The Skinny November 2019

.CO.UK

INDEPENDENT FREE

CULTURAL

J O U R N A L I S M

November 2019 Issue 170

FREE LOVE SPARKING JOY AND GROWING COMMUNITY

MALCOLM MIDDLETON — CLOTH — TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET — ADAM DRIVER — EMMA WOLUKAU-WANAMBWA BASMA ALSHARIF — ANDRÉ ACIMAN — SUZI RUFFELL — EDWIN ORGAN — GIANT SWAN

MUSIC | FILM | CLUBS | THEATRE | ART | BOOKS | COMEDY | TRAVEL | FOOD & DRINK | INTERSECTIONS | LISTINGS

Photo: Basma alSharif

Photo: Jiksaw

P.52 Katherina Radeva

Photo: Alex Brenner

P.31 Auckland

P.29 Basma alSharif

Photo: Camilla Sofie Danielsson

P.26 Suzi Ruffell

November 2019

Issue 170, November 2019 © Radge Media Ltd. Get in touch: E: hello@theskinny.co.uk T: 0131 467 4630 P: The Skinny, 1.9 1st Floor Tower, Techcube, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall Pl, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL The Skinny is Scotland's largest independent entertainment & listings magazine, and offers a wide range of advertising packages and affordable ways to promote your business.

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printed on 100% recycled paper

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Contents



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

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

Production Production Manager Designer

Rachael Hood Fiona Hunter

Sales Sales Manager Sales Executives

Sandy Park George Sully David Hammond

Online Digital Editor Online Journalist Web Developer

Peter Simpson Jamie Dunn Stuart Spencer

General Manager

Laurie Presswood

THE SKINNY

Contents Chat & Opinion: Welcome to the maga06 zine with shot of the month, The Skinny on Tour, our last minute news and a column discussing the relationship between love and ecology Heads Up: Your cultural diary for 08 November

30 Author André Aciman on returning to

his characters in Call Me by Your Name follow-up Find Me

LIFESTYLE

31 Travel: A guide to starting a life in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland

FEATURES

10 We pop round to Free Love’s Glasgow flat-slash-recording studio to hear about their biggest year to date

15 Malcolm Middleton introduces Guitar Variations, his latest album as Human Don't Be Angry, and drops some hints of potential Arab Strap news for 2020

16 Cloth's Rachael and Paul Swinton on

32 Intersections: We look at how the

Scottish BAME Writers Network is creating space in Scotland's literary scene; one writer connects the politics of disasters in Scotland and his native Brazil

35 Food and Drink: We appraise the odd

phenomenon of a whisky tide pod-based marketing strategy, share all the latest food news, and offer a well-researched insight into how to shop like a Michelinstarred chef

their stark, haunting self-titled debut

Film editor takes a water taxi to a 18 Our private Venetian island to ask the sur-

prisingly tall Timothée Chamalet about his role as Henry V in The King

19 The surprisingly short Adam Driver

talks to us about his funny and tender performance in Noah Baumbach's bittersweet melodrama Marriage Story

21 Arika’s latest Episode of avant-garde

REVIEW

39 Music: Interviews with Edwin Organ,

SKOOP rapper Tzusan and Swampy Cello run alongside your Do Not Miss gig guide followed by November album reviews

44 Clubs: We talk to progressive duo Giant

Swan, meet the people behind Glasgow label Craigie Knowes, and give you a rundown of this month’s clubbing highlights

programming parallels cutting-edge maths and physics with experiences of Black, POC, Queer, Trans and Indigenous communities

48 Books: Reviews include Ali Wong’s letters

We delve into the programme of this 22 year’s Fokus Festival, a celebration

49 Art: Thulani Rachia and Alberta Whittle

of German film. We also look ahead to Dundee’s digital arts festival, North East of North – aka NEoN

25 First Stages Festival arrives at the

Traverse to present new writing talent – we meet three of the playwrights bringing their work to the stage

26 Comedian Suzi Ruffell tells us about her feel good celebration of happiness, Dance Like Everyone's Watching. There’s also a guide to going to see comedy on a budget 28 Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa shares

the stories and surprises she's come across in the ten years of her longterm artistic project, Uganda in Black and White

29 Artist Basma alSharif discusses new CCA exhibition A Philistine, which centres on a novella that is in parts sci-fi fantasy, historical fiction and erotica

November 2019

to her daughters, Dear Girls. Poetry news tells you what’s up in November receive five stars apiece; the CCA’s highlights for November and December

50 Film & TV: Reviews include The

Irishman, Sorry We Missed You, Succession, and El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie

52 Theatre: Katherina Radeva on Fallen

Fruit, a solo show about her childhood in Communist Bulgaria; Theatre news for November

53 Comedy: In this month’s ICYMI,

Chunks’ Richard Brown watches Ellen DeGeneres' latest stand-up special, Relatable

55 Listings! What’s on for the month PLUS Glasgow’s new venue openings

63 We shine a spotlight on a selection of

Scottish jewellery makers courtesy of Local Heroes



Contents

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Editorial There was an exciting five minute period in mid-September when we thought this editorial would be brought to you by Björk.

