End Game Olive [Grove, 27 May]

Six years separate Ross Birchard's effervescent debut Butter and his thirstily-awaited follow-up Lantern. His 808-obsessed work in the meantime with TNGHT and Kanye might be a brash style increasingly aped by rising trap stars like RL Grime, but his roots aren't quite as obnoxious; Butter was prismatic, kaleidoscopic, footloose. A bit bonkers, basically.

Eerie baby-voice ‘Hudson, Mo!’ signature notwithstanding, his attention-deficit eclecticism has evolved into a confidently varied curatorial ear. Solid pop-balladry (Very First Breath, Deepspace) and slower jams (Indian Steps, Resistance, Warriors) collide harmoniously with the itchy, crystalline electronica that typified his debut.

Portrait of Luci recalls FUSE's tropicalia; Shadows, Scud Books and happy closer Brand New World gleam with candid, Saturdaymorning-cartoon energy, all major-key glitter and brass. Birchard is a long-established talent behind the decks, but Lantern – a defiantly slick sophomore LP – proves that being in high demand has in no way diluted his craft. [George Sully]

Three albums in and folk are eyeing northern quartet Everything Everything closely; surely they must misstep eventually? Alas, Get To Heaven is as polished as Arc and as inventive as their earnest debut Man Alive, cherrypicking math rock intricacies, indie rock sensibilities, and synth-fired 80s fetishising when it suits them. Try Regret's nostalgic, percussion-thumping verses, Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread's quickfire lyrics and layered chords, or the regal, anti-capitalist assassination paean Fortune 500; the record's not short on hits, and rarely does it idle.

Thanks in part to Stuart Price's Midas production chops, Get To Heaven's arrangement is atomically mastered: satisfyingly complex drum patterns and choice bass and guitar lines, offset by Jonathan Higgs’ addictive falsetto. It's a proven formula, but throw in cheeky wordplay (“Did you think that everything, everything would change?”

Higgs wryly asks on Regret) and EE are a welcome counterpoint to today's starchily sincere indie brood. A repeatedly rewarding follow-up.

[George Sully]

They may have undergone a minor rebranding since Home and the Wild Hunt (having re-dropped ‘…And a Fistful of Fivers’ from their moniker a wee while back now), but Woodenbox's second album suggests their influences and intentions haven't drifted far from those that informed their gallantly spitand-sawdust 2010 debut.

Frontman Ali Downer continues to belt out lead vocals with rugged fervour, his forefront presence anchoring a robust assortment of rollicking country-folk sounds, while the three-piece horn section (arguably Woodenbox's second cornerstone asset) delivers bolstering melodies that quicken the pulse of tracks like lead single Courage. But while the ingredients are occasionally over-familiar, the band have found convincing ways to extend their reach, with erstwhile rough edges scraped smooth and a streamlined sense of purpose showing through in the likes of opener Asphyxiation's pop stomp chorus or Roll For Me's jazzy, jerky verses. A confident, if not quite revelatory, return. [Duncan Harman]

hudsonmohawke.com

Playing T in the Park, Strathallan on 12 Jul | everything-everything.co.uk

Playing Grand Ole Oprey, Glasgow, 23 May | wdnbx.com

FFS

Jenny Hval

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FFS [Domino, 8 Jun] Some musical partnerships are just meant to be.

Take Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks, making colourful and unorthodox pop together for fast approaching half a century, their muse as strong as ever. Now take FFS: a union with Franz Ferdinand born from mutual appreciation, which combines idiosyncrasies from each to create something fresh and distinct.

As the title of Collaborations Don't Work indicates, a wry sense of humour is one of the shared qualities to work its way into FFS's genetic profile (an archness evidenced elsewhere by lyrics rhyming “climbing Mt. Fuji” with “Hello Kitty Uzi”). Other inheritances are more clearly traceable to one or other parent, but neither act's influence holds sway: rather, the two sides meet in the middle and have fun with the possibilities. Out of this six-mind brainstorm emerges a classy melange of sweeping disco-pop, jaunty operatics and playful artrock; often knowingly silly, but always seriously good. [Chris Buckle] Playing Glasgow Art School on 16 Jun; Edinburgh International Theatre on 24 Aug ffsmusic.com

Apocalypse, Girl [Sacred Bones, 8 Jun]

Miaoux Miaoux

School of Velocity [Chemikal Underground, 1 Jun]

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“Think big girl, think big like a King,” begins Jenny Hval on her first album for Sacred Bones – one which journeys from the Norwegian artist's bedroom to bible belts in both her homeland and the US, before ultimately seeing Hval lose herself and express a wish to be unborn amidst the lapping drones of ten minute closer Holy Land. Religious imagery springs up everywhere, from on That Battle Is Over's murmurs of heaven to comparing her age to Jesus’ on the string-embellished richness of Heaven.

Hval continues a long-held fascination in exploring gender roles on Sabbath, as well as taking on tabloid media and the expectations they propogate on women, her voice thick with sarcasm when spitting “feminism's over and socialism's over.” It's her frequent attempts to empathise with these opposing views – doing so with a stunning vocal performance dilating from breathy spoken word to sky-gazing operatics – that makes for an incredibly arresting commentary on the state of the West. [Simon Jay Catling]

“Oh my god. It really is beautiful,” croons Julian Corrie – aka Miaoux Miaoux – on Luxury Discovery. Both statement and song title, work, will soon feel entirely appropriate: School of Velocity, his second album, is a precisely pitched, space-age evoking body of work. At turns demandingly hyperactive and eyes-shut mellowed, the record snips and steals from the worlds of electronica.

Tracks like Giga Shrug and Unbeatable Slow Machine are fluid, seductively elastic in a manner indubitably Prince-like, but self-aware at every turn. It's The Quick is a misbehaved, decepti-vely formidable dancefloor monster that's explicitly designed to make you sweat.

Peaks Beyond Peaks starts sweetly, but builds into a trance-led labyrinth with no memory of how you got there. Corrie's producer background is self-evident, but his ability to tease out textured complications from familiar songwriting origins renders School of Velocity a possible classic-in-the-making. [Katie Hawthorne]

jennyhval.com

Playing Electric Fields, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfriesshire on 29 Aug

Daughn Gibson

Wolf Alice

The LaFontaines

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Carnation [Sub Pop, 8 Jun]

My Love Is Cool [Dirty Hit, 22 Jun]

Class 889 [Records, 8 Jun]

Carnation is a frustrating record. According to Gibson, it's marked by a sense of “malign opulence.”

He says, “if All Hell was candy and Me Moan gourmet beef jerky, then Carnation is delicious melon.” It's reflective of the pervasive sense that this album is trying really, really hard to do something different.

But, like prayers for rain, simply willing the weirdness to come isn't always quite enough.

Co-producer Randall Dunn (Sun O))) sometimes coaxes something special from Gibson's grand-scale visions: Shatter You Through is all bottom-of-your-belly reverb and ‘80s disco punctuation, and I Let Him Deal shows off Gibson's catchiest Morrissey impression amidst a sea of doom-laden, rolling swing beats. But more often than not, the tracks are blown-out, overwrought – overshadowed by unnecessary melodrama or uncomfortably self-conscious balladry. Carnation is built on indulgence: a gratuitous, unpredictable experience that sometimes leaves the listener on the outside of an in-joke. [Katie Hawthorne]

Bin those preconceptions now. Turns out Ellie Rowsell's claim (when she spoke to The Skinny back in March) that those pitching her band as 90s alt-rock revisionists might have cause to rethink once they heard their album, was more than mere showboating. Five years after Rowsell formed Wolf Alice with bassist Joff Oddie, they deliver an invigorating, genredefying debut whose pop savvy sets it comfortably apart from the schmindie workaday.

From the wrong-footing opening of Turn To Dust's gossamer folk to the acoustic Swallowtail (where drummer Joel Amey takes lead vocals), My Love Is Cool delights in tearing up the script. Fluffy is still mighty, as is epic recent single Giant Peach. But it's the newer detours (the parade ground backbeat of Silk, the skewed balladry of Soapy Water) that impress and, it seems, define this breathless endeavour. My Love Is Cool is the sound of indie pop having the paddles applied. [Gary Kaill]

Capitalising on the recent Scottish hip-hop surge, Motherwell quintet The LaFontaines raised the bar with their latest single King. Unrelenting, nervy lyrics with violent undercurrents performed (perhaps crucially) in a thick Scottish accent work wonders on this track. The rest of Class is sadly a confused state of affairs. While abrasive and articulate rapping over the top of metal-esque guitar hooks certainly creates a unique take on rap rock, at times the bizarre amalgamation leaves you feeling as though you're listening to two separate records; particularly when the Panic! At The Disco style vocals take over.

Tracks like All She Knows and Pull Me Back are stripped of the gritty rap element, leaving the listener feeling cheated; soaring teenybopper lyrics are a far cry from the edgy, provocative rhymes of King. In summary, incisive Scottish hip-hop + American teen-rock + Pendulum style electronica = make your fucking mind up. Pretty please. [Siobhan Smith]

facebook.com/daughngibson

Playing Glasgow O2 ABC | wolfalice.co.uk

Playing Edinburgh Liquid Room on 11 Jun | thelafontaines.co.uk

44

Review

MUSIC

THE SKINNY

Desaparecidos

Neil Young

No Joy

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Payola [Epitaph, 22 Jun]

The Monsanto Years [Warner Music, 15 Jun]

More Faithful [Mexican Summer, 8 Jun]

When the last Desaparecidos album surfaced in 2002, emo wunderkind Conor Oberst was only 22, but his ideas were fully formed: The ‘Disappeared’ produced a Pinkerton-esque rock album that projected its self-loathing towards the pitfalls and vanities of suburban American life.

This long-awaited follow-up feels less coherently thematic, but 13 years on Conor's still trying to make sense of the world by railing against it – everything from slacktivism to Sheriff Joe Arpaio to the music industry gets a kicking. Payola is mostly good fun, particularly in the grip of furious, anti-establishment anthems like The Underground Man and Te Amo Camila Vallejo. There are missteps – 10 Steps Behind questions religious headscarves, and it ain't pretty – but even so, this existential howl against cruelty and injustice lends itself to some admirably infectious punk rock with enjoyable delusions of new wave grandeur. Welcome back. [Will Fitzpatrick]

Forty-seven years after his debut solo record, the prospect of another angry outing from Neil Young is not one that'll set pulses racing. On this occasion, however, the ever singular Young achieves something that, at least in recent years, he's rarely been guilty of: relevance. The Monsanto Years is a crystallisation of some of Young's hardest-fought political positions. And it comes at a time of minor global awakening on many of these fronts.

Railing against the influence of the corporate world – with the eponymous GMO producer the primary target for his diatribe – this is a concept album, thematically and musically. Similar melodies drift in and out of different tracks, framing the piece in an almost operatic manner. Recalling Bruce Springsteen's underrated Wrecking Ball, this is the work of a veteran who has had enough and has hit on a way in which to package his frustration in a way that is tuneful, accessible and timely. [Finbarr Bermingham]

It won't change your life. It might not even change your day, but album number three from Jasamine White-Gluz and Laura Lloyd makes good on their original fizz-bomb fuzz-pop manifesto. This time around, the approach is more measured and the overdrive pedal gets the odd breather. But this is no sell-out, and No Joy still deserve more credit than the usual lazy ‘nu gaze’ plaudits. At its best, as on the rampant I Am An Eye Machine, More Faithful is an inch away from essential: a few more hooks would make all the difference.

A sneaking suspicion remains that, despite their way with both a tune (the beautiful, hushed Everything New – a dead ringer for early Veruca Salt) and a ruckus (the MBV-referencing Hollywood Teeth), they don't truly, fully believe in themselves. More Faithful makes the case for sticking around but their best, you suspect, is yet to come.

[Gary Kaill]

desaparecidosband.com

neilyoung.com

nojoymusic.com

Leftfield

Jaakko Eino Kalevi

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Alternative Light Source [Infectious Music, 8 Jun] Ah, the 1990s. One long Danny Boyle soundtrack of a decade. And while legitimate classics such as Leftism and Rhythm and Stealth helped to document our comings and goings, Alternative Light Source – Leftfield's first studio album in 16 years – suggests that at least one party from back then is still going.

Now with Neil Barnes in sole control, he's assisted by hired hands including TV On The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe (opener Bad Radio) and court jesters Sleaford Mods (Head and Shoulders). Yet whilst acerbic and atmospheric – Little Fish a contusion of distended, seasick beats, Storm's End all sly and mesmerising – such souped-up electronica never pushes against the listener. These ten tracks often allude to kinks and sharp edges without necessarily delivering either.

The result is a record that sounds curiously dated, items such as Bilocation (Poliça's Channy Leaneagh on vocals) and lead single Universal Everything certainly piquing interest, but also leaving us yearning for a sharper blade. [Duncan Harman] Playing Glasgow Barrowland on 19 Jun | leftfieldmusic.com

Son Lux

Jaakko Eino Kalevi [Domino/Weird World, 15 Jun] Kalevi's new self-titled album is a comprehensive introduction to an artist surely destined to become one of synthpop's quirky new posterboys – and not just because on its opening track, also named after himself, he repeats his own name like a Pokémon with a fondness for arpeggiators.

There's plenty more evidence of his humorous side, including lyrics as frank as ‘no one cares about you or your things’ and as cutting as ‘sparks sparkle’, as well as synth voices ripped straight from a high school Yamaha's preset bank; the ‘flute’ on Deeper Shadows is particularly special.

Also clear is his knack for simple, effective scoring (Mind Like Muscle's bass part takes some beating) and his versatility, proving as capable of pulling off Steely Dan-tinged jazz breaks (Night At The Field) as he is a straight faced Serge Gainsbourg homage (Don't Ask Me Why). Sure there are fillers and Kalevi gleefully embraces style over substance, but Jaakko evinces a peculiar, alluring personality.

[Andrew Gordon]

Bones [Glassnote Records, 22 Jun]

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Ever the evolving project, Ryan Lott's Son Lux – now a three-piece – have migrated again, from Joyful Noise to Glassnote. This is, by one count, Lott's tenth release (EPs, reimaginings, etc.) – and thus far he has shown a visionary's restlessness.

Thematically robust, Bones is as operatic and orchestral as any Son Lux offering to date, deftly conjuring scale and drama, evoking time, change, and death. Swooning, wavering synths are the breeze over cold, industrious percussion, with each moment feeling distinct yet part of the whole. Flight is spacey, airborne; This Time is rich, earthy and tribal. Lott's unique choral vocal, often pained or modulated, reaches bassier depths on I Am The Others.

But to follow the joyous bombast of Lanterns, we need more than a pinned-on structure and a handful of catchy cuts. Having previously flexed such diverse sonic muscles, the band now tread a more familiar (albeit proven) path, too practiced to elicit that same frisson, but effective nonetheless. [George Sully] sonlux.tumblr.com

jeksviihde.blogspot.com

Fist City

Sun Kil Moon

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Everything Is A Mess [Transgressive, 22 Jun] Garagey slop at its best: on this second ‘official’ album, Alberta surf-punx Fist City nail something potent, poppy and purposeful. The ramalama urgency of Bad Trip and Hey Little Sister indicates a band determined to get into your head by burrowing into your feet and hips, while Fuck Cops (with its two-fingered dismissal of ‘racist pigs’) splatters searing venom across a mean-tempered shuffle. It's a noise that rages and swings so hard you'll be left with no choice but to listen – like Sonic Youth launching jellybeans at the heads of Man or Astroman?, and effortlessly cool with it.

Ultimately, Everything Is A Mess deals with the chaotic shambles we all endure on a daily basis; lives unstructured and oppressed by violence beyond our control, yet defiantly surviving in the face of all that. It careens from jangling fury to purifying freakouts without batting an eyelid. Most of all, it's a superb record from a great and fast-improving band. [Will Fitzpatrick]

By the end of The Possum, the first track on Sun Kil Moon's follow-up to last year's ultra-acclaimed Benji, the universal themes that mainman Mark Kozelek woozily implores us to consider revolve around industrial metallers Godflesh, composer Maurice Ravel and the sad fate of the track's eponymous species. These super-specific pop culture references, assuaged by lyrics which are essentially morbid short stories with little recourse for conventional song metre or rhyme are quintessential Kozelek in 2015; indulgent but incredibly compelling.

Of course, there's more to Kozelek than merely a 21st century Lloyd Cole of lyricism; his guitar playing is exemplary, especially in tandem with the subtle punctuation of erstwhile Sonic Youth man Steve Shelley on percussion. As the name suggests, Universal Themes is an uncommonly vast album but the warped homespun wisdom of Kozelek in full flight ensures his soaring, perambulating muse is never entirely out of reach. [Colm McAuliffe]

fistcitycult.com

Playing Summerhall, Edinburgh on 10 Aug | caldoverderecords.com

Girlpool

Before the World Was Big [Wichita, 1 Jun]

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Just like the self-titled EP that preceded it, there is – on the face of it, at least – almost nothing to Before the World Was Big. With percussion eschewed, it's left to Harmony Tividad's bass to pick up the low-end slack; Cleo Tucker, meanwhile, tailors her sparing use of the guitar to suit the mood. Ultimately, though, the L.A. duo place vocals first and all else second; it was always going to be their harmonic interplay that formed the crux of their first record.

It works, too, with consistency and cohesion. Chinatown is a beautiful account of anxiety and self-esteem issues – “If I loved myself, would I take it the wrong way?” – and Dear Nora, framed by flickers of warping guitar, shines a sentimental light upon life within the band. Crowded Stranger might be the highlight; the tale it spins of claustrophobia and isolation is smartly matched by the instrumentation. There's nothing wasted on here; testament to the fact that you can be precise and heartfelt at the same time. [Joe Goggins] Playing Glasgow Broadcast on 9 Sep | girlpoolmusic.com

June 2015

We Came From Wolves

Universal Themes [Rough Trade, 1 Jun]

EP Review Outblinker

Pink / Blue [Good Grief, 15 Jun]

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It’s hardly surprising that Outblinker’s membership come from a largely DIY punk background. The repetitive glitch which fades into their debut EP’s Pink side is soon joined by a mischevous guitar riff, purposeful drums and quirky synthesizers.

The jam becomes more distorted and playful the further it pans out – a breakdown at the seven-minute mark turns the entire preceding section on its head. Can never sounded this disgruntled.

Blue loosens the tense mood – rolling drum patterns are coupled with eerie tones and buzzing synths. It’s a b-side with purpose, wrapping up their impressive mission statement in a heavily scenic, ponderous instrumental. This is slick, modern kraut for an uneasy Britain, and it doesn’t need words to say so. [Ross Watson]

We Came From Wolves [Saraseto Records, 1 Jun]

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We Came From Wolves write slick and anthemic pop-rock, specifically for an audience already invested in exactly that.

In that sense, it does exactly what it sets out to achieve; witness the squeaky clean vocal harmonies, unison lead guitar parts and accessible, universal lyrics: plus frontman Kyle James Burgess is generous in doling out big choruses.

Arctic Monkeys are another touchstone, Ruiner emulating their disjointed swagger and Where'd Your Love Go? their post-Homme crunch. But nowhere to be found is the latter's scathing wit or sense of identity; besides a song called Glasgow Stranger and a passing mention of using ‘jumpers for goals’, Wolves’ debut could've come from anywhere. A hearty serving of meat-and-potatoes power-chord rock that could do with some more imagination. [Andrew Gordon] Playing Glasgow O2ABC2 on 5 Jun and Glasgow King Tut's on 16 Jul wecamefromwolves.bandcamp.com

The Top Five 1

Outfit

2

Miaoux Miaoux

3 4 5

Slowness School of Velocity

Sun Kil Moon

Universal Themes

Jenny Hval

Apocalypse, Girl

Hudson Mohawke Lantern

Playing Glasgow Stereo on 13 Jun and Electric Fields, Drumlanrig Castle on 29 Aug facebook.com/outblinker

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Review

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Dropping the Guilt Chris McCrory has already tasted acclaim as the drummer in Casual Sex, but new band Catholic Action finds the talented producer taking centre stage. The Skinny met the Glasgow group to talk pop music, religious guilt and resembling Bobby Gillespie

Interview: Chris McCall Photography: Ross Gilmore

as much fun for me to tinker around in the studio.”

Catholic Action might be the first Glasgow band in 40 years to be mentioned in the same breath as ‘70s glam rock heroes The Sweet, but it's a comparison not quite as ludicrous as it sounds. While they don't go in for leather jumpsuits – at least, not on this particular evening – their songs have a strong melodic foundation, but a tough exterior that pushes them away from the self-consciously twee C86 revivalists.

“I can be a bit of a dictator in the studio. I sometimes worry I get a bit like... what's his name, Billy Corgan?”

Chris McCrory

I

n the niche world of Glaswegian drummers from acclaimed bands who later branched out to become frontmen of their own groups, it's too easy to draw parallels between Bobby Gillespie and Chris McCrory. While the former quit keeping time for The Jesus and Mary Chain to concentrate on Primal Scream back in the mid-1980s, the latter remains sticksman for Casual Sex despite now leading Catholic Action – a four-piece band gaining positive attention thanks to their “unashamedly poppy” songs. There's also a passing resemblance between the two.

“I get that a lot,” groans McCrory when The Skinny raises the subject. “I didn't think I looked like him. But someone once bought me a drink in King Tut's because he thought I must somehow be related. I'm pretty sure some people think I'm his illegitimate son. Anyway, I played guitar before I played drums – although I'm probably technically a better drummer.”

McCrory formed Catholic Action last year with old school pals Jamie Dubber on bass and drummer Ryan Clark, while Andrew Macpherson would later join as lead guitarist. All in their early-to-mid 20s, they've played in and continue to collaborate with a number of other groups. “We're a typically incestuous Glasgow band,” confirms McCrory.

Coincidently, at that very moment, Casual Sex supremo Sam Smith strolls past the window of the Sauchiehall Street pub where we've gathered the foursome – further evidence that if an earthquake were ever to strike this stretch of Charing Cross on any given evening, half of the city's bands could be wiped out.

Catholic Action began gigging regularly late last year and have released only a handful of songs

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– most notably a superb split single in March on Fuzzkill Records with fellow rock harmonists Poor Things – but have already appeared on the radar of industry faces. Last month they were invited for a recording session in Liverpool with producer Bill Ryder-Jones, and have been booked by the publication in your hands to play The Skinny's stage at the Electric Fields festival this August (as well as this year's T-Break). The group remain tight-lipped about any possible label deal, but do reveal that at least part of their weekend session was spent watching their drummer playfully wrestle with the former Coral guitarist “in one of the most expensive control rooms in the UK.” Having thankfully avoided a hefty repair bill for studio damage, the band are quietly thrilled, and a little bemused, that things are moving quickly for them. “This has gone further than I ever could have expected,” grins Clark, who has cut his hours at a local supermarket to two days a week thanks to the increasing commitments of music. McCrory, although a veteran of several international tours with Casual Sex, is also adjusting to his new status.

“Being interviewed... it's weird. People want to know what we think about things. I was thinking in the shower earlier about what you might ask me.”

One subject The Skinny is keen to quiz Catholic Action on is how they have seemingly amassed an impressive body of work in less than a year.

They have written and recorded the majority of a debut album – planning to resume work on it this summer – while a second LP's worth of songs has already been demoed. This work rate is helped enormously by having free and regular access to McCrory's home studio in Erskine, where he has worked on a professional basis since the age of

18. “I started off on a small scale and really enjoyed it, slowly piecing together what is now essentially a fully-formed studio set-up where I'm lucky enough to produce bands and frequently enough to avoid working in Tesco,” he explains.

“It was a way to make my own music myself and not have to pay to go to other studios, where I had, not disappointing experiences, but the kind of experiences where I thought, ‘I could do this’.

I was lucky enough to meet the guys at [respected Glasgow studio] Green Door and Sam; that's how Casual Sex came about. I spent a lot of time there learning how to record. The dream scenario is to do that when I get too old to tour.

“I can be a bit of a dictator in the studio,” he continues. I sometimes worry I get a bit like... what's his name, Billy Corgan? It's just the nature of how a lot of the first album was put together before we came together as a band. The longer we've been together, the more we write together.”

The upside of this arrangement is that while other groups may blow the budget on rushed recording sessions, Catholic Action have the luxury of time to refine their songs as much as they want.

“It is an advantage over some other bands,” agrees Dubber, dubbed ‘the Wolf of Waterloo Street’ by his bandmates thanks to a day job at a Glasgow city centre bank. “We can just jump into the studio and start recording.”

“Remember The Yawns?” asks McCrory. “They put an album out that was so good. I remember thinking that's what Catholic Action should do; work on an album, and just put it out to announce who we were. We've not done that, but we do have a lot of material. We've spent a lot of time coming up with stuff to the point we're happy with it. It's just

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“In my mind, it's all about good songs,” McCrory insists. “If the song can be played on an acoustic guitar and be just as powerful, then great. I was talking to Bill [Ryder-Jones] about this – there's always a reservation coming from an indie background and being shamelessly poppy. But I really like shameless pop music. To me, the thing that excuses is having really interesting harmonies, or a great guitar part that Andrew plays, or just sonically something that catches your ear... My Bloody Valentine are an enormous influence. They're not apparently a pop band, but sonically it's like music from the Moon.”

The other burning question is… what's with the name? While by no means controversial in itself, just saying aloud the words Catholic or Protestant can still, depressingly, arouse strong passions in some individuals from the west of Scotland. “Our name has been on posters for a year and I've not seen any vandalism,” Clark insists. McCrory offers a fuller explanation. “It's not a super-religious thing.

Actually, no, it absolutely is a super-religious thing.”

He pauses as his bandmates erupt with laughter.

“I was brought up Catholic, as was Ryan. Catholic guilt really does exist, for better or worse.

“There are some things you do that are perfectly normal as a young teenager, yet you really do think you're going to hell for it. So I suppose a ‘Catholic action’ would be any action, or lack of action, brought about by this overwhelming Catholic guilt. I didn't think I had it – but the older I've got, I look back at my teenage years and realise that I was really quite affected by it. My mum thought it was a terrible name – which is obviously why I thought it was brilliant. I thought we might have some trouble with it, but we've not had any at all. If we can play Belfast... I'll be happy.” It's doubtful a trip across the Irish Sea would pose the group any problems. A band already used to winning hearts and minds, given their breezy charm and knack for writing winning melodies, it's hard to imagine Catholic Action ever making enemies.

Catholic Action's new single, The Real World, is out on 24 Jun via Fuzzkill Records. Playing Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, on 24 Jun; The Poetry Club, Glasgow, on 26 Jun and Electric Fields Festival, Drumlanrig Castle on 29 Aug facebook.com/catholicactionband

THE SKINNY

June 2015

47

TLK 2 STDNTS Target 30,000 students across the Central Belt of Scotland The Skinny Student Handbook, published Sep 2015 To secure your advertising space or for more information call The Skinny sales team on 0131 467 4630 or email sales@ theskinny.co.uk

JOIN US Do you like people and chatting?

Can you think on your feet?

Are you interested in arts and culture?

Do you have sales experience?

If you answered yes to the above, you can do this job – you should consider becoming part of our advertising sales team!

We’re recruiting in Scotland (Edinburgh & Glasgow).