Sadly it’s come to absolutely nothing, and could arguably have been caused by some sort of mass hallucination in The Skinny office. It seemed important to share, though, that somewhere in our imaginations there is a copy of The Skinny November issue entirely guest edited by everyone’s favourite Icelander. It probably looks a lot like this edition, just with a different introduction.

As you will see from this month’s real, beautiful, autumnal cover, for November we open with an interview with Free Love aka newly married duo Suzi and Lewis Cook. Their record Luxury Hits was a big... er… hit with The Skinny team – they’ve had a massive year capped off with September’s SAY Award nomination. We drop by their Glasgow flat-slashrecording studio to hear about their focus on community and human connection, and find out how they’re using their SAY shortlist money to further develop their projects.

Next, Music talks to Malcolm Middleton in his Human Don’t Be Angry guise, this month releasing Guitar Variations and dropping more hints of an Arab Strap reunion in the future. The somewhat mysterious Cloth discuss their eponymous debut, launching with a single November date at the CCA. We also have words with reclusive electronic producer and performer Edwin Organ, SKOOP Collective’s co-founder Tzusan, and low-key folk legend and cello phenomenon Sarah McWhinney, aka Swampy Cello, who has spent a lot of time in caves. Björk would definitely have been into her.

Film is having a particularly star-studded month off the back of a summer of film festival globe-trotting. First up, Timothée Chalamet, interviewed upon a private Venetian island reachable only by water taxi, here to discuss his role as Henry V in The King. Next, Adam Driver, discussing his role in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story alongside his propensity to work with the world’s greatest living directors. Both interviews were

conducted by our Film editor, who brought back the surprising news that each star is around his height. Minds were blown.

Art meets Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa whose ten year long project Uganda in Black and White has been exploring the myriad misrepresentations and fantasies that have been projected onto Uganda by colonising influences. She is displaying this fascinating project in Collective Gallery in Edinburgh throughout the month. Artist Basma alSharif introduces her CCA show A Philistine, which undoes political borders in the Middle East, and reimagines possible pasts and futures. As Arika return with another of their intermittent Episodes, we meet the avant garde programmers to find out more about their latest exploration of maths, physics and radical politics.

In Books, André Aciman discusses Find Me, his follow-up to Call Me By Your Name.

It’s Books editor Heather’s last month before she heads off on maternity leave, with cover provided by Intersections’ Katie Goh. By way of a fade in / handover we have a piece on the Scottish BAME Writers’ Network in Intersections, alongside a consideration of the politics behind fire disasters in Scotland and the Amazon and how they are interlinked.

Theatre meets some of the emergent playwrights bringing work to the Traverse stage in the First Stages Festival, and talks to Katherina Radeva about Fallen Fruit, her solo show about her childhood in Communist Bulgaria. Comedy discusses joy with Suzi Ruffell, and gives you a rundown on how to see gigs on a budget. In Clubs we meet duo Giant Swan, and continue to profile some of Scotland’s independent labels with a look at the people behind Glasgow’s Craigie Knowes.

Food takes a cold hard look at sensationalist marketing in the drinks and… washing powder industries before offering a guide to shopping like a Michelin-starred chef in your local area.

Turns out vegetables are key to high level cooking. Björk would have told you this too.

[Rosamund West]

COVER ARTIST Craig McIntosh Craig McIntosh is a photographer from Leith, Edinburgh. He shoots only on film for a multitude of different reasons, but mainly because it helps him focus on the subject without the distractions of constantly checking the results on the back of his camera. He also loves the grainy softness and textures – they feel almost painterly and can’t be replicated by the modern digital camera. i: @craigrmcintosh w: craigrmcintosh.com

Shot of the Month

Skinny Pelembe, Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, 23 Oct by Kate Johnston

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Chat



THE SKINNY

The Skinny on Tour

Fat White Family

Sean McKenna on his new short film Future Perfect In the Julian Barratt-narrated short, a child's drawing goes on a journey through time. We chat to its director as the film screens in Channel 4’s Random Acts strand.

“When I was growing up, Channel 4 used to show a variety of leftfield and experimental work, usually late night, for the post-pub/ insomniac demographic... I feel like Random Acts is a call back to that” Read the interview and watch the film at theskinny. co.uk/film

‘Glasgow is a Shitehole’: the story behind Slime City’s new single The Glasgow art-rock trio's new single will be available for one night only later this month, and solely to people with a Glasgow postcode “We love Glasgow and all of the issues raised aren't irredeemable,” vocalist Michael M says. “This is a positive, optimistic song, wrapped in a humorous veneer of negativity, so it basically is Glasgow... in a three-minute pop tune that Capital Radio won't play.”

Find out more at theskinny.co.uk/music

Bertrand Bonello on Zombi Child The French filmmaker talks zombie movies,

The Skinny’s been on a corking holiday this month. Just up the road from where this picture was taken, there’s apparently a stone you can kiss which will give you the gift of the gab – sounds like a load of Blarney to us. We were hoping to bump into some of the famous sons and daughters of this town – like Cillian Murphy, Graham Norton, Roy Keane or Fiona Shaw – but we had to put a cork in those plans.

There was a bit of a chill coming off the Atlantic Ocean on our visit, but a plate of the local stew and a pint of Guinness fair heated us up.

Can you tell where we visited? To be in with a chance of winning a copy of Oligarchy

by Scarlett Thomas courtesy of our pals at Canongate, head to theskinny.co.uk/competitions and let us know.

Photo: Sarah Piantadosi

Online Only

Competition closes midnight Sun 24 Nov. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Our Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

composing his own scores, and the importance of young people in his movies “My zombie is between life and death.

The idea was to take this very famous image of the zombie and take it back to its origin, and in this way, talk about slavery.”

Make Ecology Sweet Again

Read more at theskinny.co.uk/film

Fat White Family We catch-up with the Peckham seven-piece, ahead of what should be typically riotous gigs in Edinburgh and Glasgow later this month.

Read more at theskinny.co.uk/music

This month’s columnist asks how love and ecology relate to one another

The Skinny Food and Drink Survey We want you – yes, you! – to fill us in on your favourite bars, restaurants, breweries, cafes and shops in our annual Food and Drink Survey.

Words: Maria Sledmere

Cast your votes at theskinny.co.uk/food

‘W

henever I have a day with my love,’ writes Hélène Cixous, ‘I rise in the morning with the day inside me.’ What does it mean to get back the day, when everything screams an ending? Time is running out for the ice, the corals, the trees. Other histories teem with upset. They fill up the day with their daze.

The Skinny on EH-FM Our weekly show on Edinburgh’s own EH-FM continues; we’re on every Monday from 12-2pm, with tunes, guest mixes, takeovers, and that all-important radio #patter.

Head to eh-fm.live

Find more at theskinny.co.uk

Sweet, streaming days. Depression compresses time to immediate futurepasts. I did this, I’ll do that. Why repeat what is doomed to loop? I wake over-sugared, ecstatic in the feed. Denying the day with my love, the love of my day.

The fire is spreading. There is a wild love bright red like a stamp.

By Jock Mooney

When I claim the day, it is not to say this is mine but to say, we are in this. Inside and several. We are ecological by dint of living in multiplicity. When I chew Styrofoam, I abrade my tongue on material fallout, archival snow. Tomorrow is a distance receding; elsewhere a song.

November 2019

face; a sunset. The good parts of a teenage apocalypse; as though in all hormones I streamed data, delicious, beginning.

A tracery of snowdrifts. The trailing cats.

I name them to love them. Pumpkin, Luna, Fuzzy. Adopted life of a proximate being.

Ecology says, every nip and bite is play and joy. We are just tasting, testing.

‘Whenever’ is the conjunction of a day-tocome. Holding the poem like a glowstick.

And yet.

The salt-sweet sea.

Depressive elegia of daylight is always fading. That is its precious, diarised condition.

Love clicks likeable image.

Luna lies on my belly to heal this. To love above all else, just here.

Greta Thunberg: ‘You say that you love your children above everything else. And yet you are stealing their future.’

This is almost embarrassing. Colin Herd: ‘We forgot for a while how to be sweet and funny’.