@theskinnymag /TheSkinnyMag

Email your CV to nicola@theskinny.co.uk to find out more. theskinny.co.uk @theskinnymag /TheSkinnyMag

Illustration: Emer Tumilty

Illustration: Verbal Picks

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THE SKINNY

Clubbing Highlights

In Profile: Ezup

Words: Ronan Martin Illustration: Noa Snir

We talk to the heads behind Glasgow’s Ezup, ahead of their party with DJ Haus this month Interview: Daniel MacKay

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e kick off in Edinburgh with a highly recommended midweek outing courtesy of Juice at Sneaky Pete’s. This month they host Pender Street Steppers, a Vancouver-based duo who form an integral part of the Mood Hut collective. Jack Juston and Liam Butler produce tracks which ooze warmth and soul. April saw the release of The Glass City/Golden Garden, a typically accomplished record offering a serene and engaging wander through plodding basslines and glistening melodies, delivered at the most leisurely of tempos. As a DJing duo, Pender Street Steppers’ range and knack for progression is impressive, often showing a taste for much livelier tracks than their own back catalogue would suggest. Their set at La Cheetah in Glasgow in April was one of the best we’ve heard all year, so we urge you to head down to this one and check them out for yourself (4 Jun, £5).

Our next pick takes us to Glasgow on the following night where La Cheetah have a special one lined up with their label showcase series this month celebrating 15 Years of Crème Organization.

Established at the turn of the millennium by DJ TLR, the outlet has been consistently impressive in its releases, giving a home to some incredible music by the likes of Legowelt, James T. Cotton and Bangkok Impact. More recently, artists such as John Heckle, Marquis Hawkes, Photonz and Lake Haze have all added to the label’s sprawling back catalogue. TLR is no stranger to La Cheetah, being one of the club’s favourite DJs, and he mixes up everything from dark and twisted electro to analogue house and smatterings of jungle and rave. He is joined by British artist Neville Watson, whose debut album Songs to Elevate Pure Hearts was released through Crème in 2013. Watson will be performing live, delivering the kind of percussive acid workouts with which he has made his name (5 Jun, £10).

The following Saturday, The Tunnels in Aberdeen gets our vote as Nothing More To Say host the ever-reliable pairing of Tiger & Woods, a duo whose infectious brand of disco house jams never fails to do the trick on the dancefloor. With a precise and slick approach to sampling – often using tiny fragments of sound to weave hypnotic funk out of retro source material – the pair have struck upon a sound which is hard not to warm to.

June 2015

Releasing primarily through their own Editainment label, with album Through the Green coming out on Running Back, Tiger & Woods have consistently delivered the goods. Their DJ sets are normally exceptionally joyous affairs from beginning to end, so don’t miss this one (13 Jun, £11/13. Glasgow fans can catch Tiger & Woods on 12 Jun at The Berkeley Suite, £8).

Our next pick takes us to Glasgow’s Sub Club where Huntleys & Palmers are throwing a launch party to celebrate the release of the debut record from local act Hi & Saberhagen. Comprising four tracks of notable depth – spanning deep and heavily saturated grooves, crisp and playful melodies and ending with a dubbed-out closer – the duo’s first offering shows considerable promise. It’s no surprise that their work has already found support from high profile DJs, with Joy Orbison playing two unreleased tracks in his Beats in Space mix last year. This outing should give you an early glimpse of an exciting Glasgow act who are being tipped for big things (14 Jun, free before 12/£5 after).

Laster in the month, we return to Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh, this time to take in the sounds of PLO Man at Wasabi Disco. The Berlin-based Canadian has been gradually building a name for himself, primarily through his shows for cutting edge independent platform, Berlin Community Radio. His talent as a selector is particularly apparent throughout an excellent offering he put together last year for the Trushmix series. From deep and dubby cuts, to more jazzy melodies and jacking rhythms, PLO Man is likely to deliver the goods at any party. With his recent foray into production as co-producer for CC Not on the Geo Fi record, and with his growing rep as an accomplished DJ, we suspect you will be hearing a lot more about PLO Man in the coming years. He is joined in Edinburgh by fellow Berlin Community Radio regular, Johannes (20 Jun, £5).

Other nights worth noting include the visit of Tin Man to the Sub Club (19 Jun, £5-8), Glaswegian producer Mirrors who plays La Cheetah (12 Jun, free before 12/£3 after) and, finally, Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston’s popular A Love From Outer Space, which visits The Tunnels in Aberdeen at the end of the month (27 Jun, £10-15).

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ith such an expansive selection of club nights having emerged in recent years, it can be difficult for newer events to carve out a solid reputation. Ezup is a Glasgow club night which has largely avoided this problem, now holding a monthly residency at La Cheetah and hosting a diverse range of guests from across the clubbing spectrum – from massive talents like Grammy award winning house and garage legend Todd Edwards, to emerging local artists such as Jasper James and Dixon Avenue Basement Jams, the brand is now garnering a reputation around the city for its electric atmosphere and stellar guests.

The men behind the night are Johnny Wallace and Nicky Ferrie, both 23-year-old Glasgow natives with a passion for its legendary music scene.

Johnny says: “Ezup is a collective that plays underground music, specializing in house, techno, disco and funk. The idea for the night came from hosting low-key parties in people’s houses and basements. The demand to be a part of these quickly grew and we thought we should extend our reach.”

The night began at the Berkeley Suite on a packed Friday night, with residents Nicky, MArk and Devln on the decks. The success of that debut resulted in owner Fergus McVicar asking Ezup to take the reigns and bring Sunday nights back. “Fergus gave us our start, and we loved the Berkeley Suite, but the demand on a Sunday night was too volatile – it wasn’t consistent enough so we wanted to move to a weekend,” says Nicky.

The move from the Berkeley Suite to La Cheetah opened the door for a new crowd. Johnny explains: “We became more serious after we moved, and more musically educated, with the focus being more on the acts while still trying to create that carefree party atmosphere that people associated with us.” That was an atmosphere that saw a wall get ripped off during the appearance of Jimmy

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Edgar at La Cheetah back in April, as countless clubbers danced until they sweated through their clothes.

In May, Ezup hosted Optimo’s legendary JG Wilkes, playing back to back with the Revenge, and Nicky, MArk and Devln were recently asked by the Drygate Brewery to help them celebrate their first birthday. It seems the crew have started to extend their appeal throughout the city and are now looking forward to this month’s visit of DJ Haus, head honcho of the revered Unknown to the Unknown label.

“We’re excited about DJ Haus coming up to play in La Cheetah. It’s going to be a night of upbeat techno and house, and will be similar to the Jimmy Edgar night we recently hosted. It’s going to be a big one,” says Nicky.

Their latest guest, who has a residency on London’s Rinse FM every second Friday of the month, is influenced by Chicago house music, but also the energy of UK garage, making his sets perfect for the kind of jumping atmosphere Ezup have instilled into their nights.

Guests from out of town, however, only form part of the promoters’ game plan. They are also committed to getting promising local acts on their bill, with Mia Dora and many others already having played for them. “We want to back local talent and make it feel like a summer festival. We fully intend to broaden our horizons, with hopes to eventually host nights in Europe and one day establish our own record label,” says Johnny. There is certainly no lack of ambition for his brand and Ezup show no signs of slowing down, with the addition of a weekly show on Camglen Radio 107.9FM airing on Friday nights. We suspect this will be a night which will remain part of Glasgow’s vibrant scene for some time to come. soundcloud.com/platform/dj-haus

Review

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A Club Outside Clubbing outdoors this summer? Here are some decent choices within a thousand miles of Britannia, from Gottwood to Green Man; Meadows In The Mountain to Melt Words: Daniel Jones and Ronan Martin Photography: Ross Gilmore

UK Wales has seen a number of quality weekenders sprout up over the past decade or so, all committed to a winning formula of fresh musical talent, novel art installations and imaginative locations. Gottwood is perhaps the most obvious example; the annual woodland gathering has been growing for five years now and they’re bringing the goods yet again on 11-14 Jun. On the bill you’ve got the likes of Zip, Zenker Bros, Tornado Wallace, MCDE, Radioactive Man, Luv Jam, Leon Vynehall and Craig Richards teaming up with Ben UFO. The organisers have also been working on the live element this year, bringing in Andrew Ashong, Mouse Outfit and Point G to showcase their latest dabblings.

There’ll also be an appearance from Steevio, the brains behind Freerotation. Held in the ideal houseparty setting of Baskerville Hall on 10-13 Jul, Freero consistently boasts one of the best line-ups and atmospheres we’re privy to on these sunny shores. This year features Donato Dozzy, Karenn, Lakuti, Lowtec, Aybee and Soulphiction, as well as regular faces Sven Weisemann, Objekt and Move D – good luck getting a ticket.

Green Man and Festival No. 6 are also decent options for later in the year, both roughly defined as bespoke banquets of music, arts and culture. The latter takes place on the Portmeirion coast in the first week of September, 3-6 Sep. As well as Maurice Fulton, DJ Harvey, Optimo and Gerd Janson, there’s live artists like Belle & Sebastian, Hookworms and a full range of comedy acts and drama talks going on round the town.

As for the rest of the UK, The Garden Party present their latest community venture in Leeds city centre on August Bank Holiday weekend with Mos Def, Little Dragon, Todd Terje and Joy Orbison all present. Also later in the year, the new incarnation of Beacons Metro promises a wealth of choice spread across Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds during October.

Undisputed daddy of the Scottish festival scene, in terms of size and reputation, T in the Park has a wide and varied remit. The Slam Tent has always provided the ideal escape for those with 4/4 rhythms and dancing on their agenda, and this year’s line-up is no different. Techno has long dominated these parts, and acts like Ben Klock, Rødhåd and resident duo Slam will provide a thundering backdrop to the famous blue tent’s proceedings. A particularly interesting pairing sees Surgeon again team up with Lady Starlight, in a repeat of their surprise collaboration in support of Lady Gaga last year. Elsewhere on the bill, Âme will offer something a little different, as will Jackmaster and Joy Orbison – two of the best party DJs around teaming up is quite the prospect.

If you’re down south, Field Day returns to Victoria Park on 6 Jun with another pretty varied roster – Caribou, Madlib and many more. Same goes for Secret Garden Party on 23-26 Jul. The theme for this year is ‘childish things’, which promises plenty of jelly, ice cream and even more dungarees than originally expected.

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Located in Tower Hamlet’s Victoria Park, Lovebox (17-18 Jul) offers an enticing bill across two days in July, striking a fine balance between big names and more underground talent. In the former category, hip hop stars such as Cypress Hill, Snoop Dogg and Action Bronson are sure to draw a crowd, as are the likes of homegrown big names like Hot Chip and Mark Ronson.

Elsewhere, underground hero Squarepusher comes with a reputation for bold experimentation, Greg Wilson is guaranteed to keep the party vibes going and David Rodigan will bring his trademark enthusiasm for reggae music to proceedings. We suspect the appearance of German house head Max Graef will be a possible highlight, while grime up-and-comer Novelist and electronic all rounder Boddika should both deliver energetic sets from different ends of the British underground spectrum.

With the kind of expansive one day lineup that’ll have you scratching your head trying to plan your movements, Eastern Electrics certainly has plenty on offer. Returning for a second year to the site of Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, the festival boasts appearances by the likes of minimal techno pioneer Robert Hood aka Floorplan, UK garage maestro and peerless party starter DJ EZ, Chicago veteran Lil Louis and Hot Creations label head Jamie Jones.

There’s also plenty of emerging talent on the bill such as Glasgow’s increasingly hyped Jasper James, already a firm favourite at the legendary Sub Club.

Little Dragon

Abroad If you fancy heading to warmer climes, Meadows in the Mountains looks like it’s shaping up to be pretty special. Based in the Rhodopes Mountains, Bulgaria on 12-14 Jun, Meadows brings in Quantic, Mop Mop, Binh and Al Dobson Jr. to help direct play for the weekend. Sonar makes a return to Barcelona on 18-20 Jun, with another strong programme – Voices From The Lake, Helena Hauff, Arthur Baker and guaranteed sunburn.

Secret Solstice is a slightly cooler (sorry!) option, bringing Moodymann, Nightmares On Wax and the intriguingly-named Lord Pusswhip to the heart of Iceland. Or there’s the fledgling Weather festival in Paris on 4-7 Jun, one for all you culture vultures out there looking for a last-minute deal. The sounds of Juan Atkins, Moritz von Oswald and Matthew Herbert alone are probably worth more than a cheap flight.

Held outside of Leipzig, Melt! (17-19 Jul) takes place on the grounds of a rugged industrial site in Deutschland, which the promoters transform with the aid of dazzling lights and, of course, plenty of musical stimulation. This year the line-up includes UK underground heroes Autechre and Scottish production whizz Hudson Mohawke, alongside techno trailblazer Marcel Dettmann, Matthew Dear’s Audion live show and more diverse sounds from the likes of Roni Size, who will perform live with group Reprazent.

There’s even a space on the line-up for Australian superstar Kylie Minogue, whose ever-evolving

take on pop music has kept her fresher than most mainstream acts of her day.

Elsewhere in Budapest, there’s one called B.My.Lake on 19-22 Aug, which is now in its third year. Set on, you guessed it, a big lake; this is your alternative to Sziget, and still only a short trip away from the capital and its fabulously cheap pints. Line-up includes KiNK, Sven Weisemann, Efdemin, Recondite and Lake People.

Boasting, without a doubt, one of the best line-ups on offer all summer, Dekmantel (27-28 Jun) will have thousands flocking to the outskirts of Amsterdam again this year. There are a number of mouth-watering live sets planned – techno originator Juan Atkins will perform with his iconic Model 500 group, legendary US jazz and funk outfit Roy Ayers Ubiquity shouldn’t be missed, and the likes of Legowelt, Dopplereffekt and Gesloten Cirkel also do their thing live. The list of DJ talent is incredible too, with techno king Jeff Mills joined by the likes of Blawan and Sterac. Elsewhere, hip hop maestros Madlib and J Rocc bring a funkier flavour to proceedings, while house heads Omar S, Palms Traxx and Motor City Drum Ensemble are bound to impress. Basically, we could list names to fill the page and still not cover all of the gems on offer.

Returning for its second year, Milan’s Terraforma (12-14 Jun) is an interesting conceptually-framed festival which puts sustainability at its core – fittingly set in the woods and

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founded with a goal to make sure every aspect of the project is sustainable. The music is programmed along similarly conceptual lines too.

In the words of the organisers: “Terraforma is the manifest of our belief that new dimensions can now be terraformed. Our catalyst is music: a timeless centre of gravity for energies; our means for a breaking point from which sounds and images create a sense of suspension capable of pointing us towards new perceptions.”

Whether or not you can get on board with such lofty conceptions, the line-up on offer is certainly reassuring, with appearances by esteemed Basic Channel/Rhythm & Sound member Mark Ernestus, as well as by Donato Dozzy and Nuel, and US artist Convexion, alongside various live performers and experimental projects.

Then there’s Croatia and Serbia, which together have more picturesque settings than you can shake your passport at: Dimensions, Exit, Hideout, Garden, Soundwave, Sonus, Electric Elephant, Stop Making Sense... the list goes on.

I’ll allow you the pleasure of going through those at your leisure.

So, anyway, that’s your lot for the summer ahead. Spread joy and don’t forget to take a waterproof jacket just in case it rains.

Keep up with the latest news and reviews from clubland this summer at theskinny.co.uk/clubs

THE SKINNY

Credit: Max Slaven, Courtesy the Artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

Hulking Sculpture, Degree Shows, and Clyde Reflections Degree show season is upon us, as well as a historical show of Victorian photography in Edinburgh and new shows in the major Glasgow galleries Words: Adam Benmakhlouf

Liz Larner

The Modern Insitute

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An ambulance is pulled up outside the Modern Institute and two medics are attending to the fallout of a recent street brawl. Stepping from the pavement into the gallery, the airy white space seems unexpectedly still and expansive. It takes a moment to adjust.

Liz Larner's ceramic lozenge-like forms are presented in orderly sequence, and appear to be floating proud of the wall. Viewed at a distance, this has the effect of homogenising the sculptural pieces. Conforming to each other in shape and in size, these objects are partially obscured by the formal language of minimalism; camouflaged by the visual repetition of their display. The gallery space seems cavernous since the works appear self contained and anti-monumental in scale. And here lies the trap for the viewer, who remains unprepared for the rich density of the highly pigmented surfaces that open out on closer inspection of the work.

Cracks, ruptures and fissures fragment their surfaces, sometimes revealing the internal structure of the ceramic material and sometimes revealing a hybrid material that has been pigmented.

This process of layering and rupturing enables structure and surface to bleed into each other, destabilising the hierarchical relationship in which the ceramic is a concealed substrate that supports surface pigmentation. Instead, these objects are turning themselves inside out.

Titles such as subduction, inflexion and mantle allude to geographic formations and geological change through time. Some works include embedded stones or mineral chunks, introducing questions of authenticity, especially when paired with synthetic materials such as epoxy resin.

Are we to read these minerals as being unadulterated ‘natural’ materials taken from an external environment and introduced into Larner’s construction process? If so, nature has been shrunk down and fixed firmly within the surrounding mass, undergoing a metonymic collapse of scale.

[Jessica Ramm] Phyllida Barlow: Installation view, Tate Britain

Credit: Max Slaven

D

Installation view Eat Abstractly

Eat Abstractly

Mary Mary

rrrrr Mary Mary showcases a breadth of international artists in a photography centred exhibition. Across the 18 works that make up Eat Abstractly is a dispersive approach, which juxtaposes seven very different artists working with photography in their practice.

Along with the more straightforward photographic approaches, there is work that is procedurally more complicated. For example Daniel Gordon, in a kind of photo-cannibalism, photographs scenes made in his studio from magazine photographs and internet images. Often rephotographing his own work, the difference between the representation of 2 and 3 dimensional space is made difficult to distinguish by the incorporation of bold colours and patterns.

Similarly, the work of Hayley Tompkins uses the photograph itself as a material, as she paints on top of stock images of water and a planet

June 2015

from space, then displayed on shiny metal trays.

Tompkins’ work punctuates well the show of otherwise pristine photographic prints.

There’s a complicated artificiality to the stagey stiffness in the work of Annette Kelm. Kelm sets up a cliché in 1:1 representations of Paisley bandanas next to wheat stalks. Such a forced linguistic segue so obviously present in the image makes for a strained absence of the visual ambiguity that’s in, for example, the coolly fantastic lyricism of Margarete Jakshik. With Jakshik, a certain form, like the curve of a plush headboard, or the pattern of a floral curtain can be charged with intrigue or significance, becoming something like floating or dislocated elements of a narrative. Yet, the intrigue in Jakshik’s work comes from its being just off-kilter in delicately non-naturalistic compositions.

Each set of works is an astringent expression of a specific idea of what makes for worthy photography. Ultimately, Eat Abstractly showcases a potential for the infinite and rich problematisation of photography as a medium. [Adam Benmakhlouf]

egree show month is already well underway, with Dundee’s just passed. Just now it’s Edinburgh College of Art (May 30-June 7), with the mid-month bringing the Glasgow School of Art’s (13-20 June), then last it’s Aberdeen’s Gray’s School of Art (20-27 June). There will be coverage of the shows on the website, along with the pick for the Skinny Showcase 2015.

Looking back to last year’s degree shows, Generator continues its annual exhibition They Had Four Years until 14 June. Now a mainstay of Generator’s programme, the committee present the pick of the 2014 crop from across the Scottish art colleges.

Opening its first show of the year, the Common Guild present the work of Anne Hardy from 6 June until 9 August. This exhibition will be Hardy’s first in Scotland, and her most ambitious project to date in the UK. Hardy’s practice spans photography, sculptural installation and audio, and she describes her interest in “the kind of space that is just there, next to you, and you don’t see it.” Within “controlled interiors,” Hardy gathers “found and made objects – remainders of interrupted actions that conjure an ambiguous parallel space at the cusp of everyday life.”

The next Friday 12 June in Edinburgh, Fruitmarket will open their exhibition of the work of Phyllida Barlow. Well-known for making huge, often anti-monumental, deceptively hulking sculptures from simple materials like plaster, paint and cardboard, Barlow is now in her seventies, and receiving recognition after a career of teaching the likes of Martin Creed and Rachel Whiteread.

Barlow’s work can appear malformed, but in its scale often involves more of a bodily physical encounter, and interruption in space. The exhibition continues until 18 October.

Also on Friday 12 June from 6-9pm, in Glasgow, Mary Mary presents a painting show, a solo exhi-

ART

bition of the work of Aliza Nisenbaum. Over the last ten years, Nizebaum has moved from abstract painting to almost entirely figurative works. In the content of her work there is a political bent, with her representation of the indigenous people of Mexico, as well as undocumented immigrants in New York. As well as these more charged subjects, her work also depicts flowers, open books and piled letters. Patterns often overwhelm the depth of the image, and while there may be bodies in the foreground, the space of the work is brought close up to the front of the picture plane, and the rendering of faces and forms is heavily stylised.

In the National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street in Edinburgh, from Friday 19 June there is a major exhibition on the Victorian craze for photography, A Victorian Sensation. Covering the period from 1839-1900, the exhibition will showcase the National Museum Scotland’s collection of early original photographs and objects. There’s an emphasis on quirk, with the inclusion of a cast iron headrest to keep subjects still during long photographic processes, memento jewellery which had locks of hair combined with pictures of loved ones and ornate stereoscopes, which allowed Victorians to enjoy 3D images from around the world, from Egypt to Australia.

Until 5 July in the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, the Moving Image Festival continues with Stephen Hurrell and Ruth Brennan’s Clyde Reflections. Conducting interviews with individuals from three different islands, the film explores seven unique perceptions of this marine environment and looks at the diverse relations of people and place against the backdrop of the culturally significant marine environment, which has in the past repeatedly been altered by different people. Clyde Reflections has been described as ‘a meditative, cinematic experience.’

Review

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Credit: Alex Delfanne, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Installation view Space is better than time, but time is okay, The Modern Institute, Glasgow, 2015

Film Event Highlights Martin Scorsese leads a veritable Polish invasion, the Filmhouse introduces a new monthly queer cinematic showcase and Glasgow Comic Con come to CCA

Slow West

Slow West

Words: Rachel Bowles

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his June, legendary auteur Martin Scorsese presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema, a unique collection of Polish film at Glasgow's GFT and Edinburgh's Filmhouse. The touring season showcases the post-war rise of the world-renowned Łód Film School, its prolific and prodigious students and their revolutionary films which rebelled against the pro-Soviet government's mandated ‘social realist’ aesthetic.

Director: John Maclean Starring: Michael Fassbender, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Mendelsohn, Caren Pistorious, Rory McCann Released: 26 Jun Certificate: 15

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There's a steely confidence to John Maclean's debut feature, a lyrical fairy tale in which a doe-eyed Scottish teen (Smit-McPhee) treks west in search of the object of a puppy-love crush. “He's a jackrabbit in a den of wolves,” says the flinty bounty hunter (Fassbender) who offers him protection on his journey. Maclean's askance outsider's view of America's Old West is bracing. He strips away the pioneering myths and shows it for what it truly was: a melting pot of foreign cultures snatching whatever was up for grabs.

This ugly human nature is depicted with beauty and wit. As shot by master cinematographer Robbie Ryan, each scene bursts with inventive imagery, from the spread-eagle skeleton of a moronic woodcutter beneath the tree he was felling, to a shootout in a corn field where the gunmen bobbing up to take their shots look like targets in a game of Whac-A-Mole.

Maclean's dialogue is similarly poetic. “Let's build a rail to the moon,” says the kid. Like his protagonist, Maclean's a dreamer shooting for the stars.

[Jamie Dunn] Released 26 Jun by Lionsgate

The Look of Silence

The Look of Silence

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer Released: 12 Jun Certificate: 15

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The prospect of crafting a worthy successor to the phenomenal The Act of Killing is a daunting one, but with The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer has risen to the challenge. Although less formally daring than its predecessor, it proves the perfect companion piece, shifting from a wide-angle lens on the 1960s Indonesian genocide, to an intimate close-up. In the earlier film, the perpetrators basked in the camera's limelight. Many now shift uncomfortably and defensively beneath its gaze, confronted with their crimes here by Adi, whose brother was murdered in the purge.

An optometrist, he goes door-to-door conducting eye-tests while attempting to combat the moral myopia of his brother's killers. Complicity lives in the reticence evoked in the title that oft settles on proceedings, but is arguably the only sane response to indescribable barbarism. “The past is the past,” says one man. “I don't want to remember.” Adi's only riposte is his quietly crushing dignity, which forms the heart of this more personal film that is once again imperative and devastating viewing. [Ben Nicholson] The Look of Silence open Sheffield Doc/Fest on 5 Jun Released in the UK by Dogwoof

Ashes and Diamonds

Highlights include Andrzej Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds (GFT, 10 Jun) charting the dilemma of a generation of Poles caught between the devastation of Nazi occupation and Soviet rule; Krzysztof Kieslowski's unflinching masterpiece A Short Film about Killing (Filmhouse, 4 Jun), introduced by the University of Edinburgh's Dr Pasquale Iannone; and Kieslowski's previously banned tale of personal, political introspection Blind Chance (Filmhouse, 3 & 16 Jun), newly restored with scenes never before shown in public.

June also sees the continuation of an exciting new monthly strand for Edinburgh's Filmhouse, Over the Rainbow, which will showcase new releases and classics of LGBTQIA cinema. This month's film, the Swedish Something Must Break (13-14 Jun), named after a Joy Division B-side, is a tale of queer love and fluid gender identities within the constraining confines of heteronormative Stockholm society by trans* director Ester Martin Bergsmark.

GFT sees the much anticipated return of what it boasts as “one of the most diabolical film creations of all time,” Tommy Wiseau's The Room (19 Jun), to its late night cult classics strand. Bring your own plastic spoons and expect a lot of audience participation (“Oh, hi Mark”). Next in the strand is James Cameron's Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day double bill (28 Jun), and you can test your knowledge on Arnie and his cyborg pals with an interim quiz; with special prizes for those with infallible, robotic recall.

At Glasgow's CCA, Terry Zwigoff 's Ghost World (30 Jun), an optimistic adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ classic graphic novel of the same name, featuring Scarlett Johansson's breakout performance, kicks off the cinematic strand of Glasgow Comic Con. Also at the CCA, Refugee Festival Scotland presents Scottish Refugee Council: Ten Years On (14 Jun). The free, ticketed event will screen two documentaries following five remarkable teenagers who took on the Home Office to stop the forced detention and deportation of integrated juvenile asylum seekers and their families. Follo-wing the films will be a panel discussion with the documentary's stars and songs from Cora Bissett's The Glasgow Girls, the musical based on their story, performed by The National Theatre of Scotland.

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Review

She's Funny That Way

Listen Up Philip

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Director: Peter Bogdanovich Starring: Imogen Poots, Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Austin Pendleton, Rhys Ifans, Kathryn Hahn, Will Forte Released: 26 Jun Certificate: 12A

Director: Alex Ross Perry Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, Krysten Ritter, Josephine De La Baume Released: 5 Jun Certificate: 15

Peter Bogdanovich's movies come marinaded in his love of Hollywood's Golden Age. In this dizzy soufflé he's channelling Lubitsch, Sturges and Hawks.