We are descended from the days; darkening scarlets of shepherd’s delight. Humankind is destructive and yet I can love. To love is to open up, prolong. A handsome, paintable

Press retweet.



You say that you love and you open the day.

Chat

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Heads Up Compiled by: Nadia Younes It’s November; it’s getting really cold; 2019 is nearly over and we’re slowly approaching a new decade, but live in the moment and soak up some #culture

Jasmina Cibic, The Gift, Act II, 2019

Jasmina Cibic: The Pleasure of Expense Cooper Gallery, Dundee, until 14 Dec Since representing her home country of Slovenia at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, Jasmina Cibic has gone on to achieve global success. This exhibition of new works from the awardwinning artist will be accompanied by an event series taking place throughout the month, including a reading group and theatre workshop, exploring contemporary politics and international relations.

POND St Luke's, Glasgow, 3 Nov, 7pm

Cocaine Piss Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, 11 Nov, 7pm

Steve Lambert, Capitalism For Me! True/False

You’d think spending a month performing his show in Monkey Barrel over the Fringe would be enough for John Kearns, but it seems not.

Kearns brings his 2019 Fringe show back to the Barrel once more, as part of a UK tour, where you can expect what we described as “a masterclass in absurdity”.

John Kearns

Arika returns for its tenth episode, A Means Without An End, featuring a programme of readings, screenings, performances and discussions, as well as study sessions and a quiet space. American poet and scholar Fred Moten and filmmaker and performance artist Wu Tsang also collaborate for a sculpture-performance, Gravitational Feel, available to view for the duration of the festival.

Fred Moten & Wu Tsang, Gravitational Feel, as part of If I Can’t Dance’s Finale for Edition VI – Event and Duration (2015–2016), Splendor, Amsterdam



Photo: Florian Braakman; Image courtesy Wu Tsang

Photo: Damian Bennett

Back from his forays into musical theatre and winning multiple awards for co-writing the musical version of Roald Dahl's Matilda, Tim Minchin is returning to the stand-up game after a seven year break with his new show, the aptly-titled Back. He’s sure to have picked up some new tricks to elevate his signature musical comedy to an even greater scale.

Chat

Cocaine Piss

John Kearns: Double Take and Fade Away Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, 12 Nov, 8pm

Arika Tramway, Glasgow, 20-24 Nov

Tim Minchin: Back 2019 Edinburgh Playhouse, 20 Nov, 7.30pm

Tim Minchin

Photo: Bryony Jackson

Don’t be put off by the name! Cocaine Piss are one of the bands at the helm of Belgium’s noise-punk scene and just one listen to them proves why. The Liège-based band can be defined by the unsettling squeals of its frontwoman and thrashing, distorted guitars. Their second album, Passionate and Tragic, came out in April and was recorded with legendary producer Steve Albini.

When Nick Allbrook left Tame Impala in 2013, many fans were saddened by the news. But it’s a good thing he did, because since his departure he has been able to focus his attention on POND, which also features Tame Impala member Jay Watson.

Veering even further into psychedelia, POND’s explorative and exhilarating live show is a wonder to witness.

Photo: Rah Petherbridge

Myriam Lefkowitz, Walk, Hands, Eyes (Hannover), Festival Theaterformen 2017

NEoN Various venues, Dundee, 4-10 Nov Dundee’s digital arts festival, North East of North is always a highlight on the annual Scottish events calendar. The theme of this year’s festival is ‘REACT’, with the works included exploring how artists use digital systems to affect social and political change. If you want to take in the festival’s highlights in one evening, try out the NEoN Walking Tour on 7 November.

Photo: Kate Johnston

POND

Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus

Photo: Filmtank

Basma alSharif, A Philistine, 2019

Coinciding with the Talbot Rice Gallery’s current exhibition, The Extended Mind, Walk, Hands, Eyes sees participants paired up with a guide to take them on an hour-long walk around a city.

The walks are conducted in silence, with the participant asked to keep their eyes closed for the duration and only allowed to engage with their surroundings through the acts of walking, seeing and touching.

Photo: Moritz Kuester

Beginning in present day Lebanon, Basma alSharif’s novella A Philistine sees the central character travel backwards through history, exploring 1935 Palestine and going as far back as New Kingdom Egypt in the 11th century B.C.E. This exhibition centres around the novella and is recreated as a series of monochrome negative prints, photographs, banners, film work and more.