Like them, he creates an off-kilter comic world that's hermitically sealed but airy. The setting is New York, but it's the New York of the movies, a city of eight million where everyone's connected by a single degree of separation.

The outlandish plot takes the form of intertwined romantic imbroglios centred around Brooklyn call girl Izzy (Poots). A theatre director with a Pretty Woman-complex (Wilson) has just given her 30 grand to give up turning tricks and pursue acting. This sends her number one John (Austin Pendleton) into meltdown. A belligerent therapist (Jennifer Aniston), her put-upon playwright husband (Will Forte) and the world's most conspicuous private-eye (George Morfogen) pile on the comic complications. Like the 40s screwballs it pinches from, it's daft and often hilarious – particularly angry Aniston. What's missing, however, is the romance; the heat. We're left with a delicious and frothy cappuccino, but without any of the espresso hit.

[Jamie Dunn]

With its portentous narration and bike riding/book writing aesthetic, this third feature from Alex Ross Perry is a masterclass in tarnished twee. Shot on faded 16mm and never once depicting digital technology, its charming retrograde trimmings are essentially a Trojan horse for the title character's caustic tirades.

Jason Schwartzman leads as an ambitious Brooklynite novelist whose artistic process seems to hinge upon the creation of personal conflict, the author's sociopathic behaviour often following in the footsteps of his heroes.

When one such inspiration offers to take Philip under his wing, the protagonist carelessly abandons his girlfriend and we see how each character's actions impacts upon the next.

The relationship between pain and productivity is a popular subject within metafiction, and Perry addresses it without succumbing to trite platitudes. The writer-director seems more interested in asking whether hurt or isolation is worth the perceived end goal. Yet while it takes guts to present a tale in which no one achieves redemption, Listen Up Philip could be accused of sacrificing humanity for style. [Lewis Porteous]

Black Coal, Thin Ice

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

Director: Diao Yi'nan Starring: Liao Fan, Gwei Lun-Mei, Wang Xuebing Released: 5 Jun Certificate: 15

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In Black Coal, Thin Ice, writer-director Diao Yi'nan takes the tropes of a classic noir detective tale – a down-and-out alcoholic cop with a haunted past, a mysterious woman with an air of danger, cases and characters that refuse to stay dead – and transplants them into modern China. Zhang (Fan) is the cop in question – wrecked by a murder case that takes the lives of several of his friends, he becomes hell-bent on solving it himself when the killer re-emerges five years later. Wu Zhizhen (Lun-Mei) is the woman – a widowed laundry worker whose boyfriends have developed a habit of turning up dead ever since her husband's own violent demise.

The film is as dark and cold as its title, unravelling its mysteries amidst frost, fog and murky streetlights. The slick veneer of the American gumshoe movie is traded for a naturalistic style in keeping with the rundown streets its characters live upon, and the result is a stark, harsh murder mystery interspersed with Wong Kar-wai-esque moments of odd urban beauty.

[Ross McIndoe]

FILM

Director: Mark Hartley Starring: Dolph Lundgren, Alex Winter, Franco Nero, Released: 5 Jun Certificate:

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Following Not Quite Hollywood, his 2008 documentary about the Australian exploitation cinema of the 1970s and 80s, writer-director Mark Hartley returns to profile more outrageous movies from around the same time.

Electric Boogaloo looks at the rise and fall of Cannon Films under the rule of Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who forced their way into the Hollywood game with low budget, sometimes bizarre genre films with an apparent lack of quality control, and savvy new ways of getting films financed (going to Cannes with posters promising stars they hadn't even contacted, yet alone contracted).

Thanks to the sheer number of films featured, Electric Boogaloo is never dull, but it rarely feels like more than a lengthy clip reel, lacking Not Quite Hollywood's less broad contextual analysis; the absence of both Globus and the just-departed Golan definitely hurts it. And while it's fun revelling in Death Wish sequel shlock, more curious projects from Godard and Cassavetes that inexplicably ended up at the studio get too fleeting a look.

[Josh Slater-Williams]

THE SKINNY

The Good Dark

In the Enemy Camp

Book of Numbers

I Saw A Man

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By Ryan Van Winkle

By William Wantling

by Joshua Cohen

by Owen Sheers

There are certain buttons a writer can push for any individual reader that initiate a simple, powerful ‘yes to this’ response and pretty much destroy the potential for anything approaching objectivity.

The moment Ryan Van Winkle began a poem with a lyric from The Decemberists, this reviewer was pretty much gone.

The Portland folk-rock group actually make an ideal touchstone for understanding Van Winkle's latest collection, The Good Dark. Imagery of woodland scenes and drifting snow, red berries and the sound of the sea hark back nostalgically to a simpler time, softly recalling lost childhoods and past loves. Though the images draw on a time gone by, the focus is still very much on the now – on love and life in the modern world. This harmonising of the old and the new, the classically romantic and the intensely modern, is characteristic of both The Decemberists music and Van Winkle's verses, and he extends it to the works he references within his own – heading his poems with quotations from an eclectic panoply of sources ranging from Abraham Lincoln to David Lynch to Snoopy.

The Good Dark feels like poetry written in the quiet time a little after a heartbreak; a time for sitting still and calm contemplation. It moves between stabbing pain, deep melancholy and cautious optimism, always with the same gentle touch. [Ross McIndoe]

‘Things never became easy’ for William Wantling, wrote Charles Bukowski, and ‘that’s why he continued to write well.’ And remain criminally undiscovered, enduring a life of suffering – war, penitentiary, addiction, death – to make Bukowski turn green with envy. But for all those harsh landscapes, the Enemy Camp remained his reputable home town of Peoria Illinois, where, as he claims in the titular piece of this collection, ‘I can’t find one lousy joint of weed and nobody here ever heard of Peyote.’

Wantling’s poetry is soaked in booze, peppered with track marks, sweating a mix ofobscene truths and imaginings like the man himself after gulping down his favourite codeine cough syrup. Sentences flow across stanzas, raising questions while dragging you ever onward through squalid yet stunning tales; always with rhythm, rarely rhyme. These are perfectly set to page with truncated words, slang and ampersands providing visual markers to the mood and movement of the work.

His Heroin Haikus are short, sharp uppercuts.

Then, in a piece simply named Poetry, he glides from pondering of consonance and assonance into a lethal shanking in the San Quentin yard – a self deprecating reflection on the redundancy of words when faced with the physicality of the big house.

For many who approach this outstanding collection, the brew may prove too strong. But ‘don’t pout.

The game is a good one.’ [Alan Bett]

Joshua Cohen has put together something really hefty in Book of Numbers. It’s work, though it’s enthralling work if you can get it. We start with a vaguely autobiographical thread, with struggling writer-narrator Joshua Cohen, and get snared with him into another. He’s tasked with ghostwriting a reclusive tech mogul’s life story. The pop cultural touchstones quickly make themselves available – Google, Jobs, Assange – though they don’t fetter Cohen. He’s nimble with them.

Ghostwriter and ghostwritten are, in fact, both Joshua Cohens. From this conceit, real-life Cohen wades out into a very particular philosophical morass.

In this age of information ubiquity, what becomes of the self? Are we divided or replicated? Perhaps we’re eroded, every ripple of binary shearing off another wee bit. Or maybe we’re spliced one into another – two Joshua Cohens meld. Of course these concerns are occupying myriad other thinkers and creators.

Cohen’s work stands out because it’s witty. It’s got intellectual clout and a rare comic grace.

Though Book of Numbers’ sprawl is awe-inspiring, it can sometimes feel loose. There’s emails at the end that verge on 'tldnr'. And, perhaps because this is such a bold piece of work, it’s problematic in parts. Cohen’s drawing of partner Rach, for instance, is rarely sympathetic. Still, Book of Numbers gamely flirts with greatness. Nothing coy about it. [Angus Sutherland]

Out now, published by Penned in the Margins, RRP £9.99

Out now, published by Tangerine Press, RRP £12.00

Out 4 June, published by Harvill Secker, RRP £18.99

Jauja

Director: Lisandro Alonso Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Villbjørk Mallin Agger, Ghita Norby Released: 8 Jun Certificate: 15

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Part realist anti-western, part Tarkovsky-esque head-scratcher, Lisandro Alonso's fifth feature is an art-house masterpiece with enough traditional narrative momentum to hold sway before delivering a mystical one-two punch of mind-bending abstraction. With its richly saturated, meticulously composed landscapes – at once sweeping and claustrophobic – this is the year's best-looking film, but it's also a sneaky critique of egomaniacal control.

Mortensen plays Dinesen, a 19th-century Danish captain leading an expedition into the Patagonian desert with his beautiful young daughter in tow. When the girl flees camp with a handsome soldier, he mounts a one-man rescue mission as a mysterious Kurtz-like figure, wreaking bloody havoc across the countryside. The titular ‘Land of Plenty’ is a mythical paradise that leads all who try to find it to become irretrievably lost. Like Dinesen himself, you'll probably feel lost too by the end, but the haunting images of Jauja will not leave you any time soon. [Michelle Devereaux]

Director: Walerian Borowczyk Starring: Marina Pierro, Udo Kier, Released: Out now Certificate: 18

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Walerian Borowczyk's uniquely erotic take on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic gothic tale of split personality re-imagines Dr. Jekyll's experimental transmutations into Mr. Hyde not as social regression but libertine rebellion against the suffocating social mores of upper class, fin de siècle society.

Opening with the off-screen murder of a child, Dr. Jekyll's family and guests gather to celebrate his engagement to Miss Osbourne and, in classic Buñelian fashion, bourgeois ritual repeatedly interrupts the desires of the couple. As guests start to appear brutally raped and murdered, Borowcyzk's film unravels into something between a lurid giallo and proto-New French Extremism, twenty years before the genre's inception. Despite its manic brilliance, The Strange Case suffers from problematic sexual and racial politics, with the camera's gaze leering at incestuous sexual abuse, and wordless juvenile and black characters present only for the fleshly spectacle of their rapes at the hands of supposed Übermensch Mr. Hyde. [Rachel Bowles]

Out now, published by Faber & Faber, RRP £14.99

Difret

Director: Zeresenay Mehari Starring: Tizita Hagere, Meron Getnet Released: 29 Jun Certificate: 12A

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Zeresenay Berhane Mehari's film is unusual for a work of Ethiopian cinema. Shot in 35mm, it eschews the more export friendly English language for Amharic, boasting Ethiopia's first ever female director of photography and a large cast of predominantly female actors.

The story follows Hirut, a 14-year-old girl, who's abducted on her way home from school by a local gang of men on horseback. Beaten and raped by her would-be groom, Hirut snatches a gun and shoots him in self-defence. When Hirut is arrested for murder, humanitarian lawyer Meaza is determined to fight for the girl's right to freedom, negotiating the ingrained misogyny of both Ethiopian tradition and modern bureaucracy.

Difret is thus concerned with Ethiopian feminism in both method and narrative, unflinchingly telling the story of how one girl's unprecedented legal victory led to the criminalisation of “telefa” or the abduction of girls for forced marriage, still endemic in Ethiopia today.

[Rachel Bowles]

Jupiter Ascending

Paper Moon

The Interview

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Director: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski Starring: Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Eddie Redmayne, Sean Bean Released: 29 Jun Certificate: 12A In the Wachowskis' latest film, Channing Tatum plays a flying wolfman from space. The film to fit that description is going to be outlandish, unusual, action-packed and at least a little comical. Jupiter Ascending is all of those things. It might also be imaginative, visually impressive, emotionally engaging, exciting and genuinely funny. Jupiter Ascending is not really any of these things. Channing Tatum plays a flying wolfman from space, and this film is somehow boring.

A vast universe is created, with civilisations on far flung planets with technology far beyond our own, and aristocratic power struggles dating back before our own began. But from the opening scenes of Kunis as a modern day Cinderella, scrubbing apartments while dreaming of a better life, to the obligatory blockbuster finale where the rest of the budget is spectacularly combusted in a shower of CGI, not one moment of the movie is interesting. [Ross McIndoe]

June 2015

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne

Ramifications. Daniel sits at a computer at an air force base in Nevada. A drone kills Caroline on the Afghan border. Michael sinks to his knees in Wales at the news. Later, in Hampstead, he walks into his neighbour’s house, and these events click into place with sickening precision. This is globalised warfare on the domestic scale: lives ruined in an instant.

With his new novel I Saw a Man, Owen Sheers plots with the precision of a poet, laying down each piece with deliberate care, leaving them apparently unconnected until we realize – too late – what he’s doing. There’s a terrifying moment on a staircase, strung out over many pages. Michael ascends with a growing dread that finds menace in the everyday objects of a strange house: miniature shampoo bottles, an unmade bed and a chair piled with clothes.

Here the narrative tension pulls tight, cinched.

Lives flip, shatter into guilt and grief.

Sheers balances the heavy machinations of plot and narrative with fine, poetic details. These are often moments when the natural world is made domestic: starlings flock over a hillside like a sheet shaken over a bed. In Caroline, the journalist who can’t settle, Michael is reminded of a birdcage: ‘her small body alive with wings brushing against her wire.' It is about flying and falling through life – and it’s masterfully done. [Galen O'Hanlon]

Director: Peter Bogdanovich Starring: Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman, Released: 25 May Certificate: PG In the early 70s Peter Bogdanovich was a superstar director.

After monochrome elegy The Last Picture Show and breakneck farce What's Up, Doc?, he struck gold again with Paper Moon, a screwball slowed down, a black-and-white con-artist road comedy with bittersweet spirit and sober reflection on the Great Depression.

Father-daughter combo Ryan and Tatum O'Neal play Moses and Addie – he's a swindler (and probably her long-lost dad), she's a cute little nine-year-old who smokes like a trooper and proves a quick study at scams. Paper Moon sees through Addie's scowls and Moses's refusal to show emotion,forging a tender bond, forged in a series of hilarious scrapes. The title underscores the fakery and the romance of both criminality and moviemaking, and is shot in a style somewhere between warm pastiche and gritty realism. Sweet, playful, reverberant – this is a perfect movie. [Ian Mantgani]

DVD / BOOKS

Director: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg Starring: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park, Diana Bang, Released: 8 Jun Certificate: 15 The backdrop: green-screen North Korea. The premise: self-serving entertainment hacks Dave Skylark (Franco) and Aaron Rapaport (Rogen) are coerced by the CIA into assassinating Kim Jong-Un (Park).

Hilarity allegedly ensues.

Great comedy can take aim at any subject, and make us feel terrible for laughing when it hits the mark. In comedic aim, The Interview is scattershot, firing at race, sexual orientation and gender. But a typical exchange from Aaron – “Did you say China? And did you just say dong?” – demonstrates how far it misses its targets.

As though already apologising, Dave winces away criticism, cultural gulfs, and a volatile dictator with the mantra: “They hate us ‘cos they ain't us.” To which, Aaron responds with startling acuity: “No. They hate us because we're fucking terrible.” And in this fluke moment of truth, he states all there is to it. [Kirsty Leckie-Palmer]

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Little Shop of Horrors Theatre comes to the film festival with Live, Live Cinema. Barnie Duncan chats about the drawing nature of screens, tripping over your own brain and the escalating fight to impress an audience Interview: Emma Ainley-Walker

Geist

Dance International Glasgow

Credit: Gareth Van Niekerk

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ou might think the Edinburgh International Film Festival is all about cinema and you wouldn't be wrong, but not happy with its own Fringe and International festivals coming up in August, theatre has slipped its way into the mix.

Live, Live, Cinema reimagines cult classics with live performers in front of the screen, and brings the original 1960 Little Shop of Horrors to this year's film festival. Actor Barnie Duncan spoke to The Skinny from all the way in New Zealand about the process of combining different forms of performance to make a crazy, wonderful collaboration between the stage and the screen.

For Duncan, theatre and film “are super different,” though they both have actors and directors. “I come from a background of doing more live theatre than on-camera work, so I'm biased,” says Duncan, “but I think theatre works on the sense of communion and film works on a sense of voyeurism in a way.”

“Four weird buddies have got together to try and do this impossible thing” When asked how much the performance then borrows from the film actors, or tries to stay away from their performance, Duncan states, “I can only answer for myself, but maybe it's the same for the rest of the cast too, in that the original actors’ choices are a great starting point. I mean for accents of course but also for attitude. I guess we take the vibe of the characters and heighten them, or take their ‘role’ and honour that but invent something new.” Each performer takes on several of the film's characters, with Duncan taking on eight roles. “Some are straight heightened imitations,” he admits, but for others Duncan gives his own twist. “For the Jack Nicholson character who

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Review

is addicted to pain, rather than copy him – which is just going to sound like an impersonator doing a semi-crap job – I reimagined him as Ren from Ren and Stimpy.”

Of course, the combination of the two mediums provides an awful lot for the audience to look at. “There's this mad stage full of props and sound gear, and four lunatics running around with instruments coughing up all this noise,” says Duncan, “but there is also a screen, and screens [are] akin to some kind of altar. We're screen kids these days, our gaze gravitates towards its omnipotent power even if we want to watch something else.” So Duncan and the rest of the cast won't be upset if the audience aren't watching their every move on stage, but they will fight for the attention. “It is a funny, weird and beautiful film, and we spend all our time trying to impress you with our amazing, ambidextrous talents. What a glorious conundrum. It's the reason why so many people say they want to come back for a second viewing.”

It's not just the audience who have a lot to focus on, with the performers providing the foley as well as the dialogue and singing. “A lovely thing happens,” Duncan says, describing “an acting technique where the actor delivers their lines while performing an action that has nothing to do with their lines. We bend our bodies around trying to nail a sound while in the middle of a sentence about botanical horror.” It sounds both confusing and impressive. “The foley is inventive and unpredictable cool things happen,” is all Duncan will say.

This set-up really invites the audience into the piece, in some ways because they're sympathetic for the performers “having to climb all over ourselves and our instruments and our cluttered brains. It's like four weird buddies have got together to try and do this impossible thing for this bunch of humans one night and everyone wants it to work. There are genuine fails and genuine triumphs and the audience are with us in all of that.”

The Little Shop of Horrors, Festival Theatre, Wed 24 Jun edfilmfest.org.uk/news/2015/02/live-live-cinema-the-littleshop-of-horrors

When the lights come up there are five performers on stage. Holding themselves still like awkward mannequins, it's only when you view the scene as a whole that you can detect short spasms of movement among them. As this movement gains momentum it's like witnessing a strange birth: the inanimate become animated.

What follows is both weird and curious.

As an explorative work, the contrasting phases of stasis and movement in Glasgow-born choreographer Colette Sadler's new piece Geist make sense, though at times the periods of inactivity can test the audience.

The performers move as if they are discovering movement for the first time, without clear thought or direction. In the opening sequence one performer moves with the briefest of robotic isolation

Give Me a Reason To Live Dance International Glasgow

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Towards the end of her new work Give Me A Reason To Live, Glasgow based choreographer Claire Cunningham stands before the audience.

With rasping inhalations and exhalations she stands present to judgement. Shivering turns to shaking as she continues to face the audience with vulnerability, strength and beauty.

Is this the point where disabled victims of World War II thought they were just going to take a shower? Give Me A Reason To Live is a “live memorial to the disabled victims of the Nazi Aktion T4 euthanasia program of the mid-20th Century, and the current disabled victims of recent ‘welfare reform’ in the UK.” Presented as a series of clearly defined physical tests, it begins with Cunningham straining as she presses her crutches against the wall. This

THEATRE

while another ties himself in knots with an undulating motion. Another dancer's hands move as if they control the body and yet another seemingly moves without any awareness at all.

Their faces are blank; it is the bodies that are animated. The dancers create sculptures which are built and then fold like the continuous waves of rest and motion which impel them.

Geist excites as the choreography quickens: Stuart Meyers shimmies to life; his body in thrall to the dance. Changing from rag doll limpness to robust strength, it is a vibrant controlled release.

Helka Kaski develops her sharp isolation into a flurry of movement as if the body is continuously one step ahead of the mind. It is this type of movement which is both captivating and compelling.

[Susannah Radford] Tramway, Glasgow, run ended, then touring Scotland See more DIG coverage at theskinny.co.uk/theatre tramway.org

is followed by release. In another test she balances ingeniously on her crutches, swinging forwards and backwards. While some tests require further recovery, there is flying-like freedom in this movement. The pendulum type flow reveals the mechanics of her body: control plus effort equals mastery.

Using the medieval Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch's work as inspiration, this piece too echoes with religious imagery. The final image is of Cunningham perched on her crutches against the back wall. Though it mirrors the crucifixion, she is like a bird. From this elevated height she opens her mouth to sing and the purity of her voice is of such beauty it is astounding. As her voice soars into the air it seems a fitting tribute. [Susannah Radford] Tramway, Glasgow, run ended See more DIG coverage at theskinny.co.uk/theatre clairecunningham.co.uk

THE SKINNY

Win Electric Fields tickets!

E

lectric Fields festival, based in Dumfries and Galloway, champions fresh, relevant and exciting music from all round the UK (hell, we're even programming a stage) and will this year take place on Saturday 29 August. The organisers have teamed up with The Skinny to offer a prize of four camping tickets worth £160 to one lucky winner. You could be there taking in acts such as King Creosote, The Phantom Band, Blanck Mass, Vessels and Golden Teacher plus a whole host more across four stages, all in the grounds of a 17th Century castle. All you need to do for your chance to win is head along to theskinny.co.uk/ competitions and answer this question: With which artist did King Creosote collaborate to earn him a Mercury Music Prize nomination?

Release the Beasts

a) Jon Hopkins b) Four Tet c) Aidan Moffat Entrants must be aged 16 or over. Competition closes midnight Sunday 28 June. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. The names of the winner will be on the guest list. Our Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny.co.uk/ about/terms-and-conditions

We investigate the intriguing set of night time events upcoming at Edinburgh Zoo Words: Jenni Ajderian Illustration: Paul Law

A

t some point on the road to adulthood it became less acceptable to want to spend your days watching penguins swimming around, learning about dinosaurs, or dressing up as a giraffe. The majority of any zoo's educational outreach typically goes to kids in schools, and much of their day-time focus is on good old-fashioned family fun. The Edinburgh Zoo Nights events, however, challenge this with a strict over-18s policy, while keeping a well-stocked set of face paints.

The nights blend educational talks with exceptional local entertainment, and all the fun and games normally offered only to the wee ones.

“You'd be surprised by how many people love that stuff,” says Jo Paulson, Edinburgh Zoo's Events and Experiences manager. “Take the kids out of the equation and give the adults a Dinosaur Detective Trail, and they just go with it. When they're at the zoo we can engage with them, tell them about our educational and conservation messages, and engage them with the natural world again.”

Those of us who might hesitantly call ourselves ‘grown-ups’ are left with a world-class zoo now peppered with local performers, gourmet food and even the odd alcoholic tipple. For The Skinny, the prospect of being let into a zoo after hours, attending a talk on paleoneurology with a face a painted like a tiger, and then getting our paws on a ‘G&T-Rex’ sounds like the African Hunting Dog's bollocks.

Though Edinburgh's Giant Pandas have sent their apologies, the zoo's cheery mob of meerkats will be in attendance with the Edinburgh Police Choir to get the music going. Then it's a short walk to the Budongo trail for an intellectual chat with the chimpanzees before some improvised laughs with The Stand's long-standing resident comedy duo Stu & Garry.

The Dinosaurs Return exhibition will be open all evening, with trained keepers on hand to keep the beasts at bay and point the way to the silent disco. In all, the bill looks like that of an outlandish birthday party for an eccentric laird with a penchant for natural history.

As with many things a zoo does, the Nights events have attracted criticism. Down in London, Zoo Lates events made headlines with their rowdy crowds, and critics have asked whether nocturnal

June 2015

electricfieldsfestival.com

visits put extra stress on the resident animals.

But with a host of educational talks on offer, careful planning of where live music is in relation to the animals, and of course plenty of food to soak up any craft beer consumed, the Edinburgh Zoo Nights have strived for a more relaxed atmosphere: an early-evening cocktail party rather than a night on the lash.

The animals themselves may enjoy having more humans to look at too. “Our head of the living collection says that actually having access to their outdoor enclosures and having extra things going on in the evening can be a benefit for them; it's extra enrichment that they don't normally get,” Paulson says, before reassuring me that none of the animals are missing out on any rest. Many species only become active in the evening (just think of your household cat or hamster). Furthermore, there's no reason we should expect the Sun Bears to lead a strict 9-5 lifestyle, especially when it stays light until gone 10pm.

As well as those closely monitoring the animals’ well-being, zoo keepers will be making the rounds throughout the evening giving ‘animal encounters’: a chance to meet certain characters from the zoo's collection up close in a setting normally reserved for school groups. As for our wellbeing, that's looked after by the Bongo Club's DJ Francis with a soul set around the main lawn, and acoustic alt-rock from the Dark Jokes. Local dance troupes Hustle and the Flying Jalapenos will be popping up around the zoo's labyrinth of paths, and clowning duo Chris and Cammy will be leading the slapstick sing-alongs right up until it's time for a talk on paleontology with a world-leading scientist. There is even talk of ‘dino-related surprises’ and photo opportunities throughout the night.

Though we're all still legally responsible and jolly sensible most of the time, it's refreshing to see an event pitched at the inner child. One that doesn't shy away from the fact that adults can learn interactively and enthusiastically, or that you can discuss climate change and mass extinction while eating a burrito, with or without whiskers.

Win tickets to Groove Festival Launch Party!

T

o celebrate the launch of Groove Festival, and the latest additions of Tensnake and Eli & Fur to the bill of Scotland’s newest dance festival on Loch Ness, The Skinny are giving away two sets of three tickets to the launch party on Saturday 27 June.

The launch will be a party on Cruise Loch Ness’s newest super-yacht, The Legend of Loch Ness! A select group of 60 lucky ticket holders will get the chance to dance all afternoon with DJs on Scotland’s most iconic Loch.

To be in with a chance of winning the tickets, and spending the afternoon searching for Nessie, just head along to theskinny.co.uk/ competitions and tell us what Scotland’s National Animal is: a) Loch Ness Monster b) Unicorn c) Highland Cow

Tickets are on sale now for Groove Festival, which will be taking place on 22 August 2015 at Loch Ness. The line-up for the day festival includes Groove Armada, 2manyDJs, Tensnake, B.Traits (Radio 1), Harri & Domenic (Sub Club), Eli & Fur, Let it Bleed, Filth DJs, Fugazy +more tba.

Edinburgh Zoo Nights runs on 29 May, 5, 19 and 26 Jun, starting at 6pm

Competition closes midnight Sunday 21 June. Entrants must be 18 or over. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. The names of the winner will be on the guest list.

Tickets £20 (£17 ZSL members)

For more info visit groovefestival.co.uk

COMEDY

Review

55

Glasgow Music Tue 02 Jun LATECOMERS

AVANT GARDE, 20:00–22:00, FREE

More acoustic pop loveliness from the Glasgow-based outfit.

BRAND NEW

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–23:00, £SOLD OUT

Laid-back, Long Island rock quartet formed back in 2000.

NAS (TIM WESTWOOD)

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–22:00, £28

The legendary Queens MC takes to the road some 21 years since his debut LP's release.

ATTENTION THIEVES (ACODA + BEAR ARMS)

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £5

The Reading rockers tour their new LP Year Of The Jackal.

STARING OUT THE SUN (PSEUDO SATELLITE + VOODOO DREAMS)

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

London-based, big chorused rock fourosme.

KAWABATA MAKOTO + K.K. NULL (FK ALEXANDER + DICK 50)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £6 ADV. (£8 DOOR)

Collaboration between founder and leader of Acid Mothers Temple, Kawabata Makoto, and mastermind of progressive hardcore band Zeni Geva, K.K. Null.

Wed 03 Jun

ESPERI (SONNY CARTYNE)

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Scottish multi-instrumentalist Chris Lee-Mar and pals do their intricate folk-meets-electronica thing.

JUSTHOPE (BLUEBIRD + ROBIN MCKIVEN)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £7.50

The melodic Glasgow ensemble launch their second LP Eye Witness.

Thu 04 Jun STRUGGLE

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Monthly punk and post hardcore selection of bands from DIY collective Struggletown.

BIG VERN AND THE SHOOTAHS

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £14

Nine-piece covers band playing soul and funk classics.

GEORGE EZRA

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–22:00, £TBC

Young Bristol singer/songwriter known for his bluesy, acoustic balladry.

JOHN BARROWMAN

SECC, 19:00–22:00, FROM £25

Barrowman in singing mode. Approach with caution.

SHURA

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £7

Pop producer and singer/songwriter, aka Aleksandra Denton when she's off stage.

THE CADBURY SISTERS

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £5

English folk sister trio and actual descendants of William Cadbury (of the mediocre chocolate).

Fri 05 Jun

WE CAME FROM WOLVES

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £6

Post-rock foursome all about the harmonic, melodic soundscapes with hook-laden, euphoric choruses.

JOHN COOPER CLARKE

PLATFORM, 19:00–22:00, £20

More satirical and biting political verse, delivered in Cooper Clarke's trademark rapid-fire performance style – taking in anecdotes of Northern life, interspersed with poems.

JOE PUG

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £8

Chicago-based singer/songwriter who abandoned playwriting in favour of becoming a musician.

WASHINGTON IRVING

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £8

The indie-folksters (whose story began in a basement flat back in February 2008, fact fans) preview songs from their debut LP. LORD HURON (BHI BHIMAN)

KING TUT'S, 20:30–23:00, £10

LA-based folk pop outfit formed around Chicago native, Ben Schneider.

56

Listings

WOODENBOX (THE SON(S)) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £8 ADV. (£10 DOOR)

Ali Downer Americana-styled folk ensemble play under their clipped back Woodenbox moniker, still imbued with the same propensity for full-on barn-raising anthems.

WU-TANG CLAN

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–22:00, £29

The East Coast hip-hop clan return to UK soil with their new LP A Better Tomorrow.

THE RICH (PENINSULA + THE SCARLETS + SCARLET INSIDE + PAUL CHAPMAN)

BUFF CLUB, 19:15–22:00, £6

Edinburgh-based young pups making merry with the psychedelic pop and rock template.

ERRORS WITH THE GLAD CAFE COMMUNITY CHOIR (MARNIE + LOCKAH)

GLASGOW SCIENCE CENTRE, 19:30–22:00, FREE (BUT TICKETED)

The Glasgow electronic indie rockers play a one-off set backed

by The Glad Cafe Community Choir, with special guests and bespoke visuals to boot.

DAVESNEWBIKE (RICHARD MEDRINGTON + MAIRI CAMPBELL)

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £8 (£6)

The Scottish rootsy pop unit launch their debut LP Wanderlust.

Sat 06 Jun

BLANK CANVAS (CASTAWAY + PAUL DUNCAN)

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £6 ADV. (£7 DOOR)

Edinburgh-based post-punk experimentalists, fusing elements of dreamy math with melodic guitars and bass.

THE MONOCHROME SET (VAN IMPE)

BROADCAST, 19:30–23:00, £12

Longstanding indie-pop outfit, marked by songwriter Bid's laconic vocals and intelligent wit.

HECTOR BIZERK (PRONTO MAMA + BELLA AND THE BEAR)

KING TUT'S, 20:30–23:00, £7.50

Much-lauded Glasgow-based alternative hip-hop duo made up of Louie and Audrey, MC and drummer respectively.

SOAK

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £9.50

Teenage Derry-born singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist signed to Rough Trade.

CHAMELEONS VOX

CLASSIC GRAND, 18:30–22:00, £17.50

Mark Burgess plays the Chameleons’ 1985 LP What Does Anything Mean? Basically, live and in its entirety.

ABLE FACES (BLEACH + THIS MANKIND + INQUEST)

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £8

The Glasgow pop trio give their new EP a hometown airing.

MACHINES IN HEAVEN (BESSA + ARMS WATCHES FINGERS + MR. TUNER DJ)

DRYGATE BREWING CO., 19:30–22:00, £5 ADV. (£7 DOOR)

The Glasgow glitch gang play a hometown set, all multi-layered, beat driven and epic like.

Sun 07 Jun

TREACHEROUS ORCHESTRA

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £12

Turbo-charged Scottish folk collective mixing traditional rootsy Scottish tunes with contemporary influences, all bagpipes and whistles and loveliness.

OXYGEN THIEF (MARK MCCABE)

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £5

Solo musical project of Bristol's Barry Dolan, taking to the stage as a louder, more electric live band three piece.

THE GO! TEAM

KING TUT'S, 20:30–23:00, £14.00

The Brighton-based cult live faves weave their energetic and chantheavy web of indie-pop.

BBC INTRODUCING AT THE QUAY (HONEYBLOOD + UNITED FRUIT + JONNIE COMMON + KOBI ONYAME + MAN OF MOON + UBRE BLANCA + SORREN MACLEAN + KLOË) BBC PACIFIC QUAY, 12:00–20:00, FREE

Vic Galloway et al return to do it all over again – with this year's BBC Introducing at the Quay featuring SAY Award nominees Honyeblood, Glasgow post-hardcore noisemongers United Fruit, Mull songstress Sorren Maclean and more.

CODIST

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £2.50

The Glasgow-based lo-fi foursome play tracks from their debut LP Loverscruff.

Mon 08 Jun HIDDEN ORCHESTRA

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £15

Joe Acheson and his Edinburgh based outfit, duelling acoustic and digital percussion, piano, violin, bass and samples in one gloriously experimental whole.

ROBYN HITCHCOCK (EMMA SWIFT)

MONO, 19:00–22:00, £13.50

Self-described as making ‘paintings you can listen to’, the Londonbased singer/songwriter does his e'er impressive thing.

EARL SWEATSHIRT

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £23.50

LA-based Odd Future member Thebe Neruda Kgositsiletakes to the stage under his Earl Sweatshirt alias.

ARIANA GRANDE

THE SSE HYDRO, 18:30–22:00, FROM £32.50

American singer and actress who recently split with Big Sean after a whole eighth months. Woah.

Tue 09 Jun THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–22:00, £24.50

DU BLONDE

BILLY IDOL

SHEPPARD

THE GODFATHERS

INDIA MENZEL

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £10

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–22:00, £37.50

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £10

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £15

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 20:00–22:00, FROM £35

Newcastle singer/songwriter Beth Jeans Houghton in her new Du Blonde guise, still making rather sweet nu-folk ditties.

TARIBOWEST (ALL TVVINS + CAMPFIRES IN WINTER)

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

A selection of super-heavy live band sounds curated by Vasa's J Niblock and Detour's Ally McCrae, including the new solo pop guise of ex-Adebisi Shank member, All Tvvins.

Thu 11 Jun

BEERJACKET (SECOND HAND MARCHING BAND + PALE FIRE)

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £7

The one-man alternative folk band that is Peter Kelly plays a special show.

ELVIS COSTELLO

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 20:00–22:00, FROM £37.50

The Grammy Award-winner and Music Hall of Fame inductee draws upon 35-odd years of – let's face it, a pretty damn impressive – back catalogue.

SEAN WHEELER + ZANDER SCHLOSS (BOB DERWOORD ANDREWS) BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £8

Vocalist Sean Wheeler and multiinstrumentalist Zander Schloss combine their talents for musical good.

HOWIE REEVE (BRASS, AYE?)

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £20

The local bass-maestro/anti-hero of the Glasgow underground hosts a special gig/dinner fundraiser to help raise pennies to produce his next album. Dinner included in ticket price.

Fri 12 Jun

More sharp-angled circular guitar saw with malicious intent, or summat.

ATOMIC KITTEN

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £21

Kerry Katona et al celebrate 15 years by playing their ‘greatest hits’ (we use that phrase lightly).

ULVANOVIC (PANDA SU + FINN LEMARINEL)

13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, £3.50 ADV. (£5 DOOR)

The orchestral pop seven-piece launch their debut LP Amateurs.

BLUR

BARROWLANDS, 19:00–23:00, £SOLD OUT

Damon Albarn et al play tunes form their new LP The Magic Whip, instantly transporting you back to the 90s.

LOVERS TURN TO MONSTERS (YOUNG SKULLS + ROSCOE VACANT) BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

The one-man emo-explosion launches his new EP, now with live band backing.

UMBERTO + ANTONI MAIOVVI (UBRE BLANCA)

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £7

Otherworldly electronic overlord and horror soundtrack fanatic Umberto join forces with electro-disco producer, DJ and film composer Antoni Maiovvi for a special set.

Wed 10 Jun ADMIRAL FALLOW

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–23:00, £13

Louis Abbott and his merry ensemble stage their usual rousing collective rabble of a thing.

KING TUT'S, 20:30–23:00, £12

Juno-nominated country musician and visual artist rarely seen without a stetson.

OUTBLINKER (ZYNA HEL + Y CVN)

STEREO, 20:00–22:00, £TBC

Members of Young Philadelphia, Hey Enemy, Dead or American and Kabobo unite for forays into electro kraut-rock, launching their new EP on the night.

Sun 14 Jun CROCODILES

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £7

San Diego garage rock duo made up of Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell.

LITTLE BARRIE

KING TUT'S, 20:30–23:00, £10

Nottingham-formed trio (since relocated to London) riding along on a mix of garage rock, r'n'b, surf and psychedelia sounds.

FAITH NO MORE

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–22:00, £SOLD OUT

The perennial non-conformists return to a live setting with new LP Sol Invictus – their first in some 18 years – reassuringly still driven by droves of charisma, invention and Patton's characteristic tracheal terrorism.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £6

Alternative indie-rock quartet born and bred on the mean streets of Dundee.

Newborn Sessions showcase some of the best in local and international songwriters.

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £TBC

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £8 ADV. (£10 DOOR)

GLASS MUSEUMS (MORNINGSIDE LANE)

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £8

LOST LIMBS (EX WIVES + KAPIL SESHASAYEE)

DANIEL ROMANO (FLEW THE ARROW + SOMETHING, SOMEONE)

KING TUT'S, 20:30–23:00, £6.50

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 20:00–22:00, FROM £32.50

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £5

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £10

The 80s post-punk unit ride the wave of their reformation.

THE MIRROR TRAP (TAKE TONIGHT + THE HEATHEN CLUB)

The anthemic Glasgow pop-rock outfit play a hometown show.

The legendary rock'n'roller, poet and artist takes to the stage some 40 years after her debut LP Horses was released, familiar yowl and husk well and truly in place.

THE MEMBRANES (THE SEA KINGS + LAMINA)

PATERSANI + JOSEPH MILLER + MR LIVINGSTONER AND THE BLACK PEACOCKS + JOHN IRVINE

The New Jersey quartet play a reliably anthemic mix of pop-rock melodies retooled for a punkinformed audience.

PATTI SMITH

The White Wedding singer returns for a go around some of his finest hits.

BE MY ENEMY (ALTERRED + METALTECH)

Phil Barry of Cubanate's live band project, back doing what he does best: heavy guitar riffs, banging beats and squelching acidic synth basslines.

ECHO ARCADIA + ALL SUNS BLAZING (REWIRED + EVEN IN ARCADIA + ALL THE FRANKLINS) BUFF CLUB, 19:15–22:00, £6

Co-headline set between Edinburgh-based indie-pop ensemble Echo Arcadia and Glasgow rock'n'rollers All Suns Blazing.

RED NOTE ENSEMBLE IMPROV MUSIC THEATRE

COTTIERS THEATRE, 20:30–22:30, FROM £6

Composer, pianist and Belfast Music Laureate Brian Irvine joins the players of Red Note and their cast of actors for a night of improvised contemporary music theatre.

LISA MITCHELL

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £10

Aussie singer/songwriter spending her summer touring Europe.

THE SHITHAWKS (SWEATY PALMS + FAIIDES + KILL SURRRF)

THE FLYING DUCK, 20:00–23:00, £5

The Dundee self-described ‘shit rockers’ descend, with Glaswegian young blood support.

ETERNAL TAPESTRY (DANAVA + BACHUS BARACUS)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £7

SELVHENTER (YOUR HAIRCUT)

All-female Copenhagen troupe composed of two drumkits and distorted trombone, violin and alto saxophone.

Mon 15 Jun WAXAHATCHEE

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £10

Solo project of songwriter Katie Crutchfield, DIY and confessional in her songwriting approach.

BOXED IN

BROADCAST, 20:00–22:00, £5

Musical brainchild of Oli Bayston, formerly of indie outfit Keith, taking his name from a Francis Bacon painting.

TREMONTI

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £16.50

American singer/songwriter (aka Mark Tremonti) best known as the lead guitarist of rock units Creed and Alter Bridge.

ARIEL PINK

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 19:00–22:00, £15

The lo-fi LA goth specialist (aka Ariel Marcus Rosenberg) makes a welcome return to Glasgow.

Tue 16 Jun FLEETWOOD MAC

THE SSE HYDRO, 19:00–22:00, FROM £50

The legendary British-American ensemble play a set of hits, joined by returning songbird Christine McVie after a 16-year absence.

OBN III'S

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £8

Multi-platinum Aussie outfit riding high on the back of their hit single Geronimo.

DEADLY RIDES (KILL SURRRF)

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

MOGWAI: 20TH ANNIVERSARY (LOOP + PROLAPSE + PYE CORNER AUDIO) BARROWLANDS, 19:00–23:00, £26.50

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £7

Glasgow's noisiest sons celebrate their 20th anniversary by taking over Barrowland for two nights with a selection of their fave acts – amongst them The Vaselines, Forest Swords and Loop – before hitting up London for a six-night bill.

Thu 25 Jun

PILE (TOTAL BABES + AMERICAN CLAY)

The explosive Boston-based fourpiece come to the UK.

Thu 18 Jun THE OVERTONES

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £21.50

Vocal harmony quintet based in London, where they were discovered whilst working as decorators.

Obviously.

DAN DEACON

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 19:30–22:00, £11.50

The Baltimore-based composer plays a set of his sonically-driven hyper beats.

GLASGOW PHILHARMONIA SUMMER CONCERT

ROYAL CONSERVATOIRE OF SCOTLAND, 19:30–22:00, £12 (£10)

Young orchestra consisting of some of the best fledgling musicians in Scotland, founded by Ross Gunning in 2012.

JOHN J PRESLEY (CHRISTIE CONNOR-VERNAL + THE OUTLAWED)

KING TUT'S, 20:30–23:00, £7

English gent with a penchant for fuzzy alternative blues.

SAOR PATROL

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £10

Scottish folk-pop outfit with bagpipes in their mix.

REPEATER (DEAD RIDER + DAMN TEETH)

BLOC+, 22:00–01:00, FREE

Post-hardcore DIY gig/club effort with a selection of live acts dropping by, this edition including ATP-conquering American alternative heroes Dead Rider.

MUGSTOCK FESTIVAL WARM-UP NIGHT (MICKEY 9S + AMBER GAMBLER + DJ RAMBUNCTIOUS + CORDAO DE OURO CAPOEIRA )

STEREO, 19:30–22:00, £5

Warm-up showcase for the first ever MugStock – a new music festival taking place in Mugdock Country Park, 7-9 August.

Fri 19 Jun ERNEST

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £10

Talented bunch of players taking in everything from 60s soul to country-folk covers, also dipping into their own back catalogue for the occasion.

CHASAR

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £10

Classic hard rock unit hailing from Alloa.

THE SHERLOCKS

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £8

Sheffield indie-rock unit made up of two sets of brothers.

ELTON JOHN

THE SSE HYDRO, 19:30–22:00, FROM £40

Good ol’ Elton plays a set of hits from his five decade career. Should keep him in flowers for a little longer, anyway.

LEFTFIELD

BARROWLANDS, 19:00–23:00, £29

The dance culture pioneers show the young ‘uns how it's done.

SARAH CRACKNELL

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £19

Formerly one-third of Saint Etienne, Cracknell takes another stab at her solo career nearly two decades after her last one.

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £7

KING TUT'S, 20:30–23:00, £15

Manc pop-punk lot chock with catchy melodies and punk riffs.

FFS

Half-Irish, half-Scottish Glasgowdwelling Americana songstress.

Lush collaborative duo comprised of Jenny Reeve and Jill O'Sullivan, built on sweet vocal harmonies plus guitar, violin and fluttering handclaps.

Sat 13 Jun ROSEANNE REID

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £5

The local singer/songwriter launches her new LP Right On Time.

GEMMA HAYES

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £16.50

The Irish singer/songwriter plays a stripped-back set, blending folk, progressive rock and electronica in one happy whole.

New live band from The Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler Zavala.

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–23:00, £SOLD OUT

Glasgow art rockers Franz Ferdinand and Los Angeles new wavers Sparks take to a live setting to unveil the fruits of their transatlantic new project, offering gig-goers a first live listen to tracks from their debut collaborative LP.

Wed 17 Jun

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £10

New folk-styled musical project of guitarist Ben Chasny.

SIOBHAN WILSON

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £10.50

New Zealand-born, Glasgow-based scuzzy garage trio.

The Austin shredders bring their usual racket.

ANTEMASQUE

As in, Elsa from Disney's Frozen.

Don't pretend you don't know.

The mellifluous chanteuse launches her new EP Say It's True, having dropped her Ella the Bird moniker.

The US-of-A experimental psyche rockers hit town.

BDY PRTS

British rock'n'rollers formed back in 1985 by brothers Peter and Chris Coyne from the ashes of their previous band, The Sid Presley Experience.

GETUP GO (TRUCE + A REASON FOR THIS + 12 STORIES HIGH)

BUFF CLUB, 19:15–22:00, £6

MARTHA L HEALY

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £10

Sat 20 Jun

DANNY AND THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £10

Genuinely affecting country-folk from the Australian-born, south London living, Danny George Wilson and his merry band. Roald Dahl similarities left at the title.

DEAD KENNEDYS

KING TUT'S, 20:30–23:00, £17.50

Caustic 70s punk rockers now with Ron Greer on vocal duties.

TONY VISCONTI + WOODY WOODMANSEY

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £20

KING TUT'S, 20:30–23:00, £15

David Bowie producer/bass player Tony Visconti and drummer Woody Woodmansey perform Bowie's The Man Who Sold The Wolrd, with Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 fronting.

MARTHASVILLE (SONIC DISPACE)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £5

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £42.50

TYCI (BOSSY LOVE + CHUMP + LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS DJS)

Fri 26 Jun

JAH WOBBLE AND THE INVADERS OF THE HEART

The PiL man is joined by some-time Stone Roses guitarist Aziz Ibrahim to celebrate his illustrious career as a musician.

Glasgow-based Americana-styled bunch, riding along on strong indierock melodies and jangly guitars.

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £5

The all-female collective, blog and fanzine bring together a selection of live acts and DJs for their monthly party night.

MEAT IS MURDER (SECONDS + PEE SIX + CHRISSY BARNACLE)

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £DONATION

Smiths-infused pro-vegan musical fundraiser.

Sun 21 Jun

WEST END FESTIVAL ALL-DAYER (BILL WELLS AND AIDAN MOFFAT + THE PHANTOM BAND + RM HUBBERT + REMEMBER REMEMBER + TUFF LOVE + DE ROSA +THE DIRTY BEGGARS + ULTRAS + STANLEY ODD + KATHRYN JOSEPH + YUSUF AZAK) ORAN MOR, 15:00–22:00, £20 (£18)

Taking over all three stages (basement, bar and auditorium), Oran Mor host the fourth annual West End Festival All-Dayer – manned by a 14-strong contingent of locals, including The Phantom Band, Remember Remember and Tuff Love.

MOGWAI: 20TH ANNIVERSARY (THE VASELINES + FOREST SWORDS + SACRED PAWS)

BARROWLANDS, 19:00–23:00, £26.50

Glasgow's noisiest sons celebrate their 20th anniversary by taking over Barrowland for two nights with a selection of their fave acts – amongst them The Vaselines, Forest Swords and Loop – before hitting up London for a six-night bill.

JACK WOODWARD

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

The acoustic pop-rock songsmith returns to Sleazy's for another singalong.

Mon 22 Jun

GLADYS NIGHT

The acclaimed soul songstress hits town as part of her seven date UK tour. Part of Glasgow Jazz Festival.

RON SEXSMITH

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–23:00, £27.50

The prolific Canadian singer/ songwriter performs songs from his much-admired back catalogue of elegant melancholic pop songs.

ELECTRIC HONEY RECORDS’ SHOWCASE (HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS + SCHNARFF SCHNARFF + FINN LE MARINEL + APACHE SUN)

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £5

Annual showcase from Glasgow Kelvin College's renowned record label, this time featuring Harry and The Hendersons, Schnarff Schnarff, Finn Le Marinel and Apache Sun. RACHAEL COHEN QUARTET

CITY HALLS, 20:30–22:00, £12

The alto saxophone player performs a set of her storytelling style of tunes, in quartet format.

Part of Glasgow Jazz Festival.

SNJO + EDDI READER

OLD FRUITMARKET GLASGOW, 19:00–22:00, £25

Special collaborative set as part of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra's 20th anniversary celebrations, joined by the velvety vocal palette of Eddi Reader. Part of Glasgow Jazz Festival.

GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS

KING TUT'S, 20:30–23:00, £14

The angsty country chap plays a set of his twisted Americana soundscapes.

HELLION RISING (DAMAJ + LETS PLAY GOD + ARTIFICIAL RED + CICERO'S SECRET)

BUFF CLUB, 19:15–22:00, £6

Newcastle groove metal unit currently touring across the UK. JUNZO SUZUKI (ROBIN ADAMS + WOUNDED KNEE)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £5

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £9

Tokyo-based Japanese underground guitarist and vocalist.

NATALIE PRASS

Fledgling project featuring members of Nackt Insecten, Vom and Confidential Waist.

HANNI EL KHATIB

The San Franciscan-born singer/ songwriter brings his third LP Moonlight to the UK, a mix of everything from italo-disco to fuzz pop.

MONO, 19:30–22:00, £11

The Nashville-based singer/ songwriter tours her self-titled new LP.

BAD AURA (SHAREHOLDER + FK ALEXANDER // GRIMALKIN 555 )

STEREO, 19:30–22:00, £5

Sat 27 Jun JAMES GRANT

KING TUT'S, 20:30–23:00, £16

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £2.50

The Love & Money frontman performs a set cherrypicked from his own solo albums, alongside a smattering of old band favourites.

DEC ‘91 (POLARNECKS)

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 19:30–22:00, £8

Tue 23 Jun

VELVET MORNING (SWEATY PALMS)

Fledgling psych-infused guitar pop outfit.

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Indie pop splendour care of Stirling's Craig Patrick Ferrie (aka Dec ‘91), with pals Polarnecks in support.

TAYLOR SWIFT

THE SSE HYDRO, 18:30–22:00, FROM £55

The Tennessee songbird hits town as part of her world tour.

Wed 24 Jun SALSA CELTICA

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £15

The Edinburgh-based ensemble play a trademark set of Scottish and Irish traditional music.

ELA ORLEANS

The Glasgow-based Polish chanteuse tours her new LP, cleverly using loop pedals to sync otherworldy synths, silken vocals and samples: sounding like some kind of hallucinatory angel of the night, more's the joy.

LOUISE RUTKOWSKI (WOLF)

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £10

The former This Mortal Coil vocalist does her haunting solo thing.

POOR THINGS + PINACT + SHARPTOOTH + HALFRICAN

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS , 20:00–01:00, £5

The stellar foursome of bands descend in support of their split EP release, each taking a stint on the stage.

THE SKINNY

Edinburgh Music

Wed 17 Jun

Bulletdodge main man Gareth Whitehead celebrates the release of his collaborative debut LP with a sprawling all-day party, presenting a live reworking of the album plus a selection of the performing artists.

Tue 02 Jun

GLASGOW PHILHARMONIA SUMMER CONCERT

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £17.50

PRONTO MAMA (SEA OF CROWNS)

BULLETDODGE RECORDS LP LAUNCH (MR O + SQYRE + LEE PENNINGTON + CRYPTIQ + BOOGALOO + BURN THE ELASTIC) GLASGOW SCULPTURE STUDIOS, 14:00–22:00, £15

PEGGY SEEGER

Folk queen, feminist icon, political activist and eco-warrior out on tour to celebrate her 80th birthday.

DEVILS QUEEN + HOOKERS FOR JESUS + FOLLOW THE LION + EAT MEAT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £5

Showcase night of alternative, melodic punk and rock.

MALLORCA LEE

STEREO, 21:00–03:00, £10

The DJ/producer performs his Computer Games LP with full live band, including long-term collaborators Ross Ferguson and Andy Haldane.

JOHN BARROWMAN

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, 19:00–22:00, FROM £26

Barrowman in singing mode. Approach with caution.

Wed 03 Jun

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £6

Up-beat tunes from the Glasgow polyrhythmic indie-rockers/super cool dudes.

EAGULLS

SUMMERHALL, 20:00–01:00, £9 ADV. (£10 DOOR)

HAMPDEN PARK, 16:00–21:00, £65

THE FAMILY STONE

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £22.50

A trio of founding members take to the stage, minus Sly. Part of Glasgow Jazz Festival.

FRANK SINATRA JR.

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £40

As in son of ol’ blue eyes himself, performing his pa's songs. Part of Glasgow Jazz Festival.

NETTWORK TRIO

OLD FRUITMARKET GLASGOW, 19:30–22:00, £25

Threesome of jazz virtuosos led by bass player Charnett Moffett, plus guitarist Stanley Jordan and drummer Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts. Part of Glasgow Jazz Festival.

MAIRI ORR

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £8 ADV. (£10 DOOR)

Americana-styled Scottish singer/ songwriter raised in the west highland village of Morar, and since relocated to Edinburgh.

RALLY & BROAD: EV'RY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE (A. L. KENNEDY + FINDLAY NAPIER + MICHAEL PEDERSEN + KIRSTY LOGAN + MAUD THE MOTH)

STEREO, 14:30–17:30, £5

The Rally & Broad literary lasses round off their third season with a duo of shows, playing Edinburgh (19 June) and Glasgow (28 June).

And ne'er fear, they'll be back in October for season four.

D.O.A. (GLUERASH + NEW AGE)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £8

The Canadian hardcore punk unit drop by.

Mon 29 Jun

K.K. NULL + KAWABATA MAKOTO

The two masters of the Japanese noise and experimental scene join forces for a powerful collaborative set.