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The Gospel According To Jesus, Queen of Heaven

Myriam Lefkowitz: Walk, Hands, Eyes Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, 2 Nov1 Feb 2020

Photo: Basma alSharif

Basma alSharif: A Philistine CCA, Glasgow, 1 Nov-15 Dec

It’s been ten years since this iconic production premiered at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre, and to celebrate the anniversary it will return to where it all began with a special run of performances. Each showing will be followed by a postshow discussion, while you will also have an opportunity to catch the Brazilian production, with English subtitles, on 30 October.

Photo: Aly Wight

The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven Tron Theatre, Glasgow, 30 Oct-2 Nov, 7.45pm

Fokus: Films From Germany Various venues across Scotland, 21 Nov 19-31 Jan 20 In its fifth year, Fokus acknowledges two significant anniversaries in German history. Opening film Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus celebrates the founding of the Bauhaus School in 1919, while two films by two Andreas’s reflect on 30 years of the Fall of the Wall – Andreas Dresen’s Gundermann and Andreas Goldstein’s Adam and Evelyn.

THE SKINNY

St. Andrews Street Party!

St Andrews Street, Glasgow, 7 Nov, 6pm

Organised and moderated

by Dr Athina Frantzana and her spreadtheword_project, this book club intends to break down gender barriers in male-dominated STEM environments through the discussion of books related to women in STEM. The book being discussed this month will be Claire L. Evans’ Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet.

To celebrate the launch of new non-profit art gallery and project space Lunchtime, the team will join forces with five other new spaces housing creative businesses, nonprofits and galleries on St Andrews Street to throw a street party. Pavilion Pavilion, Projects OPEN, Squid Ink Co. and many more will all open late for the night, with drinks also being served.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

French Film Festival Various venues across Scotland, until 19 Dec

Lunchtime Gallery, Good Press and Sunday's

Dr Athina Frantzana

Resonate BAaD, Glasgow, 14 Nov, 9am

Helena Hauff

Resonate

Suzi Ruffell: Dance Like Everyone's Watching Glee Club, Glasgow, 17 Nov, 6.45pm

It’s only natural that Edinburgh’s Radical Bookshop would bring us Edinburgh’s Radical Book Fair. Lighthouse Bookshop set up in Assembly Roxy for a weekend focusing on radical hope and building a better future. The Fair will include over 50 stalls and a range of events, with speakers including Sara Sheridan, Priyamvada Gopal and Richard Seymour.

Sara Sheridan

Photo: Bethany Grace

Looking to learn more about the inner workings of the music industry? Look no further than Resonate, a day-long programme of events featuring an array of music industry professionals taking part in panel discussions, workshops, drop-ins and a technology hub. Whether it’s music distribution, media or PR you’re interested in, there’s something to suit any keen music fan.

Photo: Jake Gordon

Edinburgh's Radical Book Fair Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh, 14-17 Nov

The French Film Festival doesn’t discriminate, travelling as far north as Shetland with a selection of films to please any Franco-cinephile. Yes, only a select few make it that far but at least it’s something. The latest from Girlhood director Céline Sciamma, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, is among the highlights on this year’s programme.

An exploration of happiness is not normally what you’d expect from a stand-up show, but that’s exactly what Suzi Ruffell details in her latest show. Finally in a place of contentment, Ruffell disproves the myth that to be funny you have to be self-deprecating and miserable, and received rave reviews for it when she performed the show at this year’s Fringe.

Suzi Ruffell

Björk SSE Hydro, Glasgow, 25 Nov, 6.30pm

Shortly after the release of her fourth album as Bat For Lashes, Natasha Khan decided to relocate from London to LA to focus on scriptwriting. But, luckily for us, she decided she wasn’t quite done with music just yet and returned earlier this year with her latest album, Lost Girls, influenced by her love of 80s cinema.

The possibility of an outdoor festival can be too big a risk to take at this time of year given Scotland’s unreliable weather, but we’re fortunate to have indoor options instead. The latest alldayer on the scene is run by 432 Presents and takes place at venues across Glasgow’s West End, with live performances from the likes of Songhoy Blues, Sacred Paws and Free Love.

No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, Björk really is coming to Glasgow this month. And, what’s more, it’s with her immersive theatre production, Cornucopia. Directed

by Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel and featuring costumes by Olivier Rousteing and Iris van Herpen, the visual epic is designed around music from Björk’s 2017 self-proclaimed “Tinder album”, Utopia.

Bat For Lashes

November 2019

Sacred Paws



Photo: Derek Robertson

The Great Western Festival Various venues, Glasgow, 23 Nov, 2pm

Photo: Logan White

Bat for Lashes The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 23 Nov, 7pm

Björk

Chat

Photo: Jiksaw

Women In STEM Book Club Lighthouse Books, Edinburgh, 4 Nov, 7pm

The fifth edition of Cryptic’s festival of sound art will see artists from all over the world present works and participate in a series of talks and workshops at venues across Glasgow.

Programme highlights include the premieres of Ela Orleans’ new work, Night Voyager, and a Cryptic Commission from Heather Lander and Alex Smoke, Primordial Waters.

Photo: Caitlin King

The Skinny Pub Quiz

Credit: Terri Po

Sonica Various venues, Glasgow, 31 Oct-10 Nov

Soma Records’ annual Halloween edition of Maximum Pressure sees three titans of techno – Karenn, Helena Hauff and Paula Temple – headline alongside Soma bosses Slam, with local legends Jasper James and Craigie Knowes also on the bill. The duo comprised of Blawan and Pariah, Karenn are also due to release their debut album this month, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Credit: Katja Ruge

Night Voyager

Maximum Pressure Halloween SWG3, Glasgow, 1 Nov, 8pm

Photo: Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones

Since UK politics has gone as Thick of It as it possibly can, Halloween this year also lands on the same day Brexit is due to happen – you just can’t make this stuff up. But to avoid all that, we’re throwing a pub quiz, which is not in a pub and doesn’t relate to Brexit or Halloween at all, so gather a team of up to five and join us.

Credit: Ela Orleans and NASA Archive

The Skinny Pub Quiz Summerhall, Edinburgh, 31 Oct, 7pm

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The Power of

FREE LOVE Following their latest in a series of nominations for Scottish Album of the Year for 2018’s Luxury Hits, we meet Free Love at their flat and part-time studio in Glasgow at the tail end of their biggest year as a band to date Interview: Nadia Younes Photos: Craig McIntosh

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Feature

Music

THE SKINNY

“ We make music because we enjoy recording together, we enjoy sharing with people and we love the connection” Suzi Cook

F

ree Love radiate energy. Whether through their ferociously inventive music or exhilarating live shows, the duo of Suzi and Lewis Cook are masters of stirring up emotion.

But, unlike the wild, chaotic and wonderfully unhinged energy seen in their live shows, their home life feels remarkably serene.

When we meet at the newly-married couple’s Glasgow flat, they’re in the middle of attempting to solve a dispute with an airline over some damaged equipment after returning from a gig in Europe. It all sounds very normal and mundane, and a far cry from the otherworldly sounds they produce together as Free Love.

Their flat doubles up as a part-time studio, with the pair splitting their time between it and a more professional studio space in Possilpark.

It smells of burning incense, there are plants everywhere and low ambient music plays in the background throughout the duration of our conversation. It’s almost exactly as you would expect from the pair who, in their previous Happy Meals guise, once released an album called Full Ashram Devotional Ceremony.

The signs of a makeshift studio are evident. In the living room there are four poles built in from floor to ceiling which they say they use to hold keyboards, a trick picked up from IKEA Hackers – a website which collates all the various IKEA hacks in one place. It’s the same website that taught many vinyl fans how to turn those IKEA KALLAX, fka EXPEDIT, bookshelves into ideal record storage units.

Suzi and Lewis have known each other since high school, but it wasn’t until they both took part in a Green Door Studio course that they decided to make their personal partnership a musical one too. While Lewis had previously recorded in the studio with other projects, including his former band The Cosmic Dead, taking part in the studio’s NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) Course was Suzi’s first musical foray, and where they formed Happy Meals. “Without that support, our band wouldn’t exist,” says Lewis.

“That creative energy, that spark with all these different workshops, all these different things

November 2019

happening just multiplied... It was this catalyst for so many things to come out of.”

The culmination was a release on Glasgow-based label Akashic Records – run by Golden Teacher’s Oliver Pitt – on which Suzi sings on a cover of Devo’s Jocko Homo. “That course and doing that track allowed me to go ‘singing isn’t about sounding good, it’s about how you sound in the moment’,” says Suzi. “So it wasn’t just about [how] I wouldn’t have been able to afford to go and record in a recording studio or whatever, but it was also about [how] I wouldn’t have had the chance to have found that possibility, enjoying using my voice.”

Following two releases as Happy Meals on Night School Records – Apéro and Fruit Juice – and another on Optimo Music – Full Ashram Devotional Ceremony (Volumes IV-VI) – they decided it was time for a change and, ahead of releasing 2018’s Luxury Hits on their own Full Ashram label, reinvented themselves as Free Love. Since then, they’ve fully embraced the connotations of their new name, and have even introduced a new aspect to their live gigs.