Thu 04 Jun

THE DARK HORSE: 20TH ANNIVERSARY (ALASDAIR GRAY + DOUGLAS GUNN + VICKI FEAVER + CLAIRE ASKEW + FINDLAY NAPIER)

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:00–22:00, £6

In celebration of its 20th year – and anniversary issue – transatlanic poetry mag The Dark Horse hosts a special programme of poetry, visuals and music, including readings from Alasdair Gray, Douglas Gunn and Claire Askew, plus music from Findlay Napier.

YORKSTON + THORNE + KHAN

SUMMERHALL, 20:00–01:00, £10

THE DRIFTERS

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, 19:30–22:00, £27

American doo-wop vocal group, currently in their 60-somethingth year of making music.

EDINBURGH QUARTET + GLASGOW CHAMBER CHOIR

THE QUEEN'S HALL, 15:30–18:00, £15 (£12)

WOVEN SKULL (CORE OF COALMAN + SOPHIE COOPER)

BANNERMANS, 18:00–23:00, £6

The blues rock trio preview their new LP Reflections.

Fri 05 Jun

CONAN (KHOST + THE MOTH + OF SPIRE AND THRONE)

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £8

Caveman doom warlords from Liverpool, well kent for their bawdestroying riffs.

BOOK GROUP (DIGITALANALOGUE)

SNEAKY PETE'S, 19:00–22:00, £5

Thunder drums + pop fuzz hooks.

Prone to megaphone.

Sat 06 Jun

KING TUT'S, 20:00–23:00, £13.50

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £15

MOSTLY AUTUMN

The prolific prog-folk group continue to be just that, with another UK tour.

WOZNIAK (WE CAME FROM THE NORTH + MAKINGS)

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£3 IN BAND T-SHIRT)

The Edinburgh-formed noiseniks celebrate their latest release with the usual feedback-fuelled set.

Discounted entry in band t-shirt.

COW COW BOOGIE + THE EXHUMED BONES + FIRE EXIT

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

Charity showcase night of psychobilly and punk.

Sun 07 Jun

THE MONOCHROME SET (VAN IMPE)

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–22:00, £12

Longstanding indie-pop outfit, marked by songwriter Bid's laconic vocals and intelligent wit.

THE PIANO GUYS

USHER HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £26.95

American music duo of pianist Jon Schmidt and cellist Steven Sharp Nelson, joined by their touring live collective.

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

USHER HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £12

THE HARRY MACINTOSH PROJECT

English outfit rolling alternative, experimental punk and rock into one happy whole.

THE CADBURY SISTERS

SNEAKY PETE'S, 19:00–22:00, £8

English folk sister trio and actual descendants of William Cadbury (of the mediocre chocolate).

Tue 09 Jun ASH

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £17

The Irish Britpopsters play all the usual hits and live favourites of a 20+ year career. And none of them have even reached 40 yet.

DAMIEN RICE (MARIAM THE BELIEVER)

USHER HALL, 19:00–22:00, FROM £33

Wed 10 Jun

SNEAKY PETE'S, 19:00–22:00, £8

ULVANOVIC (ESPERI + THE JELLYMAN'S DAUGHTER)

The orchestral pop seven-piece launch their debut LP Amateurs.

THE SCOTTISH FIDDLE ORCHESTRA

The SFO return with an evening of traditional music and song.

DED RABBIT

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £6

THE LAFONTAINES

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £10

Motherwell outfit deftly combining portions of hip-hop, pop, rock and electro into one thumping melodic block of noise.

EDINBURGH BLUES CLUB (HAMILTON LOOMIS + THE BLUESWATER)

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:15–22:00, £13

Monthly blues club taking in touring blues acts from the UK and beyond.

EDINBURGH COLLEGE SHOWCASE

THE QUEEN'S HALL, 19:30–22:00, £10 (£8)

The Music Box at Edinburgh College present a showcase of classical, jazz and traditional music – the culmination of the year's work by the students.

SHE AND THE JUNKIES

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

The Austrian self-described ‘junk rockers’ make a welcome return to Bannermans.

Fri 12 Jun GEMMA HAYES

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £16.50

The Irish singer/songwriter plays a stripped-back set, blending folk, progressive rock and electronica in one happy whole.

THE WYNNTOWN MARSHALS (DROPKICK)

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–22:00, £10

WE ARE CARNIVORES (FELIX CHAMPION)

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £7 (£5)

English post hardcore foursome who got themselves into the final of Red Bull's download competition.

KARINE POLWART TRIO

USHER HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £10 (£6)

The Borders lass brings the loveliness with her provokingly poetic and bittersweet folk tunes, this time performing in trio form, with suitably stirring backing from two Edinburgh community choirs.

DANIELA SCHUSTER + ELSPETH LUKE + MATTHEW BROWN

ST JOHN'S CHURCH, 18:15–20:15, £10 (£8)

Argentinian soprano Daniela Schuster, violinist Elspeth Luke and pianist Matthew Brown present a mix of classical and show tunes.

LENIN DEATH MASK (THE DRAYNES + STAR ROVER)

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, 19:30–23:00, £5

The Aberdeen alternative punk geniuses play an all-new set of tunes.

BLACKWELL (BENNY MONTEUX + PAPER RIFLES + RICHARD NEIL)

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

Thu 18 Jun

TAV FALCO'S PANTHER BURNS

Tennessee-hailing rockers – oft shortened to Panther Burns – led by hirsute frontman Tav Falco.

BRUNCHEON

OUT OF THE BLUE DRILL HALL, 11:30–15:00, FREE

Brunch and live music event in the Drill Hall cafe, featuring a selection of local musical talent. And cake!

BUDAPEST CAFE ORCHESTRA

SUMMERHALL, 20:00–22:00, £15 (£14)

Entertaining orchestra led by jazz violin superstar Christian Garrick, playing traditional folk and gypsy music from across the Balkans and Russia.

MOSS-FEST: WINTER IN EDEN (GLOBAL NOISE ATTACK + DEADFIRE + DEALER) BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, FREE

BANNERMANS, 20:00–22:00, £6

Thu 11 Jun

Young orchestra consisting of some of the best fledgling musicians in Scotland, founded by Ross Gunning in 2012.

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

THE CAVES, 19:00–22:00, £SOLD OUT

The New Jersey alternative punk rockers hit Scotland for the first time.

GREYFRIARS KIRK , 19:30–22:00, £11 (£9)

Piano singer/songwriter with an alternative edge.

Live music showcase for a special cause.

MORNINGSIDE LANE (REWIRED)

SNEAKY PETE'S, 19:00–22:00, £6

Texas-born singer/songwriter of the folksy variety.

Band of brothers playing an eclectic mix of indie and sax funk.

Vocalist Sean Wheeler and multiinstrumentalist Zander Schloss combine their talents for musical good.

Americana-styled Edinburgh lot with a penchant for guitars, catchy choruses and using music as a storytelling medium.

June 2015

Fundraiser in support of the Leith Theatre Trust and their work to re-open Leith Theatre as a multi-function venue, headlined by singer/songwriter Dean Owens and band.

Sat 13 Jun

SEAN WHEELER + ZANDER SCHLOSS (BOB DERWOOD ANDREWS)

THE MENTULLS (FIGHT ROBOTS FIGHT)

THE THOMAS MORTON HALL, 19:00–23:00, £12

Mon 08 Jun

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £20

English rock unit featuring former members of Happy Mondays and Ruthless Rap Assassins.

THE LEITH THEATRE SESSIONS (DEAN OWENS AND THE WHISKY HEARTS + CAROLINE GILMOUR + LORNA THOMAS)

WEE RED BAR, 19:00–22:00, £3.50 ADV. (£5 DOOR)

The soft-voiced Irish singer/songwriter returns to the live circuit with his new LP My Favourite Faded Fantasy.

BLACK GRAPE

Doom jazz soundscapes from the Edinburgh-based instrumental trio recently signed to Rare Noise Records.

Dark and eclectic trio who've spent several years experimenting with combinations of instrumentation, household objects, footsteps, chimes, recordings of cats purring and frogs mating… you get the idea.

Collaborative project of Scottish folk singer/songwriter James Yorkston, sarangi player and classical singer Suhail Yusuf Khan and Lamb's double bass player Jon Thorne, formed after a chance meeting.

ERIC HUTCHINSON (NICK HOWARD + SEAN MCANENY)

The American folk-rock singer/ songwriter takes to the road for his summer tour.

Half-Swedish, half-Scottish singer/songwriter in possession of a fine technical agility and emotive style.

HENRY'S CELLAR BAR, 15:00–18:00, £6

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £10 (£8)

The bona fide rock legends return to the live stage in celebration of their new LP Rock or Bust.

HENRY'S CELLAR BAR, 19:00–22:00, £5

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–22:00, £16.50

CHUCK PROPHET AND THE MISSION EXPRESS

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £13.50

AC/DC

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £16.00

The anarchic Leeds-based fivepiece man the next instalment in Summerhall's Nothing Ever Happens Here gig series.

Sun 28 Jun Nashville singer/songwriter best known (by us, at least) for True Blood theme song, Bad Things.

FREE NELSON MANDOOMJAZZ

A selection of guest vocalists celebrate Hans Gál's 125th anniversary with a feast of vocal chamber music by Gál, Schubert and Mendelssohn.

American singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer who hit the road straight outta high school in the 80s with psychedelic roots band Green on Red.

JACE EVERETT

NINA NESBITT

JARROD DICKENSON

Sun 14 Jun THE STRYPES

Young Irish R'n'B four-piece with a level of skill well beyond their years, playing a two-night stint at The Caves (14 & 15 June).

ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK (BOB SLAYER + THE GAYSHA GIRLS)

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £10 (£8)

The Japan rockers make their return visit to the UK, out celebrating their 21st anniversary tour.

THE BURNING HELL

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £7

Canadian folk artist Mathias Kom returns to the UK with a full band in tow for this latest round of Burning Hell shows.

Mon 15 Jun THE STRYPES

THE CAVES, 19:00–22:00, £14.75

Young Irish R'n'B four-piece with a level of skill well beyond their years, playing a two-night stint at The Caves (14 & 15 June).

CROCODILES (THE PHANTOMS + VLADIMIR)

SNEAKY PETE'S, 19:00–22:00, £9

San Diego garage rock duo made up of Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell.

ISLASORNA (BARONS + EVE THE BETRAYER + SEIZED UPON ALL)

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £5

The Edinburgh-based metal outfit do their noise-heavy thing, out touting their debut EP. REECE HILLIS

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

Young folk/blues muso from central Scotland.

JAMES BLACKSHAW (YUSUF AZAK)

SUMMERHALL, 20:00–01:00, £10

The 12-stringed wonder that is James Blackshaw draws on his usual myriad influences – classical, Indian and minimalist genres amongst ‘em – playing as part of Summerhall's Nothing Ever Happens Here gig series.

ART OF BURNING WATER (BAXTER STOCKMAN + THE COILOUR PINK IS GAY + BRITNEY)

BANNERMANS, 18:00–23:00, £6

The underground grindcore rockers bring the noise.

THE LEITH THEATRE SESSIONS (ALEX CORNISH + KING EIDER + DANIEL SCOTT) THE THOMAS MORTON HALL, 19:00–23:00, £12

Fundraiser in support of the Leith Theatre Trust and their work to re-open Leith Theatre as a multi-function venue, headlined

by Edinburgh singer/songwriter Alex Cornish.

MAIRI ORR

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–22:00, £8 ADV (£10 DOOR)

Americana-styled Scottish singer/ songwriter raised in the west highland village of Morar, and since relocated to Edinburgh.

KONTAKTE (93MILLIONMILESFROMTHESUN) WEE RED BAR, 19:00–22:00, £5

Blistering wall of intense guitar noise bonded by shimmering electronics and ethereal melodies.

BLOODSHOT (CORRUPT THE SYSTEM)

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

The southern metal noisemakers launch their new EP. TOM HINGLEY BAND

LA BELLE ANGELE, 19:00–22:00, £10 (£8)

The Inspiral Carpets frontman plays with his live band accompaniment.

EDINBURGH BLUES CLUB (LAURENCE JONES + BLUEPRINT)

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:15–22:00, £13

Monthly blues club taking in touring blues acts from the UK and beyond.

KATHYRN WILLIAMS

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–22:00, £14

The Mercury Prize-nominated singer/songwriter tours on the run up to the release of her new LP Hypoxia, inspired by Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.

Mon 22 Jun

ST MARY'S MUSIC SCHOOL SUMMER CONCERT

THE QUEEN'S HALL, 19:30–22:00, £10 (£7)

The pupils of Scotland's specialist music school perform a special programme on the theme of ancient airs and dances.

THE BISCUIT TIN COLLECTIVE

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–22:00, £TBC

The Edinburgh-based ensemble play tracks from their debut LP. LATE LANDING

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

The Scottish rock-meets-metal unit return to Bannermans after a support slot a few months back.

SNEAKY PETE'S, 19:00–22:00, £6.50 ADV. (£8 DOOR)

Wed 24 Jun

Talented ensemble featuring exmembers of US Maple and Singer, touring their new album The Raw Dents, a deft juxtaposition between harmony and noise.

THE RICH (THE INDOS + COLOUR TRAP)

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £5 ADV. (£6 DOOR)

Edinburgh-based young pups making merry with the psychedelic pop and rock template.

PANICBYFLARE

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £5

Upbeat pop-punk-meets-post hardcore Dundee trio.

RALLY & BROAD: EV'RY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE (ROSS SUTHERLAND + DAN WILLSON + HANNAH SILVA + RYAN VAN WINKLE + CARO BRIDGES)

THE BONGO CLUB, 19:00–22:00, £5

The Rally & Broad literary lasses round off their third season with a duo of shows, playing Edinburgh (19 June) and Glasgow (28 June).

And ne'er fear, they'll be back in October for season four.

THE WINDOWS

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

The Glasgow-based rock troupe make their Bannermans debut.

Sat 20 Jun

AYAKARA (THE LITIGATORS + THE STRATS )

SNEAKY PETE'S, 19:00–22:00, £5 ADV. (£7 DOOR)

Alternative Edinburgh bunch mixing myriad different styles into their own energetic sound, launching their new single on the night.

SONG, BY TOAD'S BAD FUN (SONGDOG+BEST GIRL ATHLETE+ GRAYSON KING) HENRY'S CELLAR BAR, 19:30–22:00, £5

Music blogger Song, By Toad's regular live music showcase night, taking in live talent and guest DJs of the reliably good variety.

Edinburgh-based blues rockers playing a mixture of classic and original tunes.

Sat 27 Jun

BACK TO THE FUTURE: LIVE SCORE

FESTIVAL THEATRE, 19:00–22:00, FROM £15

The 80s classic returns to the big screen for a one-off outing, with Alan Silverstri's score performed live by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Part of Edinburgh International Film Festival.

METALTECH (EVIL BLIZZARD)

CATHOLIC ACTION (DORA MAAR + STAR ROVER)

SNEAKY PETE'S, 19:00–22:00, £5

Glasgow noisemakers featuring members of Male Pattern Band and Casual Sex. THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS: LIVE SCORE

FESTIVAL THEATRE, 19:30–22:00, £17.50

Roger Corman's cult film is screened whilst the live soundtrack is created by four performers, working at speed to re-voice multiple characters. Part of Edinburgh International Film Festival.

LOVE BUZZARD

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

The turbocharged duo do their bluesy riffs, filthy lyrics and stomping drums thing.

Thu 25 Jun

YEAH DETROIT (FIRES IN THE ALPS + PAINTING ROCKETS)

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £5

Melodic pop Scottish quintet, imbuing their sound with flecks of punk.

WE ARE KNUCKLE DRAGGER (TOMMY CONCRETE + THE WEREWOLVES)

BANNERMANS, 18:00–23:00, £5

Newcastle metalic rockers of the underground and hardcore variety.

REDOLENT (GREG PEARSON + DUNE WITCH TRAILS + DANIEL SCOTT + REBECCA ANDERSON)

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £5

Young Edinburgh foursome built on guitars, lifting vocals and strong melodies.

Fri 26 Jun

POOR THINGS + PINACT + SHARPTOOTH + HALFRICAN

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, 19:00–22:30, £5

The stellar foursome of bands descend in support of their split EP release, each taking a stint on the stage.

Glasgow Clubs Tue 02 Jun KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Eclectic midweeker offering up the best in house, techno and electronic.

I AM

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (FREE VIA IAMCLUB.CO.UK)

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £6

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, oft joined by a guest or two.

ALDEN PENNER (MICHAEL CERA)

Wed 03 Jun

The local industrial legends hook up with four bass players and a singing drummer, for, y'know, 100% more noise.

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £10

Co-founder of dysfunctional artpop outfit The Unicorns.

Mon 29 Jun

CROW COUNTRY OUTLAW

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £6

Swedish ensemble mixing blues, country, rock and punk.

Sun 21 Jun

Fri 19 Jun

DEAD RIDER (NUMBERS ARE FUTILE + KAPIL SESHASAYEE)

THE BLUESBROKER EXPERIENCE THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:00–22:00, £TBC

Dundee Music

SUB ROSA

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

Subbie's regular student night with residents Spittal and Nowicki at the helm.

BEAST WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

The midweek residents serve up their usual rammy of pop-punk and hardcore, whilst the bar doles out alcoholic slushies. Slurp.

Thu 04 Jun HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic r'n'b and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Sat 06 Jun

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can't say fairer.

BUSKERS, 19:30–22:00, £5 ADV. (£6 DOOR)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, FREE

THE SCANDALS (MAXWELL'S DEAD + ROBOT DOCTORS + SALEM STREET)

The New Jersey punk rock'n'rollers drop by in the midst of their European tour with The Gaslight Anthem.

Thu 11 Jun

MELOPHOBIA (ELEPHANT + SHAKEN MIMES)

BUSKERS, 19:30–22:00, £4

The Dundee-based alternative grunge rock'n'rollers launch their new EP.

Sat 13 Jun

ANDREW JACKSON JIHAD + HARD GIRLS (THE MURDERBURGERS + TERRAFRAID)

BUSKERS, 19:30–22:00, £8 ADV. (£10 DOOR)

Double headline set from Arizona DIY punk lot Andrew Jackson Jihad and Californian indie rock'n'rollers Hard Girls.

Thu 18 Jun

FELIX CHAMPION (WE ARE CARNIVORES)

BUSKERS, 19:30–23:00, £4

GENERAL LUDD

General Ludd, part of Glasgow collective Golden Teacher, commence a new Glasgow residency showcasing their new productions and discoveries.

UPRAWR

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5

Weekly Thursday takeover with guest DJs, prize giveaways and themed drinks.

HILL 52 LAUNCH PARTY

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

Hill 52, the GSA's in-school radio station, presents a launch event showcasing its current programme of radio scheduling.

SHOW (JAMIE JONES + THEO KOTTIS)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £10

The Show troops return to Subbie, this time joined by Welsh DJ, producer and member of Hot Natured, Jamie Jones.

Fri 05 Jun OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Cupar-based alternative rock trio and signess on Bloc+’s own wee imprint.

Connoisseur's mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your jivin’ pleasure.

Fri 19 Jun

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

SLEEPLESS (ELEMENTS + ATHENIA)

BUSKERS, 19:00–22:00, £5

The Aberdeen post hardcore rockers bring the noise.

JAH WOBBLE AND THE INVADERS OF THE HEART

THE GARDYNE THEATRE, 19:30–22:30, £20 (£10)

The PiL man is joined by some-time Stone Roses guitarist Aziz Ibrahim to celebrate his illustrious career as a musician.

WE CAME FROM WOLVES

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, 20:00–23:00, £4

Post-rock foursome all about the harmonic, melodic soundscapes with hook-laden, euphoric choruses.

Sat 20 Jun THE THREE DEGREES

THE GARDYNE THEATRE, 19:30–22:00, £25

The American female vocal group play a set of classics.

Sat 27 Jun WITHERED HAND

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, 20:00–23:00, £8

DIY folk fairytales are the order of the day as Edinburgh boy-donegood Dan Willson (aka Withered Hand) performs a special set.

PROPAGANDA

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Residents fun night of rock, metal, punk and emo spread over three rooms.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY'S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Indie rock'n'roll from the 60s to 00s with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

THE BIG CHEESE

SHED, 22:30–02:00, FREE (£6/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11)

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing – as one might expect – cheesy classics of every hue.

HARSH TUG

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £3

Hip-hop and gangsta rap brought to you by the Notorious B.A.G and pals.

TEENAGE RIOT

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Members of Glasgow's posthardcore noise-masters United Fruit curate their lively event of big-beat alternative indie and disco.

GLITTERBANG

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £3

Sweatcore disco hits played out by James T and Ramo, with a Gina G tune or two on a promise.

Listings

57

Glasgow Clubs CLASSIC FRIDAYS CLASSIC GRAND, 23:00–03:00, £6

Two floors of rock, metal and industrial tunes with DJs Barry and Tailz (upstairs) and Gary and FoxisonFire (downstairs).

WEIRD SCIENCE

BROADCAST, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative 80s selection for all your Prince and Soft Cell needs.

LA CHEETAH CLUB PRESENTS… 15 YEARS OF CRÈME ORGANIZATION (DJ TLR + NEVILLE WATSON)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–04:00, £10

For the fourth instalment of their record label showcase, La Cheetah Club invite Crème Organization boss DJ TLR, alongside Neville Watson, to celebrate 15 years since the label's inception.

FREAKY FREAKY SUMMER PARTY (JACKMASTER + THE BLESSINGS VS INKKE + ISLAND + GAGE + JACKSO) THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

The Freaky Freaky crew celebrate the fact that exams are over and hand-in's complete, with guest acts including a special R'n'B set from local fave Jackmaster.

OPTIMO PRESENTS... MIA DORA

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

The Optimo boys curate their occasional fun night, this edition joined by local heroes Mia Dora.

Sat 06 Jun NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

SUPERLUMINAL (JE$US LOVES AMERIKA + GRANT MORRISON) THE POETRY CLUB, 21:00–02:00, £5 (£3)

Semi-regular club night with live music and performance elements, including a live set from Glasgow industrial faves Je$us Loves Amerika.

Sun 07 Jun CLIFFHANGER

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

DJ Kelmosh plays a mix of rock, dance and indie.

Mon 08 Jun BURN

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3/FREE WITH WAGE SLIP)

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

Tue 09 Jun KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Eclectic midweeker offering up the best in house, techno and electronic.

I AM

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (FREE VIA IAMCLUB.CO.UK)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, oft joined by a guest or two.

BLUR: AFTER-PARTY

BLACKFRIARS BASEMENT, 22:30–03:00, £3

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

The Common People DJs host a special after-bash following Blur's sold out Barrowlands gig earlier in the evening.

CLASSIC GRAND, 22:30–03:00, £6

Wed 10 Jun

ABSOLUTION

Alternative blowout of metal, industrial, pop-punk, rock, emo and ska tunes.

SUBCULTURE

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £8

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic manning the decks.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Punk, rock and metallic selection of beats spread across three rooms.

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY'S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

LOVE MUSIC

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

SINGLES NIGHT

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Andy Divine and Chris Geddes’ gem of a night dedicated to 7-inch singles from every genre imaginable.

DEATHKILL 4000

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Industro-rock noise party with live players and bespoke visuals to boot.

MAGIC WAVES

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £3

The Glasgow chapter of the MW Italo fiends story.

THE YELLOW DOOR

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Fledgling night of contemporary classics, unheard of gems and wellkent belters, all for your general dancing pleasure, natch.

LET'S GO BACK… WAY BACK

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£7 AFTER 12)

SUB ROSA

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

Subbie's regular student night with residents Spittal and Nowicki at the helm.

BEAST WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

The midweek residents serve up their usual rammy of pop-punk and hardcore, whilst the bar doles out alcoholic slushies. Slurp.

Thu 11 Jun HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic r'n'b and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can't say fairer.

GOOD GRIEF'S GOOP SHOP

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

The DIY label and zine collective present their monthly clubmeets-gig outing and fresh zine launch combined.

NIGHT OF THE JAGUAR

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, FREE

The NOTJ collective continue to nestle into their residency on the Art School roster, known for their love of all things musically unusual.

IN THE BASEMENT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, FREE

Thursday session of the finest in northern soul and rock'n'roll.

UPRAWR

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5

Weekly Thursday takeover with guest DJs, prize giveaways and themed drinks.

HIDE (&ME + PANDORA DRIVE)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 EARLYBIRD (£8 THEREAFTER)

Residents Bosco and Rob Mason bring acid-house, techno and rave back to the dancefloor.

The Hide residents welcome a guests sets from Keinemusik's &ME and London electronic duo Pandora Drive.

BROADCAST, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Fri 12 Jun

BIRDCAGE

The Birdcage residents reunite for four hours of eclectic tunes, plus visual art by Rachel Sharpe.

COLD SWEAT VS SUPERCONSCIOUS RECORDS (FRANCIS INFERNO ORCHESTRA + FANTASTIC MAN)

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, FROM £5

Cold Sweat welcome Superconscious Records’ label heads Griffin James and Mick Newman (aka Francis Inferno Orchestra and Fantastic Man, respectively) for their Glasgow debut.

58

Listings

OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Connoisseur's mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your jivin’ pleasure.

PROPAGANDA

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Residents fun night of rock, metal, punk and emo spread over three rooms.

SUBCULTURE BOAT PARTY (FUDGE FINGAS + HARRI & DOMENIC + TELFORD) THE WAVERLEY, 19:00–23:00, £25

JAMMING FRIDAYS

The long-running house night sets sail down't Waverley with guest Fudge Fingas providing the luxuriant swells of Moodymann-evoking house rhythms, followed by an after-bash at Subbie. Boat leaves from Glasgow Science Centre.

MAGGIE MAY'S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £3

COMMON PEOPLE THE FLYING DUCK, 21:00–03:00, £5

Celebration of all things 90s, with hits a-plenty and a pre-club bingo session.

SUBCITY

THE BIG CHEESE

The Subcity radio crew bring the party – 20 years old and still going strong – playing host to a selection of station favourites.

SHED, 22:30–02:00, FREE (£6/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11)

KELLER CLUB, 22:00–04:00, £10 (£8)

Indie rock'n'roll from the 60s to 00s with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing – as one might expect – cheesy classics of every hue.

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART DEGREE SHOW PARTY (PAUL THOMSON + HUSH + WHILST + CLEOSLAPTRA + FELIX WELCH + PUSH IT! + DRESSIN RED + DJ MILKTRAY + DEADLY RHYTHM)

THE ART SCHOOL, 18:00–03:00, £10 (£8)

The GSA street party makes its comeback, with a bounty-load of acts playing outdoors and indoors in the Assembly Hall, Vic Bar and Project Space 1 – amongst them Franz Ferdinand's Paul Thomson on decks and a live set from Whilst.

ENJOYABLE MOMENT

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

The Cosmic Dead chaps trip out with an evening of rollin’ Krautrock DJing for your general aural pleasure.

CLASSIC FRIDAYS

CLASSIC GRAND, 23:00–03:00, £6

Two floors of rock, metal and industrial tunes with DJs Barry and Tailz (upstairs) and Gary and FoxisonFire (downstairs).

ENDLESS RACE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, FREE

Bank holiday special with the ever reliable Endless Race residents and special guests.

FOR THE RECORD (MIRRORS)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 12)

The For The Record troops welcome soon-to-be Dixon Avenue Basement Jams signing, Mirrors, for a guest slot.

RETURN TO MONO: TRANSMISSIONS GLASGOW ALBUM LAUNCH (LIAM VS QUAIL + PETRICHOR + DEEPBASS + PUDDLEDUB)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 EARLYBIRD (£8 THEREAFTER)

ABYSS (DOSEM)

The Abyss crew welcome Spanish techno DJ Dosem (of the Suara label) for a guest set, with support from Rebecca Vasmant, CryptiQ and more.

PISTOLS AT DAWN VS MELTING POT

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 ADV. (£7 DOOR)

The residents from Glasgow party nights Pistols At Dawn and Melting Pot join forces for twice the eclectic joy.

NITRIC ACID

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £3

Bad Juju makes his usual primitive rave noise, via selections of old school acid, new beat and ket gabber.

SUBCULTURE BOAT PARTY: AFTERPARTY (FUDGE FINGAS + HARRI & DOMENIC + TELFORD)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £10

Official after-bash for Subculture's boat party down't the Clyde, with the full deck crew joining them on land for s'more DJ action.

Sun 14 Jun SLIDE IT IN

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Full-on mix of nu-metal and hard rockin’ tunes over two floors.

HUNTLEY & PALMERS: HI & SABERHÄGEN ALBUM LAUNCH

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 12)

The H+P crew take over Subbie to celebrate the launch of their latest release from talented locals, Hi & Saberhägen.

Mon 15 Jun BURN

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3/FREE WITH WAGE SLIP)

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

Monthly night from Soma Records taking in popular techno offerings of all hues, this edition with the Slam chaps launching their Transmissions Glasgow LP, with a bounty of guests in tow.

Tue 16 Jun

Sat 13 Jun

I AM

NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Eclectic midweeker offering up the best in house, techno and electronic.

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (FREE VIA IAMCLUB.CO.UK)

Fri 19 Jun OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Connoisseur's mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your jivin’ pleasure.

PROPAGANDA

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Residents fun night of rock, metal, punk and emo spread over three rooms.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY'S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Indie rock'n'roll from the 60s to 00s with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

THE BIG CHEESE

SHED, 22:30–02:00, FREE (£6/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11)

Kunst welcome The Nuclear (aka Scottish veterans Lawrence Hughes and Tom Churchil) for a set of their dreamy boogie, acid-tinged house and dapper beatdown.

SUGO

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY'S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

LOVE MUSIC

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

MADCHESTER

RECORD FACTORY, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

Clubber's favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

FANTASTIC MAN

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Messy Saturday night uberdisco armed with Erasure and Papa Roach discographies.

BEAST WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

JELLY BABY

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can't say fairer.

UPRAWR

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5

Weekly Thursday takeover with guest DJs, prize giveaways and themed drinks.

LANCE VANCE DANCE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, FREE

Red-hued adventure travelling through 70s funk, motown and 80s r'n'b, highlighted with glorious rays of disco sunshine. Or summat.

SHED, 22:30–02:00, FREE (£6/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11)

CLIFFHANGER

DJ Kelmosh plays a mix of rock, dance and indie.

Mon 22 Jun BURN

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3/FREE WITH WAGE SLIP)

KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

I AM

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (FREE VIA IAMCLUB.CO.UK)

THE BIG CHEESE

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing – as one might expect – cheesy classics of every hue.

SHAKE APPEAL

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Monthly evening of hip shakers and neck breakers, combining everything from Buddy Holly to Motorhead.

CLASSIC FRIDAYS

CLASSIC GRAND, 23:00–03:00, £6

Two floors of rock, metal and industrial tunes with DJs Barry and Tailz (upstairs) and Gary and FoxisonFire (downstairs).

EZUP (DJ HAUS)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 ADV. (£8 (£10 AFTER 12) DOOR)

The EzUp lot take to their now regular La Cheetah lair, with Unknown to the Unknown label boss DJ Haus playing a special three-hour set.

Wed 24 Jun

DJ NIghtwave presents a line-up of his own Heka Trax imprint.

KANDONGA 7000

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £3

Fledgling night of tropical sounds.

BIGFOOT'S TEA PARTY (TIN MAN)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£8 AFTER 12)

The Nomadic techno and techhouse night makes its regular(ish) trip to Subbie's basement, this time handing over the decks to US dance experimentalist Tin Man.

Sat 20 Jun NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

SUB ROSA

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

Subbie's regular student night with residents Spittal and Nowicki at the helm.

BEAST WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

The midweek residents serve up their usual rammy of pop-punk and hardcore, whilst the bar doles out alcoholic slushies. Slurp.

Thu 25 Jun

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

MAGGIE MAY'S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

LOVE MUSIC

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

STRANGE PARADISE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £3

Party night from floral-shirted Wild Combination man David Barbarossa, specializing in leftfield disco, post-punk and far-out pop.

SUBCULTURE (JOHN TALABOT)

The xCoAx Algorave lot present a series of computer-based musical performances using tools for the creation of algorithmic music.

THUNDER DISCO CLUB (MATIAS AGUAYO)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

Sat 27 Jun

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can't say fairer.

THE ROCK SHOP

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £10

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, FREE

SO WEIT SO GUT

CLASSIC GRAND, 22:30–03:00, £6

Punk, rock and metallic selection of beats spread across three rooms.

XCOAX ALORAVE (CHRISTIAN FAUBEL + MARTIN ZEILINGER + SHELLY KNOTTS + SAMN AARON + ALEX MCLEAN + DJ PEDRO TUDELA)

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic r'n'b and hip-hop.

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

The party sounds of residents Fergus Clark, Gareth Roberts, Ruaidhri McGhee and their special guests.

ABSOLUTION

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, FROM £5

The Thunder Disco Club residents welcome Chilean-born techno producer Matias Aguayo for a guest set.

HIP HOP THURSDAYS

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

STRETCHED

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Jazz-influenced sound sauna, moving through mathcore to postrock, with a few live acts thrown in for good measure.

BEAT SURFING

VARIETY BAR, 20:00–00:00, FREE

Pre-club session with Frizzo from Frogbeats playing selections of nu jazz, funk and electro swing.

UPRAWR

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5

Weekly Thursday takeover with guest DJs, prize giveaways and themed drinks.

MODAL (RAY HARRIS AND THE FUSION EXPERIENCE + JD TWITCH + REBECCA VASMANT)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £8

NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

ABSOLUTION

CLASSIC GRAND, 22:30–03:00, £6

Alternative blowout of metal, industrial, pop-punk, rock, emo and ska tunes.

SUBCULTURE

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £8

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic manning the decks.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Punk, rock and metallic selection of beats spread across three rooms.

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY'S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

LOVE MUSIC

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

After a number of epic Subculture sessions, John Talabot resounds in the Subbie basement once again with his infamous Balearic DJ set hopefully bringing some sunshine to our Scottish ‘summer’.

Ministry of Sound tour resident Rebecca Vasmant hosts a special edition of her Modal night, taking in sets from danceable jazz troupe Ray Harris and The Fusion Experience, plus a DJ set from JD Twitch.

Part of Glasgow Jazz Festival.

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

THE FLYING DUCK, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Fri 26 Jun

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £12

INTERGALACTIC

Space and sci-fi themed night with Sci_Fi Steven and Gav Dunbar playing the best in star-crunching party tunes, or summat.

OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Connoisseur's mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your jivin’ pleasure.

INVISIBLE INC LABEL NIGHT (PADDY STEER + FOREVER SOUND + SORDID SOUND SYSTEM)

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Invisible Inc bring the oddball disco, psych rock and melodic techno, with their first label night featuring Paddy Steer, Sordid Sound System and Forever Sound, all of whom appear on the Invisible Family compilation.

HOUNDIN’ THE STREETS: FINAL SHOW

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Nothing but bare bone rattling, foot tapping, ass shaking hip-hop classics, new wave and disco – sadly hosting what will be their last ever outing.

Sun 28 Jun SLIDE IT IN

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Full-on mix of nu-metal and hard rockin’ tunes over two floors.

Mon 29 Jun BURN

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3/FREE WITH WAGE SLIP)

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

POLYESTER

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £3 (GSA STUDENTS FREE)

Tenement Yard take to The Art School with a selection of DJ talent in tow.

The Noceur party crew take to their regular La Cheetah lair, with guest details being kept under wraps for now.

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £3

Mixed up fun night of queer performance, music and DJ vibes.

TENEMENT YARD (100% POSITIVE FEEDBACK + HALF SISTER + LECKX + DJ EBAY)

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY'S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

HECA TRAX LABEL SHOWCASE (FEADZ + BIG DOPE P + NIGHTWAVE + BLASTTO + ESQUEEZY)

Thu 18 Jun Euan Neilson plays the best in classic r'n'b and hip-hop.

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Residents fun night of rock, metal, punk and emo spread over three rooms.

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, oft joined by a guest or two.

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £5

GIMME SHELTER (WHITE NOISE SOUND)

ISLE

Residents special with Fergus, Stewart, R and Al playing records of the rare and good.

PROPAGANDA

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie.

Sun 21 Jun

Eclectic midweeker offering up the best in house, techno and electronic.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £TBC

Indie, electro and anything inbetween with Pauly (My Latest Novel) and Simin and Steev (Errors).

Indie rock'n'roll from the 60s to 00s with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

Tue 23 Jun

Two floors of rock, metal and industrial tunes with DJs Barry and Tailz (upstairs) and Gary and FoxisonFire (downstairs).

The midweek residents serve up their usual rammy of pop-punk and hardcore, whilst the bar doles out alcoholic slushies. Slurp.

HIP HOP THURSDAYS

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

Afrobeat, funk and house birthday celebrations with the Highlife ever-capable residents Auntie Flo and Esa Williams.

CLASSIC GRAND, 23:00–03:00, £6

CLASSIC FRIDAYS

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

Punk, rock and metallic selection of beats spread across three rooms.

HIGHLIFE'S 5TH BIRTHDAY

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

All-out disco affair manned by a host of Glasgow talent collaborating under one party.

The Italian trashy disco returns for another night of supremely danceable carnage.

Wed 17 Jun Subbie's regular student night with residents Spittal and Nowicki at the helm.

BATON DE DEBAUCHEE PRESENTS...

ALL KINDS OF DISGOW (SHAHAA TOPS + ADAM WELSH & JACK BUCHANAN + HAMBOOM + AFGHANBLACK)

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Alternative blowout of metal, industrial, pop-punk, rock, emo and ska tunes.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

Energetic club outing from DJ duo Beyvnce Nailz and C4lvin Malice.

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

KUNST (THE NUCLEAR FAMILY + KRIS BELL + FRANK GALLAGHER)

CLASSIC GRAND, 22:30–03:00, £6

SUB ROSA

NOCEUR LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

Varied night moving from the 50s to present day, via selections of rock'n'roll, soul, garage, psych and r'n'b, this edition playing host to a special gig set from White Noise Sound.

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, oft joined by a guest or two.

Alternative blowout of metal, industrial, pop-punk, rock, emo and ska tunes.

BLACK TENT NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £3

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing – as one might expect – cheesy classics of every hue.

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

ABSOLUTION

MONSTER HOSPITAL BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

TROPICAL

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, FREE

Eclectic, diverse and dancefloororientated beats, with a hint of mango.

OLUM

Glorious return for the legendary Glaswegian club institution, back and in its indie stride.

Edinburgh Clubs Tue 02 Jun SOUL JAM HOT

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Fresh mix of funk, soul and boogie from The Players Association team.

I LOVE HIP HOP

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4

Weekly selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be.

TRASH

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

HECTOR'S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4

The HH crew serve up their usual fine mix of electronic basslines cooked up with house beats.

Wed 03 Jun COOKIE

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

WITNESS

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Sneaky's resident bass spectacular of house, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines.

TRIBE

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Weekly selection of dance bangers played by residents Khalid Count Clockwork and Craig Wilson.

THE GETTUP

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 21:00–03:00, FREE

Midweek party with DJs Thom and Pagowsky playing disco and deep house into the wee hours. In the cafe space.

Thu 04 Jun I AM EDINBURGH

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (FREE VIA IAMCLUB.CO.UK)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa make their regular trip east, playing the usual fine mix of electronica and bass.

HULLABALOO

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Mash-up of beats, breaks and hip-hop from Trendy Wendy and Steve Austin.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Student-friendly chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, r'n'b and urban in the back room.

GET

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2

Weekly anything goes night, with a selection of local DJs on rotation.

THE SKINNY

Edinburgh Clubs JUICE (PENDER STREET STEPPERS)

ORCHIDS

PLANET EARTH

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

Pumped Thursday nighter playing a mighty mix of everything from Hud Mo to Fly Mo, this edition joined by Mood Hut's Pender Street Steppers (aka Jack Juston and Liam Butler).

Fri 05 Jun

The launch of an all-new Sneaky's party, with DJs Joe Marinetti, Cleosplatra and Käsien at the helm.

Sun 07 Jun COALITION

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

Weekly cross-genre of bass from a cast of Edinburgh's best underground DJs.

PLANET EARTH

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

FUCK YEAH

Chart, indie and rock anthems spread over two rooms.

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top. PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie.

COSMIC

STUDIO 24, 21:00–03:00, £4 (£7 AFTER 10)

THE CLUB

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle.

Mon 08 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, r'n'b and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

NU FIRE

Monthly club bringing the spirit of the psychedelic trance dance ritual to the floor, with live acts, VJs and colourful fluoro decor.

DJ Fusion and Beef move from hip-hop to bass with a plethora of live MCs.

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, FREE

FLY CLUB

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

DR.4’S HOUSE OF WAX

Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with a powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent.

New night celebrating vinyl culture and the vast spectrum of electronic music, hosted by DJ and producer Dr.4.

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Tue 09 Jun

REVOLVER

Friday fun night manned by a rotating pool of residents, including Animal Hospital, Nightvision, Pulse, Notsosilent, Musika and Body.

HEADSET

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 11.30)

Fledgling night mixed up by a selection of Edinburgh DJs, including the chaps behind the Witness, Coalition and Big ‘n’ Bashy nights.

IN DEEP (DIXON AVENUE BASEMENT JAMS)

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

SOUL JAM HOT

Weekly selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be.

TRASH

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

HECTOR'S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Wed 10 Jun

Long-running indie, rock and soul night, traversing the spectrum of classic and modern.

THE GO-GO

COOKIE

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

WITNESS

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Sneaky's resident bass spectacular of house, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines.

TRIBE

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Weekly selection of dance bangers played by residents Khalid Count Clockwork and Craig Wilson.

BUBBLEGUM

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 21:00–03:00, FREE

Long-running retro night with veteran DJs Tall Paul and Big Gus.

THE GETTUP

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

Midweek party with DJs Thom and Pagowsky playing disco and deep house into the wee hours. In the cafe space.

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

Thu 11 Jun

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

SOULSVILLE

Swinging soul spanning a whole century, with DJs Tsatsu and Fryer.

SPEAKER BITE ME

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£6 AFTER 12)

18+ only, ID required SAMEDIA SHEBEEN

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Eclectic fun night transporting late-night party people to an imaginary jungle voodoo den, featuring a hand-built set modeled on an imagined African township shebeen.

THE BORDELLO

STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Classic sleazy rock action, all the night long.

KARNIVAL: SUMMER PARTY

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£7/£5 STUDENT AFTER 12)

The local house and techno legends host a special free entry summer party, featuring DJs from Karnival, Kapital, Lezure, Animal Hopsital and Creatures of Habit.

I AM EDINBURGH

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (FREE VIA IAMCLUB.CO.UK)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa make their regular trip east, playing the usual fine mix of electronica and bass.

JUICE

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Pumped Thursday nighter playing a mighty mix of everything from Hud Mo to Fly Mo. HULLABALOO

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Mash-up of beats, breaks and hip-hop from Trendy Wendy and Steve Austin.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Student-friendly chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, r'n'b and urban in the back room.

GET

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2

Weekly anything goes night, with a selection of local DJs on rotation.

Fri 12 Jun FUCK YEAH

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

Chart, indie and rock anthems spread over two rooms.

June 2015

Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with a powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent.

REVOLVER

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Friday fun night manned by a rotating pool of residents, including Animal Hospital, Nightvision, Pulse, Notsosilent, Musika and Body.

SURE SHOT

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 12)

PROPAGANDA THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

Best of selection of techno, minimal and bass to get your Saturday night movin’.

Sun 14 Jun COALITION

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Weekly cross-genre of bass from a cast of Edinburgh's best underground DJs. THE CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle.

Mon 15 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, r'n'b and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

NU FIRE

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

DJ Fusion and Beef move from hip-hop to bass with a plethora of live MCs. DR.4’S HOUSE OF WAX

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, FREE

Fledgling night spanning 80s-00s hip-hop and r'n'b, manned by The Skinny's own Peter Simpson and one half of Edinburgh's Kitchen Disco, Malcolm Storey.

New night celebrating vinyl culture and the vast spectrum of electronic music, hosted by DJ and producer Dr.4.

SUBSTANCE

Tue 16 Jun

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 11.30)

SOUL JAM HOT

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

The Substance crew mix up cutting edge and classic electronic from across the spectrum, this edition hosting a special free-entry summer's party.

I LOVE HIP HOP

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 12)

TEASE AGE

FLY CLUB

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7

Eclectic night of electro, house and techno offerings, with a free prize for the first 100 down.

Fresh mix of funk, soul and boogie from The Players Association team.

JIVE & DUTY

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 11)

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie.

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

The HH crew serve up their usual fine mix of electronic basslines cooked up with house beats.

Sat 06 Jun

PROPAGANDA

ANYTHING GOES AT THE ELECTRO PLANT

The In Deep troops make merry with new regular residents DABJ.

Danceable – nae, jiveable – tunes with DJ Cheers and Coconut Smoke.

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top.

ASYLUM STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)

STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £5

TWEAK_

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £10 (£8)

Fresh mix of funk, soul and boogie from The Players Association team.

I LOVE HIP HOP

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4

Weekly selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be.

TRASH

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

HECTOR'S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Second instalment of The Mash House's new ‘Minimal Monthlies’ residency.

The HH crew serve up their usual fine mix of electronic basslines cooked up with house beats.

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Wed 17 Jun

IN DEEP (DEEP SHIT)

The In Deep champs host a set from bi-monthly residents Foals’ Edwin Congreave and Friendly Fires’ Jack Savidge, in their party-ready DJ duo guise, Deep Shit.

Sat 13 Jun TEASE AGE

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 11)

Long-running indie, rock and soul night, traversing the spectrum of classic and modern.

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

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

DR NO'S

HENRY'S CELLAR BAR, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£5 AFTER 12)

Danceable mix of the best in 60s ska, rocksteady, bluebeat and early reggae.

REWIND

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

Journey back through the ages, with the residents digging out anthemic gems from the last 40 years.

TORTURE GARDEN

THE CAVES, 21:00–03:00, £20

Infamous fetish club spread over three dungeon-themed playrooms in the cavernous surrounds of The Caves. Dress code: all the PVC you can slither into.

BEEP BEEP, YEAH!

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£6 AFTER 12)

Retro pop stylings from the 50s to the 70s, via a disco tune or ten.

MESSENGER SOUND SYSTEM

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£7 AFTER 12)

Conscious roots and dub reggae rockin’ from the usual beefy Messenger soundsystem.

TEESH

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

COOKIE

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

WITNESS

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Sneaky's resident bass spectacular of house, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines.

TRIBE

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Weekly selection of dance bangers played by residents Khalid Count Clockwork and Craig Wilson.

THE GETTUP

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 21:00–03:00, FREE

Midweek party with DJs Thom and Pagowsky playing disco and deep house into the wee hours. In the cafe space.

Thu 18 Jun I AM EDINBURGH

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (FREE VIA IAMCLUB.CO.UK)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa make their regular trip east, playing the usual fine mix of electronica and bass.

JUICE

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Pumped Thursday nighter playing a mighty mix of everything from Hud Mo to Fly Mo. HULLABALOO

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Mash-up of beats, breaks and hip-hop from Trendy Wendy and Steve Austin.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Student-friendly chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, r'n'b and urban in the back room.

GET

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2

Weekly anything goes night, with a selection of local DJs on rotation.

Fri 19 Jun FUCK YEAH

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

DJ Cheers – frequent flyer at many a Sneaky's night – finally gets his own show on the road.

Chart, indie and rock anthems spread over two rooms.

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

A TWISTED CIRCUS

Carnival-styled Edinburgh music night showcasing a selection of musicians from across the UK.

PLANET EARTH

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top.

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie.

ANIMAL HOSPITAL

STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 11.30)

The Animal Hospital troops continue to medicate Edinburgh with their unique blend of techno, house and minimal.

FLY CLUB

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7

Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with a powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent.

REVOLVER

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Friday fun night manned by a rotating pool of residents, including Animal Hospital, Nightvision, Pulse, Notsosilent, Musika and Body.

IN DEEP (HIGHLIFE)

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

The In Deep champs welcome bi-monthly residents Auntie Flo and Esa (aka the Highlife tagteam) for a set of their divine house and Afro grooves.

THE SOLAR BOOGALOO

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 12)

DJ Yves leads a disco-fuelled freestyle funk boogie freakout, of course!

ELECTRIKAL

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

Soundsystem party-starters, part of a music and art collective specializing in all things bass.

NICE PEOPLE DANCING TO GOOD MUSIC

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Sun 21 Jun COALITION

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Weekly cross-genre of bass from a cast of Edinburgh's best underground DJs. THE CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle.

Mon 22 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, r'n'b and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

NU FIRE

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

DJ Fusion and Beef move from hip-hop to bass with a plethora of live MCs. DR.4’S HOUSE OF WAX

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, FREE

New night celebrating vinyl culture and the vast spectrum of electronic music, hosted by DJ and producer Dr.4.

Tue 23 Jun SOUL JAM HOT

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

THE EGG

Art School institution with DJs Chris and Jake playing the finest in indie, garage, soul and punk – now taking up a monthly Saturday slot, in what is their 20-somethingth year.

MUMBO JUMBO

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£7/£5 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Funk, soul, beats and mash-ups from the Mumbo Jumbo regulars and pals.

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

Weekly selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be.

TRASH

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

HECTOR'S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4

COOKIE

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

WITNESS

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Sneaky's resident bass spectacular of house, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines.

THE BUNKER

STUDIO 24, 20:00–03:00, £2

Monthly skate night in Studio 24’s own indoor park, complete with DJs, live music, a ping pong table and projectors.

TRIBE

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Weekly selection of dance bangers played by residents Khalid Count Clockwork and Craig Wilson.

THE GETTUP

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 21:00–03:00, FREE

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

Midweek party with DJs Thom and Pagowsky playing disco and deep house into the wee hours. In the cafe space.

STUDIO 24, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Thu 25 Jun

THE GREEN DOOR

Surf, blues and rockabilly from the 50s and early 60s, plus free cake.

Job done.

POP ROCKS

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£6 AFTER 12)

Pop and rock gems, taking in motown, 80s classics and plenty danceable fare (well, the Beep Beep, Yeah! crew are on decks after all).

DECADE

STUDIO 24, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Fresh playlists spanning metal, pop-punk and alternative soundscapes.

WASABI DISCO

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

Heady bout of cosmic house, punk upside-down disco and, er, Fleetwood Mac with yer man Kris ‘Wasabi’ Walker.

PARADIGM

THE MASH HOUSE, 21:00–03:00, £5

Fledgling experimental night set across three floors of the sprawling Mash House space, subverting the senses via DJ sets, film screenings, live performance, installations and sound.

AMPED

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00, £8 (£6)

Fledgling gig-meets-club fun night bringing together a fresh line-up of live acts and DJs each month.

STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 11.30)

Celebration of all things acid, techno and debaucherous.

FLY CLUB

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7

Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with a powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent.

KARNIVAL VS PULSE (VITALIC)

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00, £15

Karnival and Pulse join forces to bring French techno maestro Vitalic's latest live show to the capital.

IN DEEP (JON K)

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Sneaky's resident Friday nighter welcomes Manc underground house specialist Jon K for his regular guest set.

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 11)

Wed 24 Jun

WEE RED BAR, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)

SHAKE YER SHOULDERS

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4

Sat 20 Jun CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 11)

PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie.

Sat 27 Jun

I LOVE HIP HOP

The HH crew serve up their usual fine mix of electronic basslines cooked up with house beats.

Long-running indie, rock and soul night, traversing the spectrum of classic and modern.

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top.

Fresh mix of funk, soul and boogie from The Players Association team.

New monthly night manned by local DJs, occasional guests and live acts on rotation, with residents Astrojazz and NikNak at the helm.

TEASE AGE

PLANET EARTH CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

I AM EDINBURGH

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (FREE VIA IAMCLUB.CO.UK)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa make their regular trip east, playing the usual fine mix of electronica and bass.

JUICE

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Pumped Thursday nighter playing a mighty mix of everything from Hud Mo to Fly Mo. HULLABALOO

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Mash-up of beats, breaks and hip-hop from Trendy Wendy and Steve Austin.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Student-friendly chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, r'n'b and urban in the back room.

GET

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2

Weekly anything goes night, with a selection of local DJs on rotation.

Fri 26 Jun FUCK YEAH

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

Chart, indie and rock anthems spread over two rooms.

FOUR CORNERS

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)

Soulful dancing fodder, moving from deep funk to reggae.

TEASE AGE

Dundee Clubs Fri 05 Jun FUNKY MISSILE

READING ROOMS, 22:30–03:00, £TBC

Occasional night hosted by Miss DLove and Max Galloway, playing Latin, jazz, funk, reggae and more.

WARPED

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Ska, screamo and pop-punk offerings now in a weekly Friday slot, moving from Alkaline Trio to Zebrahead as it goes.

Sat 06 Jun AUTODISCO

READING ROOMS, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£8 AFTER 12)

Electro-funk, house and disco with your regular hosts Dave Autodisco and Dicky Trisco, manning the decks on their lonesome for the first time in 15 months.

ASYLUM

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Best of selection of rock, metal and alternative tunes to get your Saturday night movin’.

Fri 12 Jun CONTOUR

READING ROOMS, 22:30–03:00, £TBC

Long-running indie, rock and soul night, traversing the spectrum of classic and modern.

More fresh beats and flashy visuals from the Contour crew.

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

Ska, screamo and pop-punk offerings now in a weekly Friday slot, moving from Alkaline Trio to Zebrahead as it goes.

BUBBLEGUM

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

MAGIC NOSTALGIC

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£8 AFTER 12)

WARPED

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Sat 13 Jun ASYLUM

A hodgepodge of tracks chosen by JP's spinning wheel – expect 90s, power ballads and a whole lotta one-hit wonders.

Best of selection of rock, metal and alternative tunes to get your Saturday night movin’.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Fri 19 Jun

MADCHESTER

Clubber's favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

BIG ‘N’ BASHY

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£6 AFTER 12)

Mighty mix of reggae, grime, dubstep and jungle played by inimitable residents Brother Most Righteous, Skillis, Era and Deburgh.