At recent shows, the duo have been joined onstage by their self-dubbed NRG vessels, selected through an open call on social media and on a show by show basis. The call-out on social media reads: “Become a

conduit of lucid vibration. Body paint. Bear the flag of full nrgetic symbiosis. Absolute ego dissolution. Free backstage WiFi (subject to availability).” The vessels appear dressed in white robes, flower crowns on their heads and holding floral bouquets, which Suzi often proceeds to rip up, spit out and scatter across the audience during shows; it’s the kind of brilliant madness many have come to expect and embrace wholeheartedly from Free Love.

At the time of our meeting, however, the pair are enjoying some downtime ahead of a busy couple of months of touring around the UK and Europe, playing headline shows and festivals, to close out the year. The time off has allowed them to plan their honeymoon and put the pieces together on a work-in-progress project they have planned for the new year. All of which plays into their cunning plan to escape the cold Scottish winter and flee to a more tropical climate.

Using the money awarded to them from their recent SAY Award nomination – each shortlisted artist receives £1000 – for 2018’s Luxury Hits, the upcoming project was designed around an idea to put the money to further creative use. “It kind of got us thinking,” says Lewis, “an award thing like that, there’s lots of conversations to be had about lots of

Music

SHAPING FREE LOVE Samuel Smith, co-founder of The Green Door Studio, Glasgow: “Lewis and Suzi took part in one of the courses that was funded by Creative Scotland as part of the Youth Music Initiative... Happy Meals (now Free Love) formed during that process. The courses are designed not necessarily to train sound engineers per se, but to give young people the confidence and language to communicate their ideas in a recording environment and a chance to try things out, experiment etc without the financial pressures were they just to hire recording time.”

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“ When I think about what actually keeps us doing this, it’s not the money, it’s these sort of experiences” Lewis Cook

Michael Kasparis, founder of Night School Records: “In 2014 I was getting reacquainted with a Glasgow that had changed in my ten years living elsewhere. The most exciting thing I’d heard was the first recordings

by Lewis Cook and Suzi Rodden, then called Happy Meals. The first gig I put them on was mesmerising and awkward, rough around the edges but joyful and special... Apéro – their first album – was just fully formed, in my mind a perfect world that invited you in and made you feel good. Fruit Juice, the second release, was more ad hoc. One of the joys of doing Night School is the fact that I get to rediscover my love of music and people constantly. You meet people who inspire you and you want to help any way you can. Your cynicism erodes for a while and everything seems possible. Lewis and Suzi are the perfect example of that.”

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artists who don’t really get a look in for various different reasons, but also there’s a lot of positivity about it.” Suzi interjects: “There’s a lot to celebrate.”

For the project, the pair essentially intend to create their own version of Shangri-La, hiring out a villa in Europe and inviting various Scottish artists to join them, where they’ll be able to contribute and collaborate over a number of weeks. They also intend for the project to remain as environmentally-friendly as possible, selecting a location that’s easily accessible via land transport. “We just thought it would be a really nice continuation of that sort of celebration of the spectrum of Scottish music that’s happening at the moment… celebrating Scotland but also escaping it,” Suzi says, laughing.

It all ties in to Free Love’s focus on community and human connection. Since their formation, even in their days as Happy Meals, at the core of the band was this emphasis on world-building, and building a world around them that’s inclusive, positive

and collaborative. “When you go back to the roots of why we do what we do, or why a lot of people make music, it’s that sort of connection with other people and it’s the very human joy in making music with people,” says Suzi.

Lewis adds: “And things like, when you have certain successes, you look at a statistic or an algorithm or an amount of money, it’s always like, that’s great, but it feels abstracted from the experience of music… when I think about what actually keeps us doing this, it’s not the money, it’s these sort of experiences.”

As the buzz around the band started to grow, so too did the attention from record labels. The push and pull nature of these types of conversations is something the duo have had to combat as they have started to achieve greater success. But the process is not one they found particularly enjoyable or rewarding. “We spent the last couple of years just learning, and learning about a side of the music world that we were exposed to that we hadn’t ever really been exposed to before,” says Lewis. “Suddenly, you’re kind of talking to people who have got a lot of money and are working in a completely different world, and you start to realise that it is a different world and the rules are different as well.” Suzi adds: “It was a big part of the reason that we decided to self-release Luxury Hits.