BETAMAX

STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Monthly offering of new wave, disco, post-punk and a bit o’ synthtastic 80s with your hosts Chris and Big Gus. KEEP IT STEEL

STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £5

The Keep It Steel DJs play the best in heavy metal and hard rock.

RIDE

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

WARPED

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Ska, screamo and pop-punk offerings now in a weekly Friday slot, moving from Alkaline Trio to Zebrahead as it goes.

Sat 20 Jun LOCARNO

READING ROOMS, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Rockabilly, doo-wop, soul and all things golden age and danceable with the Locarno regulars.

ASYLUM

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Best of selection of rock, metal and alternative tunes to get your Saturday night movin’.

Fri 26 Jun PHAZED (WEST END COMMUNICATIONS)

READING ROOMS, 21:00–03:00, £5

The Ride girls play hip-hop and dance, all night long – now in their new party-ready Saturday night slot.

Fledgling Dundee night now in its fifth party, this edition playing host to Glasgow-based label West End Commuications.

Sun 28 Jun

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

WARPED

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Ska, screamo and pop-punk offerings now in a weekly Friday slot, moving from Alkaline Trio to Zebrahead as it goes.

THE CLUB

Sat 27 Jun

COALITION

Weekly cross-genre of bass from a cast of Edinburgh's best underground DJs. THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle.

SUCH A DRAG

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, FREE

18 +only, ID required

Mon 29 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, r'n'b and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

BOOK CLUB

READING ROOMS, 22:30–03:00, £TBC

The Good Stuff DJs spin all genres of disco house and techno, alongside anything else they damn well fancy.

ASYLUM

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Best of selection of rock, metal and alternative tunes to get your Saturday night movin’.

NU FIRE

SNEAKY PETE'S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

DJ Fusion and Beef move from hip-hop to bass with a plethora of live MCs. DR.4’S HOUSE OF WAX

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, FREE

New night celebrating vinyl culture and the vast spectrum of electronic music, hosted by DJ and producer Dr.4.

Listings

59

Comedy Tue 02 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

CHRIS HENRY'S COMEDY CRECHE

DRAM!, 20:30–23:00, FREE

Chris Henry hosts a line-up of new and existing comedy talent, all roadtesting new material.

Wed 03 Jun NEW MATERIAL NIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering, yes, all new material.

COMEDIAN RAP BATTLES

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£4)

Ro Cambell and The Wee Man's comedian rap battle-off, where a select batch of comics compete to see who's got the most swagger when it comes to hippity-hop wit.

Thu 04 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (STEVE GRIBBIN + NISH KUMAR + MC JOJO SMITH)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

VESPBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, 21:00–22:30, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 05 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (STEVE GRIBBIN + NISH KUMAR + MC JOJO SMITH) THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10 STUDENTS/£6 MEMBERS)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

GILDED BALLOON COMEDY @ DRYGATE (JIMMY MCGHIE + ANDREA HUBERT + JULIA SUTHERLAND + MC SCOTT AGNEW)

DRYGATE BREWING CO., 20:00–22:00, £12.50 (£11.50)

Long-running comedy club the Gilded Balloon hits up Drygate for a new residency, combing the joys of a craft brewery setting with a rotating schedule of live comedy talent.

Sat 06 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (STEVE GRIBBIN + NISH KUMAR + MC JOJO SMITH)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

Sun 07 Jun

MICHAEL REDMOND'S SUNDAY SERVICE

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£1 MEMBERS)

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase manned by resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond and his guests.

GLASGOW KIDS COMEDY CLUB

THE STAND GLASGOW, 14:30–15:30, £4

Comedy session suitable for little ears (i.e. no sweary words), for children aged 8-12 years-old.

VESPBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

YESBAR, 19:30–21:30, £3

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Vespbar's ‘Comedy Sunday School’.

Mon 08 Jun

BRIGHT CLUB: GLASGOW SCIENCE FESTIVAL SPECIAL

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5

A selection of comedic academics do a stint of stand-up for your entertainment and enlightenment (aka laughs and learning in one neat package = tick), popping up for a Science Fest special.

Tue 09 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

CHRIS HENRY'S COMEDY CRECHE

DRAM!, 20:30–23:00, FREE

Chris Henry hosts a line-up of new and existing comedy talent, all roadtesting new material.

BEST OF BEYOND A JOKE (CALLUM MCLEOD + ROSCO MCLELLAND + HEATHER HARDCASTLE + MC OBIE)

YESBAR, 20:00–23:00, £5

Fledgling monthly sketch night manned by a selection of up-andcoming UK comics, this edition performing a best of selection of their first six months.

Wed 10 Jun NEW MATERIAL NIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering, yes, all new material.

BBC COMEDY PRESENTS...

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £4

BBC-selected sketch comedy showcase where handpicked new acts get their chance to shine – with each performer getting a quickfire 5-10 minutes on stage.

Thu 11 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (JO CAULFIELD + MIKE MILLIGAN + JULIAN DEANE + MC RAYMOND MEARNS)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

VESPBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, 21:00–22:30, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 12 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (JO CAULFIELD + MIKE MILLIGAN + JULIAN DEANE + MC RAYMOND MEARNS)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10 STUDENTS/£6 MEMBERS)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

REGINALD D HUNTER: THE MAN WHO ATTEMPTED TO DO AS MUCH AS SUCH

SECC, 20:00–22:00, £24

The boom-voiced comic continues with his uniquely non-secular approach to comedy.

Sat 13 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (JO CAULFIELD + MIKE MILLIGAN + JULIAN DEANE + MC RAYMOND MEARNS)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £15

YESBAR, 19:30–21:30, £3

YESBAR, 19:30–21:30, £3

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Vespbar's ‘Comedy Sunday School’.

A SHOW OF VICE AND LIARS: SEASON ONE

WILD CABARET AND WICKED LOUNGE, 19:30–21:30, £9

Sun 14 Jun

MICHAEL REDMOND'S SUNDAY SERVICE

TRON THEATRE, 19:45–22:00, £15 (£12)

Tue 16 Jun

Mon 22 Jun

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £2

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £7 (£5)

RED RAW

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

CHRIS HENRY'S COMEDY CRECHE

DRAM!, 20:30–23:00, FREE

Chris Henry hosts a line-up of new and existing comedy talent, all roadtesting new material.

Wed 17 Jun NEW MATERIAL NIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering, yes, all new material.

COSGROVE CARE BENEFIT (ELAINE MALCOLMSON + MC SCOTT AGNEW)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £8 (£7)

Comedy fundraiser in aid of Cosgrove Care, hosted by funny chappie Scott Agnew.

Thu 18 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (CARL HUTCHINSON + JOHNNY CANDON + LARAH BROSS + MC RAY BRADSHAW) THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

VESPBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, 21:00–22:30, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 19 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (CARL HUTCHINSON + JOHNNY CANDON + GARRETT CLARKE + LARAH BROSS + MC RAY BRADSHAW)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10 STUDENTS/£6 MEMBERS)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

GILDED BALLOON COMEDY @ DRYGATE (CARL DONNELLY + DANNY MCLOUGHLIN + JOHN GAVIN + MC RAYMOND MEARNS)

DRYGATE BREWING CO., 20:00–22:00, £12.50 (£11.50)

SO... THAT WAS JUNE?

LAUGHTER EIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

Sun 21 Jun

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£1 MEMBERS)

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase manned by resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond and his guests.

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:00–21:00, FREE (BUT TICKETED)

Funnyman Richard Melvin introduces an all-star cast of comedy stalwarts currently recording radio shows.

Wed 03 Jun

THE BROKEN WINDOWS POLICY

Tue 23 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £2

More fast-paced and anarchic skits and character comedy from The Stand's resident sketch comedy troupe and their special guests.

STUDIO 24, 19:30–22:00, FREE

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

Showcase of rough-around-theedges unwritten Fringe shows, hosted by Paul McDougall.

DRAM!, 20:30–23:00, FREE

Thu 04 Jun

CHRIS HENRY'S COMEDY CRECHE

Chris Henry hosts a line-up of new and existing comedy talent, all roadtesting new material.

Wed 24 Jun NEW MATERIAL NIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering, yes, all new material.

Thu 25 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (KEVIN GILDEA + RO CAMPBELL + HOWIE MILLER + MC BILLY KIRKWOOD)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

VESPBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, 21:00–22:30, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 26 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (STU & GARRY + DAVE WARD + MC SUSAN MORRISON)

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

ROY CHUBBY BROWN

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, 19:30–22:00, £22

The English stand-up comic does his usual line in rude and crude banter, as politically incorrect as ever.

Fri 05 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (STU & GARRY + DAVE WARD + MC SUSAN MORRISON) THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £12 (£10 STUDENT/£6 MEMBERS)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £10

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10 STUDENTS/£6 MEMBERS)

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

Fresh line-up of fledgling comedic talent, topped off with a national headline act and a jovial compere.

THE FRIDAY SHOW (KEVIN GILDEA + RO CAMPBELL + HOWIE MILLER + MC BILLY KIRKWOOD)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

YESBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

Sat 27 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (KEVIN GILDEA + RO CAMPBELL + HOWIE MILLER + MC BILLY KIRKWOOD)

YESBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £15

RICHARD MELVIN PRESENTS... MORE RADIO RECORDINGS!

PRELUDE (BONNIE FAIRBRASS + WILL HODGSON + JAY LAFFERTY + MC PAUL MCDOUGALL)

Sat 20 Jun

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

Tue 02 Jun

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4)

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

THE SATURDAY SHOW (CARL HUTCHINSON + JOHNNY CANDON + GARRETT CLARKE + LARAH BROSS + MC RAY BRADSHAW)

Edinburgh Comedy

Following their So... That's What We Voted For? event in May, messrs McTavish, Nelson and McAllister return with s'more satirical musings in a post-general election June.

Long-running comedy club the Gilded Balloon hits up Drygate for a new residency, combing the joys of a craft brewery setting with a rotating schedule of live comedy talent.

MICHAEL REDMOND'S SUNDAY SERVICE

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

A VERY GLASGOW WELCOME (BILLY KIRKWOOD + SUSIE MCCABE)

Comedy show inspired by the fantasy series, with all your favourite chapters creatively retold by a cast of four comics.

YESBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

LAUGHTER EIGHT

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Vespbar's ‘Comedy Sunday School’.

One-off comedy fundraiser in aid of the British Red Cross Refugee Service, including stand-up stints from Billy Kirkwood and Susie McCabe.

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase manned by resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond and his guests.

Listings

VESPBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£1 MEMBERS)

60

VESPBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £15

LAUGHTER EIGHT

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

SCIENCE FICTION DOUBLE FEATURE

THE ADMIRAL, 19:00–22:00, £5

Comedians Des O'Gorman and Ross Hepburn host a back-to-back stand-up session – each delivering a solo set centred around their favourite classic film: Ghostbusters (for O'Gorman) and Beetlejuice (for Hepburn).

Sun 28 Jun

MICHAEL REDMOND'S SUNDAY SERVICE

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£1 MEMBERS)

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase manned by resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond and his guests.

VESPBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

YESBAR, 19:30–21:30, £3

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Vespbar's ‘Comedy Sunday School’.

COMEDYDOO

THE WHITE HORSE, 20:00–22:00, £9

Sat 06 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (STU & GARRY + DAVE WARD + MC SUSAN MORRISON)

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £10

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

GILDED BALLOON COMEDY @ FESTIVAL THEATRE (JIMMY MCGHIE + ANDREA HUBERT + JULIA SUTHERLAND + MC SCOTT AGNEW)

FESTIVAL THEATRE, 20:00–22:00, £12.50 (£10.50)

Long-running comedy club the Gilded Balloon hits up Festival Theatre for a new residency, combing the joys of a craft brewery setting with a rotating schedule of live comedy talent.

Sun 07 Jun

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£1 MEMBERS)

Chilled comedy showcase to cure your Sunday evening back-towork blues.

STU & GARRY'S FREE IMPROV SHOW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 13:30–15:30, FREE

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from offthe-cuff audience suggestions.

Mon 08 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

Tue 09 Jun ELECTRIC TALES

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4)

More in the way of stand-up comedy crossed with live storytelling, with the tease of a promise of robot badges for all (as in, we're there).

THE SPEAKEASY (JO CAULFIELD + COLIN CLOUD + DES O'GORMAN + POLLY HOOPS + RACHEL AMEY + KEIR MCALLISTER) SCOTTISH STORYTELLING CENTRE, 20:00–22:00, £7

Monthly storytelling night of the rather ace variety, featuring a feastful of writers, comedians and musicians telling (mostly) true stories.

Thu 11 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (ROB ROUSE + TOM ALLEN + ASHLEY STORRIE + MC BILLY KIRKWOOD)

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

Fri 12 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (ROB ROUSE + TOM ALLEN + ASHLEY STORRIE + MC BILLY KIRKWOOD)

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £12 (£10 STUDENT/£6 MEMBERS)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £10

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

Sat 13 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (ROB ROUSE + TOM ALLEN + ASHLEY STORRIE + MC BILLY KIRKWOOD)

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £10

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

Sun 14 Jun

FISHERROW COMMUNITY NURSERY BENEFIT THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £5

Comedy fundraiser in aid of Fisherrow Community Nursery.

A selection of top comics from the contemporary Scottish circuit do their thing, aye.

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £7 (£5)

Thu 25 Jun

SO... THAT WAS JUNE?

Following their So... That's What We Voted For? event in May, messrs McTavish, Nelson and McAllister return with s'more satirical musings in a post-general election June.

Thu 18 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (BEN NORRIS + LORETTA MAINE + JAMALI MADDIX + MC SUSAN MORRISON) THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

SCIENCE FICTION DOUBLE FEATURE

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, 19:00–22:30, £5

Comedians Des O'Gorman and Ross Hepburn host a back-to-back stand-up session – each delivering a solo set centred around their favourite classic film: Ghostbusters (for O'Gorman) and Beetlejuice (for Hepburn).

Fri 19 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (BEN NORRIS + LORETTA MAINE + JAMALI MADDIX + MC SUSAN MORRISON)

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £12 (£10 STUDENT/£6 MEMBERS)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

RED RAW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £2

DALRIADA BAR, 20:30–22:30, £10

The official Porty comedy crew return for another showcase night of laughs by the sea, featuring a headline set from Bruce Morton, plus supports.

Sat 20 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (BEN NORRIS + LORETTA MAINE + JAMALI MADDIX + MC SUSAN MORRISON) THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£1 MEMBERS)

Chilled comedy showcase to cure your Sunday evening back-towork blues.

STU & GARRY'S FREE IMPROV SHOW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 13:30–15:30, FREE

USHER HALL, 19:15–22:00, £28.50

Mon 22 Jun

Tue 16 Jun

SPONTANEOUS SHERLOCK

CANON'S GAIT, 20:00–21:30, FREE

Entirely improvised Sherlock Holmes play, based on an audience suggestion of a title, performed by a four-strong cast of comic champs.

THE FRIDAY SHOW (DAVE FULTON + SUSIE MCCABE + MC MARTIN MOR)

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £12 (£10 STUDENT/£6 MEMBERS)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £10

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

Sat 27 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (DAVE FULTON + SUSIE MCCABE + MC MARTIN MOR)

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £10

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£1 MEMBERS)

Chilled comedy showcase to cure your Sunday evening back-towork blues.

STU & GARRY'S FREE IMPROV SHOW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 13:30–15:30, FREE

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from offthe-cuff audience suggestions.

Mon 29 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £10

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from offthe-cuff audience suggestions.

The American novelist takes his hilarious self out on the road, delivering snippets and quips from his succession of critically acclaimed novels, including Me Talk Pretty One Day and When You Are Engulfed in Flames.

Fri 26 Jun

Sun 28 Jun

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

DAVID SEDARIS

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

PORTOBELLO COMEDY NIGHT (BRUCE MORTON + DAISY EARL + CHRISTOPHER MACARTHUR-BOYD + MC STEVEN DAVIDSON)

Sun 21 Jun

Mon 15 Jun

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 13:30–15:30, FREE

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from offthe-cuff audience suggestions.

THE THURSDAY SHOW (DAVE FULTON + SUSIE MCCABE + MC MARTIN MOR)

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £10

Chilled comedy showcase to cure your Sunday evening back-towork blues.

STU & GARRY'S FREE IMPROV SHOW

BEST OF SCOTTISH COMEDY

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£3 MEMBERS)

Wed 17 Jun

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£1 MEMBERS)

Wed 24 Jun

Dundee Comedy Fri 12 Jun JUST LAUGH

DUNDEE REP, 20:00–22:00, £12

Monthly comedy showcase bringing a selection of UK stand-ups to Dundee.

RED RAW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

Tue 23 Jun JOKE THIEVES

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £8

Will Mars hosts his live comedy swapfest, where a handpicked batch of comedians perform their own jokes and then nick each other's.

THE SKINNY

Theatre Glasgow Theatre CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art CRYPTIC NIGHTS: THE DWELLING PLACE

4–5 JUN, TIMES VARY, £7.40 (£4.40)

Brothers Jamie and Lewis Wardrop present their multimedia installation bringing to life an abandoned family home discovered in the Outer Hebrides, told using original footage, live music, spoken word, and video projection.

FUORA DANCE PROJECT: DOUBLE BILL

6–7 JUN, 7:30PM – 9:00PM, £11 (£8)

Fuora Dance Project double bill, with four performers exploring emotions, states, actions-reactions, and conflicts between themselves and the audience, creating a surreal and playful scenario. Part of Dance International Glasgow.

Citizens Theatre GODSPELL

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 10 AND 13 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £8.50

The iconic rock musical is given the once over by the Musical Theatre students from The Dance School of Scotland. Matinee performances also available (Wed & Sat, 1.30pm/2.30pm).

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall LORD OF THE DANCE

5–14 JUN, NOT 8, 9, 10, 11, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Michael Flatley's Irish dance spectacular returns, boasting an inhuman number of taps per performance.

Shed

BILL W AND DR BOB

10–14 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £10

American-set play telling the story of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill W and Dr Bob, and their wives who founded Al Anon (for relatives dealing with alcoholics). Matinee performances also available (Sat & Sun).

The Arches STAND

4–7 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Chris Goode and Oxford Playhouse present a live collated collection of real life stories of courage and conscience from ordinary people who stood up for something, or someone, they believed in.

ON THE VERGE 2015

3–5 JUN, 7:00PM – 9:00PM, £8 (£6)

Mini festival of diverse theatrical works from emerging artists on the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's MA in Classical and Contemporary Text, including new writing, devised physical theatre and improvisational performances.

THE POINT

19–20 JUN, 7:30PM – 9:00PM, £11

New piece following three local sex workers – Cindy, Amber and Chargo – through their past, present and future hope and fears that come with being a part of the oldest profession on Earth.

The King's Theatre SPAMALOT

1–6 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £10.50

Classic Monty Python tale telling the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Cue beautiful showgirls, cows and killer rabbits. Matinees performances also available (Wed & Sat, 2.30pm).

PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ

9–13 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £10

US dance production featuring famous song and dance moments of Fred Astaire and the golden age of Hollywood. Matinees performances also available (Wed & Sat, 2.30pm).

June 2015

CALAMITY JANE 16–20 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £15

Set in the Wild West of Deadwood City in 1876, sharp shootin’ tomboy Calamity Jane tries to help the local saloon owner by promising to fetch a music hall star from Chicago – much singing ensues.

Matinees performances also available (Wed & Sat, 2.30pm).

BLOOD

LORD OF THE DANCE

9–13 JUN, NOT 10, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

5–14 JUN, NOT 8, 9, 10, 11, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

21st century urban love story between Caneze and Sully, with neither of them bargaining on the lengths to which Caneze's brother will go to keep them apart.

A THOUSAND KINDNESSES

19–20 JUN, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £10 (£7.50)

Michael Flatley's Irish dance spectacular returns, boasting an inhuman number of taps per performance.

The Pleasance THE WHITE BIKE

11 JUN, 6:30PM – 9:00PM, £7 (£6)

DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS

Tamara von Werthern's new work looking at the personal cost of road death, inspired by the case of Eilidh Cairns, who was killed by a lorry as she cycled to work. Part of Edinburgh Festival of Cycling.

23–30 JUN, NOT SUNDAYS, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £15.50

Traverse Theatre

Two common swindlers attempt to con a millionaire heiress on the French Riviera; based on the classic comedy starring Sir Michael Caine and Steve Martin. Matinees performances also available (Wed & Sat, 2.30pm).

Theatre Royal TWELVE ANGRY MEN

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 22 AND 27 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £11

Fresh from its West End run, Tom Conti heads up the cast in this taut retelling of the 1957 three-time Academy Award nominated film.

Matinee performances also available (Thu & Sat, 2.30pm).

THE PRODUCERS

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 15 AND 20 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £10

New adaptation of the Broadway musical comedy (based on the Mel Brooks movie), starring Jason Manford as Leo Bloom and Ross Noble as Franz Liebkind. Matinee performances also available (Thu & Sat, 2.30pm).

JUDY

2–6 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £10

Tribute show highlighting the legendary life and career of Judy Garland. Matinee performances also available (Thu & Sat, 2.30pm).

DANCE SCHOOL OF SCOTLAND

12–13 JUN, TIMES VARY, FROM £6

The Dance School of Scotland returns to the King's for its annual showcase featuring the talents of the pupils of Scotland's Centre of Excellence for Dance.

Tramway

ROBBIE SYNGE + UNDERHAND DANCE: DOUBLE BILL

2–3 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £11 (£8)

Special double bill event taking in Robbie Synge's Douglas and the world premiere of Underhand Dance's Handsome. Part of Dance International Glasgow.

CROSS OVER

6 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £11 (£8)

Collection of personal accounts of micro-acts of kindness from across the globe, performed by people who have had recent firsthand experience of conflict.

STAND

4–7 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Edinburgh Theatre Festival Theatre 2–6 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £17.50

New production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's darkest musical, touching on issues at the time unheard of in musical theatre.

Matinee performances also available (Thu & Sat, 2.30pm).

THE CAR MAN

King's Theatre Edinburgh YER GRANNY

2–6 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £14

New comedy about a diabolical 100-year-old granny who's literally eating her family out of house and home. Matinee performances also available (Wed & Sat, 2.30pm).

SPRING AWAKENING

18–20 JUN, TIMES VARY, FROM £15.50

Re-working of the classic rock musical about the struggles of adolescence, exploring originally censored material about finding oneself sexually and emotionally, performed by 100+ professionalsin-training from The MGA Academy.

Royal Lyceum Theatre THE DRIVER'S SEAT

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 13 JUN AND 27 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, PRICES VARY

Adapted for the stage for the first time, Laurie Sansom presents the world premiere of one of renowned novelist Muriel Spark's most gripping and disturbing books. Matinee performances also available (Wed & Sat, 2pm).

Tron Theatre

Summerhall

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 4 AND 6 JUN, 7:45PM – 10:00PM, FROM £14 (£10)

Economic gloom, ineffective protest and a sense of gathering doom infect the lives of a set of characters linked in an Altmanesque series of colliding and intersecting narratives. Matinee performance also available (Fri & Sat, 2.30pm).

TORN

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 11 AND 13 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Faux Theatre present their poignant and powerful wordless portrayal of one woman's effort to find and experience love.

THE SIEGE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 17 AND 20 JUN, 7:45PM – 10:00PM, FROM £14 (£10)

Bleak production based on actual events that took place during the Siege of The Church of The Nativity in 2002, exploring PalestinianIsraeli conflict in the process.

CHARLIE SONATA

4–6 JUN, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £10 (£7.50)

Tender and funny new play by Douglas Maxwell, taking in reconciliation, redemption and a quest to save a young girl in a coma. Matinee performances also available (Fri & Sat, 2.45pm).

CLOUDS

10 –12 JUN, 7:30PM – 9:15PM, £10 (£8)

Harper Theatre Production's new piece highlighting the struggles of depression in young people, following the story of a student whose symptoms are covered up by the tragic death of his younger sister.

CRAZY JANE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 28 MAY AND 13 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Unique dance theatre event recounting the tale of Moulin Rouge star Jane Avril, backed by an original live score from Scottish hip-hop troupe Hector Bizerk.

The Edinburgh Playhouse THAT'LL BE THE DAY

6 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £24

Rock'n'roll variety show crammed with musical favourites from the 50s, 60s and 70s (i.e. you WILL singalong to Buddy Holly).

THE DREAMBOYS

9 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £25.50

Glamour show courtesy of loads of oiled-up blokes possessing the most chiselled abs since we last looked round The Skinny office.

Ahem.

COALESCE

5–28 JUN, NOT 8, 15, 22, TIMES VARY, FREE

Group show bringing together nine artists whose work, while disparate, shares a common sensibility, including pieces from several artists who took part in RSA New Contemporaries, as well as four prize-winners selected by GPS from Glasgow School of Art. IAN MCNICOL

5–28 JUN, NOT 8, 15, 22, TIMES VARY, FREE

Exhibition of new landscape etchings and monoprints by Paisleyborn artist Ian McNicol, taking their inspiration from the south west of Scotland, Ayrshire, where he now lives with his family.

Glasgow School of Art 13–20 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Dundee Theatre

9–13 JUN, 7:00PM – 10:00PM, FROM £17

First seen in 2000, Matthew Bourne brings his critically acclaimed dance thriller back to the stage, loosely based on Bizet's popular opera. Matinee performances also available (Thu & Sat, 2.30pm).

Glasgow Print Studio

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART DEGREE SHOW

CAROUSEL

Programme by final year dance students from Dance Studio Scotland, Performing Arts Studio Scotland, Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and West College Scotland, and the National Youth Dance Company of Scotland. Part of Dance International Glasgow.

13

Chris Goode and Oxford Playhouse present a live collated collection of real life stories of courage and conscience from ordinary people who stood up for something, or someone, they believed in.

Art

Dundee Rep TORN

24 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Faux Theatre present their poignant and powerful wordless portrayal of one woman's effort to find and experience love.

CRAZY JANE

13 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Unique dance theatre event recounting the tale of Moulin Rouge star Jane Avril, backed by an original live score from Scottish hip-hop troupe Hector Bizerk.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

4–20 JUN, NOT 7, 8, 14, 15, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £10

Fresh re-working of the muchloved classic, told using Dickens’ own words from the novel. Matinee performances also available (Thu & Sat, 2.30pm).

YOUTH THEATRE DOUBLE BILL

26–27 JUN, 7:00PM – 9:00PM, £7 (£2.50)

Special double-bill performance by Dundee Rep's 14-16’s and 16-18’s youth theatres.

Glasgow Art CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art

LUCY CLOUT + MARIANNA SIMNETT: WHAT WILL THEY SEE OF ME?

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 30 MAY AND 12 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Exhibition premiere of two significant new commissions by Lucy Clout and Marianna Simnett, winners of the Jerwood/FVU Awards 2015, each taking inspiration from the pressures (and perils) of visibility in a digital world.

David Dale Gallery and Studios

FINITE PROJECT ALTERED WHEN OPEN

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 6 JUN AND 4 JUL, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Showcase exhibition intended to serve as a summary of what David Dale Gallery do and have done, inviting contributions from a large selection of artists, writers and curators who they have worked with over the past five years.

Undergraduate degree show featuring work by Glasgow School of Art students across a wide variety of disciplines, showing across the Glasgow School of Art, the Reid Building and the Tontine Building.

Glasgow Sculpture Studios

IMAN ISSA: PARABLES

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 18 APR AND 13 JUN, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

DUNCAN SHANKS: THE POETRY OF PLACE VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 14 MAR AND 16 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Exhibition showcase of Duncan Shanks’s gift to the University of Glasgow of his entire output of sketchbooks from the past 55 years, with over 30 sketchbooks on view – never previously exhibited.

Mary Mary ALIZA NISENBAUM

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 13 JUN AND 1 AUG, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

Solo showcase of paintings from the Brooklyn-based Mexican artist, known for her portraits of undocumented immigrant families from Mexico and Central America, painted over long visits with her subjects.

Project Ability ON THE SAME LATITUDE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 5 JUN AND 18 JUL, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A veritable expedition in photography exploring shared moments and collaborative action by two artists working in Scotland and Denmark: Ida Arentoft and Simon McAuley.

RGI Kelly Gallery

RGI NEW GRADUATE PRIZE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 6 JUN AND 27 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Selected from the Glasgow School of Art Degree show as the recipients of the RGI New Graduate Prize in 2014, Nicola Massie and Alexander Haukrogh Jensen showcase a selection of new work one year on, as part of their prize.

Egyptian artist Iman Issa marks her first exhibition in a UK public institution (and GSS’ first exhibition with an Egyptian artist, no less), presenting Common Elements 2013 – an installation of sculpture, text panels and photographs.

SWG3 Glasgow

GoMA

Street Level Photoworks

THE BALLET OF THE PALETTE

20 FEB – 24 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcase exhibition of 20th century paintings selected from Glasgow Museums’ collection, chosen by a selection of contemporary artists who exhibited work in the 2013 exhibition, A Picture Show.

RIPPLES ON THE POND

27 MAR – 28 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE

Glasgow Museums’ collection exhibition designed as a conversation between works by women on paper and moving image, taking as its starting point recent acquisitions from the Glasgow Women’s Library 21 Revolutions series.

CLYDE REFLECTIONS

29 MAY – 5 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Collaborative new film installation by the art-science duo Hurrel and Brennan (aka artist Stephen Hurrel and Social Ecologist Ruth Brennan), building on their collaborative body of work to date.

Hillhead Library MAUD SULTER: ABOUT FACE

17 APR – 28 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Off-site mini exhibition of late artist Maud Sulter – coinciding with her main exhibition at Street Level Photoworks – taking in 10 large format Polaroid portraits, originally commissioned by the Scottish Poetry Library in 2002.

CRANHILL ARTS PROJECT: GLASGOW FAMILY ALBUM

14 FEB – 2 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Growing collection of family photos submitted by the people of Glasgow, put together as part of Street Level Photowork’s ‘Commonwealth Family Album’ which took place during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Hunterian Art Gallery

THE ONLY WAY TO DO IT IS TO DO IT

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 27 MAR AND 4 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

Exhibition revisiting the experimental practices and legacy of progressive liberal art college Black Mountain College (1933-57), taking in Post-War American prints from The Hunterian’s permanent collection alongside new work by contemporary practitioners.

WET DENIM TRACKIE

9–10 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

End of year mini group show from various GSA artists, taking in an eclectic mix of international mixed media works.

MAUD SULTER: PASSION

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 25 APR AND 20 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Retrospective showcase of artist, writer, curator and gallerist of Ghanain and Scottish heritage, Maud Sulter – taking in key chapters in her multilayered photographic practice, including several works from her Hysteria, Syrcas and Les Bijoux projects.

The Arches

LUCY ASTEN HOLMES-ELLIOT: SKOLIOSEXUAL

12 MAY – 6 JUN, 7:30PM – 9:30PM, FREE

Artist Lucy Asten Holmes-Elliot attempts to capture the diverse identity of the Scottish queer scene in a series of large-scale illustrations. Part of Behaviour Festival’s ‘Sexology Season’.

The Common Guild ANNE HARDY

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 6 JUN AND 8 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Solo showcase marking Anne Hardy’s first exhibition in Scotland, spanning photography, sculptural installation and audio, as she constructs environments that hover between depiction and abstraction.

The Glue Factory

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART MFA DEGREE SHOW

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 9 JUN AND 20 JUN, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

The Master of Fine Art graduates take over The Glue Factory for their official Degree Show 2015 round-up.

The Lighthouse

BEST USE OF TIMBER AWARDS 2014

20 FEB – 21 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

As part of the annual RIAS Awards, Forestry Commission Scotland and Wood for Good sponsor an award encouraging innovative use of timber in new buildings in Scotland, with this exhibition showcasing the winning and shortlisted entries.

HANDMADE BY MACHINES 19 JUN – 18 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Annual exhibition of modern jewellery design, now in its fourth year, incorporating the works of final year jewellery students and staff from colleges across Scotland.

MACMAG 40

9 JUN – 10 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Special exhibition showcase of the 40 Mackintosh School of Architecture MacMag’s published since the magazine’s beginning in 1974, timed in celebration of the release of the 40th edition.

The Modern Institute URS FISCHER

6 JUN – 29 AUG, NOT SUNDAYS, TIMES VARY, FREE

Solo showcase of new sculptures from the Swiss-born, New York-living contemporary artist, known for his diverse oeuvre across installations, sculpture and gestural paintings.

Edinburgh Art City Art Centre SCOTTISH ART: PEOPLE, PLACES, IDEAS

23 MAY – 27 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Special exhibition based on a thematic framework exploring four key areas – people, landscape, still life and abstraction – drawing from art in Scotland over the last 250 years, returning following its inaugural 2011 showcase.

Collective Gallery

SLAVS AND TATARS: LEKTOR

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 25 APR AND 12 JUL, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

The Modern Institute @ Airds Lane

New body of work by art collective Slavs and Tatars exploring ‘Mirror for Princes’ – a medieval form of advice literature intended for future rulers, giving advice pertaining to good leadership on subjects such as grooming, speech, education and belief.

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 30 MAY AND 4 JUL, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 25 APR AND 14 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

LUKE FOWLER: TO THE EDITOR OF AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER

THOMAS AITCHISON: DRAG A FILE HERE

New film by Luke Fowler and Mark Fell revolving around the testimonies and collected documents linked to the complex and often contested history of Pavilion in Leeds, the UK’s first feminist photography centre.

For the second exhibition of Satellites Programme 2015, artist Thomas Aitchison showcases a new series of paintings and an installation using materials and tools that commonly support but are edited out of exhibition design.

The Telfer Gallery

Dovecot Studios

IF ANY, BEFORE

6–21 JUN, NOT 8, 9, 15, 16, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

GARRY FABIAN MILLER: DWELLING

15 MAY – 7 JUL, NOT SUNDAYS, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE

Collective exhibition lifting its title from a subordinate clause in a popular game manual, showcasing new works by Francis Caballero, Tim Dalzell and Caitlin Merrett King – a trio who all share a spontaneous approach to making.

Showcase exhibition marking the start of a collaborative relationship between experimental photographer Garry Fabian Miller and Dovecot Tapestry Studio, including two new gun-tufted hearth rugs created in collaboration with the artist.

The Virginia Gallery

30 MAY – 7 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

EXISTENCILISM

29 MAY – 15 JUN, NOT 2 JUN, 5 JUN, 9 JUN, 12 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcase exhibition from North Lanarkshire stencil artist Gary Cairns (aka Lone Wolf), featuring collaborations with photographers Jawn McClenaghan and George Hastings.

Tramway

MICK PETER: PYRAMID SELLING

24 APR – 14 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Edinburgh College of Art ECA DEGREE SHOW 2015

Edinburgh College of Art present their annual graduate student round-up, showcasing the fruits of more than 500 budding graduating artists, filmmakers, designers, and architects over an e’er eclectic programme.

Edinburgh Printmakers

PAUL HARRISON: EPIGENETIC LANDSCAPES

Solo exhibition of new sculpture by Glasgow-based artist Mick Peter, which, when taken together, set up a conversation between contradictory modes of representation as well as notions of commerce and fabrication.

2–6 JUN, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

2 MAY – 7 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 13 JUN AND 18 JUL, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

GRACE SCHWINDT: ONLY A FREE INDIVIDUAL CAN CREATE A FREE SOCIETY

London-based German artist Grace Schwindt presents a new film installation in which she revisits discussions witnessed during her childhood, surrounded by radical left-wing individuals in Frankfurt, Germany.

THE PERSISTENCE OF TYPE

20 JUN – 26 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Panel curated exhibition of newly commissioned work by artist Fiona Jardine and designers Sophie Dyer and Maeve Redmond, exploring the dialogue between graphic design, visual art and historical and fictional writing.

Trongate 103 GOOSE FLESH: STOCK TAKE

Exhibition of print-based works

by Paul Liam Harrison, exploring aspects of Epigenetics – an expanding field of biomedical research relating to changes in gene expression, phenotype and heredity as a result of external or environmental factors.

FAISAL ABDU’ALLAH: SQUAD

Showcase as part of Faisal Abdu’Allah’s ongoing The Squad Project, reflecting his engagement with the physical and metaphysical properties of material, through traditional printmaking techniques, explored through a range of unconventional print media.

PAUL CHARLTON: BREATHLESS

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 26 MAY AND 27 JUN, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

New collection of work by Edinburgh College of Art sculpture graduate Paul Charlton, comprising of a series of blind embossed prints produced on-site at Edinburgh Printmakers.

30 MAY – 28 JUN, NOT 1 JUN, 8 JUN, 15 JUN, 22 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcase of work from the independent, non-profit photography zine, Good Flesh, featuring work of emerging and established artists who are Glasgow born, based or associated, as well as occasionally featuring the work of friends from other places.

Listings

61

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop CONCRETE ANTENNA

11 MAR – 1 SEP, 9:30AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Sound installation in the new ESW tower created by Tommy Perman, Simon Kirby and Rob St. John, sonically exploring the past, present and (potential) future of the workshop’s site via sound gathered from audio archives and specially made field recordings.

Ingleby Gallery CRAIG MURRAY-ORR

30 MAY – 4 JUL, NOT SUNDAYS, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Exhibition of new paintings by New Zealand-born artist Craig Murray-Orr, who for the past three years has been working on a series of small oil paintings on identically sized wooden boards, 30 of which will make up the exhibition.

BEN CAUCHI

30 MAY – 4 JUL, NOT SUNDAYS, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Solo presentation of new and recent works by photographer Ben Cauchi, known for employing outmoded techniques to produce atmospheric photographs with a strange and spectral beauty to them.

Interview Room 11 INVISIBLE LINES

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 29 MAY AND 27 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Collective exhibition with the aim of giving visibility to Cantabrian artists inside and outside Spain, featuring six artists with a career at national and international level.

Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) 189TH RSA ANNUAL EXHIBITION 25 APR – 3 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Annual highlight showcasing work from RSA Academicians the length and breadth of Scotland, providing a platform for contemporary paintings, sculpture, film, printmaking, photography and installation alongside work by leading architects.

ALEXANDER FRASER

13 JUN – 19 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcase of new large-scale oil paintings by the former Head of Painting at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, inspired by memories, travel and recurring motifs from earlier works.

28 MAY – 31 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

35th annual year of the Schools Poster Competition, featuring thousands of colourful poster entries from schools across Scotland, with the winning entry becoming the official poster for the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Out of the Blue Drill Hall EXPOSED 15

9–18 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Annual end of year graduate showcase exhibition from Stevenson College Edinburgh’s Photography department, showcasing the work of up to 80 new photographers.

ALWAYS TALKING, MUST TRY HARDER

29 JUN – 8 JUL, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Showcase of Scott Drever’s new artistic direction, featuring 15 pieces in the form of monochrome paintings inspired by his personal heroes including Tom Waits and Brian Blessed.

Royal Botanic Garden AMY SHELTON: HONEYSCRIBE

7 APR – 4 JUL, NOT SUNDAYS, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Artist Amy Shelton becomes a contemporary ‘honeyscribe’ – someone tasked with recording every drop of honey produced – mapped using 100s of pressed flowers, illuminated to create a vibrant colour palette. In the John Hope Gateway.

Showcase of 30+ drawings and watercolours by late Edinburgh artist David Roberts, many of which are drawn from the important group of works bequeathed to the Scottish National Gallery by Helen Guiterman through the Art Fund in 2008.

ROCKS AND RIVERS: THE LUNDE COLLECTION

3–30 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE

Long-term loan from one of the finest private collections of 19thCentury Norwegian and Swiss landscape paintings, American collector Asbjörn Lunde, taking in 13 works by artists including Johan Christian Dahl, Alexandre Calame and Thomas Fearnley.

ROY LICHTENSTEIN

A special three-room ‘Artist Rooms’ display dedicated to works by celebrated American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, bringing together a newly assembled group of works care of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and the Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.

THE AMAZING WORLD OF M.C. ESCHER

27 JUN – 27 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £9 (£7)

Retrospective exhibition of Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, including nearly 100 prints and drawings stretching across his whole career, drawn entirely from the collection of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery REMEMBERING THE GREAT WAR

4 AUG – 5 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Marking the centenary of the outbreak of the WWI, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery display various portraits and related works in various media - including work by artists Sir James Gunn and Sir William Gillies, who were wounded in action.

COLLECTING NOW

9 MAY – 20 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcase exhibition of a number of the recent acquisitions that have entered the Portrait Gallery collection since 2010, including a double portrait by Cecile Walton from around 1911 and a group of silver gelatin prints by David Peat from the late 60s.

LEE MILLER AND PICASSO

23 MAY – 6 SEP, TIMES VARY, £9 (£7)

Revealing exhibition featuring approximately 100 photographs focusing on the relationship between Lee Miller, Roland Penrose and Pablo Picasso, featuring photographs by Miller and a painting and drawing by Picasso.

HEAD TO HEAD: PORTRAIT SCULPTURE, ANCIENT TO MODERN

6 JUN – 31 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Exhibition of portrait sculpture from across the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection, moving from ancient to modern and executed in a range of media, illustrating how sculptors continue to reference the illustrious tradition of the portrait bust.

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VITTORIA GRANT + JACQUI HIGGS: MEMORY AND IMAGINATION

30 MAY – 21 JUN, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Double header exhibition in which Vittoria Grant and Jacqui Higgs delve into memories of places of origin and places lived – including Italy, Africa and Scotland – through the visual medium of paint and colour.

AMANDA ATKINSON: THE CURVES ON A STRAIGHT LINE

14.15

14 MAR – 10 JAN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE SOCIETY’S 2015 SCHOOLS POSTER COMPETITION

Collaborative exhibition inviting a selection of artists, working in varying mediums, to contribute their definitions of madness.

21 FEB – 14 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

DAVID ROBERTS: DRAWINGS FROM THE HELEN GUITERMAN BEQUEST

NICOLAS PARTY: BOYS AND PASTEL

Museum of Childhood

30 MAY – 21 JUN, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

30 MAY – 21 JUN, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 2 MAY AND 5 JUL, 10:00AM – 5:30PM, FREE

First major UK solo exhibition by Swiss artist Nicolas Party, taking in an installation of wall murals painted in situ covering the entirety of Inverleith House, including the seven galleries, stairwells, hallways and corridors.

MAD WORLD

Scottish National Gallery

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

Inverleith House

St Margaret’s House Art’s Complex

Exhibition showcase of a selection of drawings and life studies by local artist Amanda Atkinson.

27 JUN – 12 JUL, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Group show in which 14 former Edinburgh College of Art students attempt to figure out their place in the world through their individual practices.

ROBYN BENSON: FROM A HORIZONTAL LINE

27 JUN – 12 JUL, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

New works by artist Robyn Benson exploring the structural capabilities of the curve, aiming to ascertain founding rules of structural support resulting in temporal, self-sufficient structures that only exist at a single point of balance.

DOMINIC MCIVOR: 24

27 JUN – 12 JUL, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Collection of large-scale works created by repeating a colour sequence (of 24 small squares, hence the title) hundreds of times over, before peeling the canvas to see what remains.

Stills

ANNA ATKINS + MARGARET WATKINS

25 APR – 12 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Double-header exhibition showcasing historically important work

by Anna Atkins (1799-1871) and Margaret Watkins (1884-1969), two female artists who made pioneering photographic work in the 19th and 20th centuries respectively.

Summerhall MOTHS

4 JUN – 15 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Modern Edinburgh Film School brings together a selection of practitioners in visual art, poetry, performance and film to explore alternative approaches to the screen.

HENRY COOMBES: TWO DISCS AND A ZED

4 JUN – 15 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Looped screening of London-born, Glasgow-based artist Henry Coombes’ new film, Two Discs and a Zed, presenting two main sets: the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh and a mountainous landscape somewhere in the Highlands.

DAVID FAITHFULL: LEVIATHAN

4 JUN – 15 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

New body of work from artist, printmaker and curator David Faithfull, for which he spent time on the Isle of Mull, investigating and documenting both the whalebones and the family relics. …NOT MAN THE LESS, BUT NATURE MORE 4 JUN – 15 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Collective exhibition focusing on the dichotomy of exploring others’ worlds, with the artists reproducing the surroundings they inhabit, animating them with the people, creatures and spirits that belong to their personal mythologies.

CRAIG THOMSON: STRANGE ATTRACTOR

4 JUN – 15 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Artist Craig Thomson displays a selection of new work for Summerhall’s public areas, taking inspiration from the rural landscape of his home county of Fife.

26 JUN – 18 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Science of Wonder

Whitespace Gayfield Square

The sixth Edinburgh International Magic Festival arrives in Summerhall this year. Festival director Kevin McMahon talks to The Skinny before the spectacle begins.

The Fruitmarket Gallery PHYLLIDA BARLOW

Major solo showcase of work by Newcastle artist Phyllida Barlow, known for her monumental and immersive sculptures made from simple materials such as plywood, cardboard, fabric, plaster, paint and plastic.

DAVID FREDERICK AVERY: BEYOND THE VEIL

27 JUN – 2 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Mixed media exhibition from artist David Frederick Avery, exploring altered states of consciousness, mysticism and the nature of reality.

Interview: Jenni Ajderian

KIRSTY WHITEN: WRONGER RITES – THE QUING OF THE NOW PEOPLES

13–24 JUN, NOT 15, 22, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

Collection of new work by celebrated artist Kirsty Whiten, for which she’s taken to watercolour to depict dancers and groups of crazed costumed figures. The exhibition will extend beyond the gallery onto a number of Leith locations as part of LeithLate15.

Woodland Creatures

WASTING TIME IN CONVERSATION

9 JUN – 8 JUL, 12:00PM – 1:00AM, FREE

Dirty Negatives, the collaborative duo of UK based artists Elizaveta Maltseva and Tara Kathleen Stewart, host their first site-specific installation of new print work.

Dundee Art DCA: Dundee Contemporary Arts

SPRING / SUMMER 2015: MARIPOL

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 4 APR AND 21 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcase exhibition charting the iconic photographs, fashion and design work of Maripol from the late 70s to the present, showing alongside thematically similar Scottish artists Clare Stephenson and Zoe Williams.

Generator Projects

THEY HAD FOUR YEARS 2015

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 23 MAY AND 14 JUN, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Annual exhibition featuring new works by recent graduates selected from across Scotland, this year featuring Cameron Orr, Lily Morris and Aaron McCarthy (DJCAD), Sophie Will (Gray's School of Art) and Alima Askew and Timothea Armour (ECA).

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couple of months ago, the Edinburgh International Science Festival took over Summerhall and displayed art, food, educational talks and, in the courtyard, magic. This month, the Edinburgh International Magic Festival takes over the same venue, with offerings of art, food, educational talks and, here and there, science.

These twin disciplines have had a rocky relationship over the past couple of centuries, but more recently have partnered more. MagicFest's artistic director Kevin McMahon is a physicist-turnedmagician-turned-comedian, and so it is perhaps no surprise he's all for such collaboration.

Speaking to The Skinny, he says: “I work with mathematicians, florists, theatre producers... and that is where the most creative ideas emerge from.” Having founded and curated MagicFest from its inception back in 2010, McMahon and his assistants have been looking for ways to branch out and away from simply picking a card, any card.

“Everyone's got their top pigeonhole for what magic is and what it should be. It's all about top hats and bunnies and sawing folk in half. When it came to the Magic Festival, in the last few years we've tried to extend the scope. And it's like you have to be slapped in the face with something before you'll actually realise that it could be put into the programme as magical and people will like it.”

Scope duly extended, this year's festival features ‘Magic à la carte’, a personalised close-up magic performance during dinner, based around your meal; silent magical storytelling from Belgian clowning academy Cirque-Cirqulaire; the art of deduction turned to the art of murder, and more interactive magic classes than you can wave a wand at. With so many romantic-musical-comedy book-turned-play-turned-movies and puppetrycabaret-dance shows on offer across the art world, why has magic been so reluctant to join the great melting pot of performance? It may be due to the very principles of magic themselves, as McMahon explains: “Magic is secretive. We have rules and conventions that guard the secrets of what we do, and that's always going to be the way it is. My own personal opinion is that the lack of collaboration, the shroud of secrecy that magic has had for the last 200 years, has held it back.

Because of a lack of collaboration, the pace of advancement of magic has been rather slow. I encourage collaboration – it's the only way magic can progress.”

The festival itself is infused with McMahon's passion for collaboration and crossover, as well as his own scientific past (he studied Physics before seeing the magical light). The theme of Awake to Wonder promises to introduce Edinburgh's magic lovers to quantum theory, the science of sleep, and strange illusory photography from Italian artist Barbara Scerbo, whose Photoshop-free images disturb as much as they delight.

The theme of dreaming and wonder is further explored through the festival's organisation too: “For the last five years we've been spread through-

out the city, and we've been able to make use of really great spaces. This year everything's moving to Summerhall – we've one site where we can control the full experience, from when someone enters the space to the shows, to the drinks that we have, the food that we offer.” Having complete control over its new home, the MagicFest has the amazing ability to turn the old vet school into a dreamy landscape.

“If you can't wonder at something, then you can't aspire to understand how it works and improve on it” “Dreaming is important: seeing the world in a different way. All a magician does is apply a new set of rules to the world. They form those rules early on in the show, then invite you into this world and to accept that maybe gravity doesn't have the same impact that it normally does.” This bending of the normal rules, and wonderment at the result, has not only allowed generations of magicians to ply their craft, but has encouraged scientists to think creatively enough to make huge advancements too. “If you can't wonder at something, then you can't aspire to understand how it works and improve on it. Almost every scientist that's made progressive work has had a mind that appreciates wonder and mystery. Without these things we can't move forward – if you just accept that you know everything then you're really stuck.”

With this control over the space, this focus on the surreal and this knowledge of what makes their audience tick, the MagicFest team this year has set out a programme sure to offer a dreamlike experience. Even outside Summerhall, the illusory art continues, with a trio of single beds decked out with flowers that change colour depending on your perspective – a visual trick designed to have members of the public interacting with the art, and by extension the magic, throughout the city.

Edinburgh International Magic Festival 2015 runs at Summerhall from 26 Jun-4 Jul magicfest.co.uk

THE SKINNY

Interview with the Vampire Of all the wonders at this year's Magic Festival, one thing we didn't anticipate was Dracula. Rafael is a magician taking on the famous Count's duties at the closing gala, but we knew he was a true vampire when he agreed to an interview with Fred Fletch Illustration: Paul Law

D

uring my time with The Skinny, I've interviewed some of our planet's most exciting porn stars, ninjas and knightriders. However, this is the first time I've had the opportunity to talk to a Dracula. Not just any Dracula, a Belgian warlock who goes by the name Rafael. Now that's like giving Frankenstein a jet-pack or putting Wolfman on the moon.

Fred Fletch: You're only coming to Edinburgh for the finale of the Magic Festival.

Do you have secret sinister reason for only swooping in at the end? I bet it is sinister.

Rafael: It's not wise to scare people away in the beginning of the festival so it's best to make my appearance for the grand finale of the Magic Festival. Also this way I can enjoy the rest of this wonderful festival incognito without people knowing that there is a vampire amongst them.

I knew it was sinister. Being a magician is the quickest way to get your father to demand a paternity test. What did your parents say when it became clear you were a vampire?

My parents met on fangsgiving while on holiday in Transylvania so they were not surprised.

Obviously you've got the kind of balls that look good in a cape. But is there ever a time to dress up like everyone's Grandma like Gary Oldman?

Like Gary Oldman, I love to play different characters but I hope to have less divorces than him.

Why were you not cast as Commissioner Gordon in Christopher Nolan's Batman films?

I'm not sure why... maybe they thought I am demanding as I don't like sunlights and only like to work after midnight. Also, I look terrible with a moustache.

When I was young, vampires were the toughest, sexiest anythings ever. Then the 2000s arrived and vampires started to look as scary as the bloke in Twilight who looks like Ted Danson from Cheers. Do you think vampires are forever doomed to be like that Hufflepuff or can they ever recover their reputation for being badass?

Hollywood now make us look like glampires but I'm sure we will recover soon.

In the old days I guess you'd spend long periods of time searching out a maiden's neck to suck on like it's a Capri-Sun. Nowadays, according to my inbox, there are literally hundreds of hot single ladies in my area. For a vampire, has the internet taken the joy out of the chase?

Real vampires still like the old fashion way because we discovered that on the internet people lie about their virginity and are not honest about their blood type.

Since vampires live for centuries, does stuff like the internet blow your mind? For all our modern conveniences (like microwaves, desensitisation condoms and yoghurts on sticks) do you ever miss impaling people with impunity like Vlad in the fifteenth century?

I miss the old days but now it's easy to go online and find a bloodbank nearby wherever I am, which is very convenient.

I've seen enough Teen Wolf to know that it's a scientific fact that werewolves could play basketball at a professional level (this could be a racial stereotype). Are Belgian vampires skilled in any particular sport to the awesome levels of the werewolf species?

Belgian vampires are specialised in making beer disappear and we like to practise this skill often.

“On the internet people lie about their virginity and are not honest about their blood type” Was Enzo Scifo also a Belgian Dracula and is this how he acquired his footballing superpowers?

He's actually a devil so he blends in perfectly with Belgium's football team de rode duivels (red devils).

Have you seen the 1983 movie Krull? (If yes, can you put me in touch with Ken Marshall?)

I haven't seen that movie but I will organise a movie night soon with some popcorn and a bloody mary.

If this copy of The Daily Impale I'm reading is true, the European Union encourages thousands of vampires to invade our country and steal all our blood. What are your feelings on being part of the Union?

Like with everything there are pros and cons being a union. I think as long as you can drive on the other side of the road unlike the other European countries you have nothing to worry about. BTW there are already a lot of vampires in your country but they prefer to call themselves politicians.

You're going to bite me now aren't you?

Of course! Soon you will discover it sucks to be a vampire.

Rafael will swoop in for the closing Magic and Variety Gala Show, Festival Theatre, 4 Jul, 7pm, £16-32 magicfest.co.uk

June 2015

COMEDY

Last Word

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THE SKINNY