“We make music because we enjoy recording together, we enjoy sharing with people and we love the connection… so when we were sitting with Luxury Hits, the obvious thing for us to do was just do that, just go back to the point that you’re wanting to get to.” She continues: “That’s been the journey we’ve been on over the last few months, I think. Going back to finding joy in all of this, because it’s such a privileged position to be in to be able to connect with the people, and to go and play shows that we come away from just feeling high because of the energy that we’re surrounded with.”

For their latest release, though, they decided to return to a previous supporter of theirs, Optimo Music. Extreme Dance Anthems was released on the label run by Optimo’s Keith McIvor, aka JD Twitch, in September, and was announced with the release of lead single Bones. For anyone who fell in love with Free Love through the 80s-influenced pop gems on Luxury Hits, Bones was a step in a whole other

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Keith McIvor, founder of Optimo Music: “I was already a Happy Meals fan when I came across a recording they put online of a set they had especially put together when they supported ambient guru Laraaji. I got in touch with them and asked if I could release it and they ended up completely reconstructing it into what became the Full Ashram Devotional Ceremony album. They then changed their name to Free Love and sent me Extreme Dance Anthems and asked if I would be interested in releasing it. I was smitten by the record and promptly agreed. I love everything about Free Love: their music, their vision, their attitude, them as people and how easy and inspiring they are to work with. I’d also like to add that even if I had zero involvement in this release I’d still think the video for Bones was the best video of 2019.” musical direction, but this is just one of the things that makes them so exciting.

“When we’re recording – as much as we travel – we do it in a very unharnessed, unleashed way, where we sort of let things arrive as they arrive I guess,” says Suzi. Lewis adds: “I think, for us, with [Extreme Dance Anthems], we’d made a pop record, or mostly pop songs… but also we were making this other stuff, and it was like do we just not do anything with this because we made a pop record before?”

Suzi offers an interesting analogy for the band’s unrestricted and free flowing approach to making music. “It’s almost like a marbling kind of effect,” she says, “like the more that you put down the more it kind of shifts everything else so it all kind of fits together, but it’s pushing it and warping it at the same time.” It’s an analogy that feels fitting for Free Love in so many ways: the blend of sounds and influences, the constant shape-shifting, the ability to find something new every time, but all the different shapes and patterns coming together to create something utterly mesmerising.

Free Love play The Great Western Festival, Glasgow, 23 Nov; Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, 7 Dec freelovenrg.com

THE SKINNY

November 2019

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THE SKINNY

Not Silent But Deadly We talk to Malcolm Middleton about Guitar Variations, his latest album as Human Don’t Be Angry, and get some hints of potential Arab Strap news for 2020

Interview: Lewis Wade

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November 2019

The vocals are especially surprising when listening to the song while watching its video, a collage of found footage from the 90s, mostly calming landscapes overlaid with old performance clips. Three of the album’s nine songs have videos, made by Middleton himself, something he sheepishly owns up to. “I don’t know if you can tell, but I’ve never made a video before,” he laughs. “They’re pretty basic.

I’ve got a hard drive full of mobile phone footage, like old Nokia stuff from tours over the years, really bad quality, Lego-style, blocky pixels. I quite enjoyed getting it all together and if you watch the video it changes the song.” The beautifully relaxing opening track, You’ll Find the Right Note (Eventually), is combined with a quiet beach scene that runs in reverse. “I really like the way it goes to the music, I could watch it all day,” says Middleton.

“Not everyone likes it, Verena [his wife] says it’s boring, but I like it.”

“ Sometimes you need to have that little line: ‘No more of this; I’m sick of it, I’m gonna do this’” Photo: Caroline Trotter

alcolm Middleton first found fame in the mid-90s as one half of Arab Strap.

Middleton and Aidan Moffat split in 2006 after a decade of stellar releases and Middleton focused on the solo career he’d begun with 2002’s hushed, stark 5:14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nicotine. This musical iteration had seemingly run its course by the time of 2009’s Waxing Gibbous. It was at this point that Human Don’t Be Angry (HDBA) was born, Middleton taking the moniker from a translation of the German name for the classic board game Frustration – Mensch ärgere Dich nicht.

“I used to play it a lot in the 80s,” Middleton remembers, “and I was just looking for a band name that’s as daft as anything else.” There’s a loose, unpretentious freedom that runs through the whole HDBA oeuvre, perfectly captured on the new, third album, Guitar Variations. “I’m excited – I’m self-releasing it – there’s no bother or anxiety. It’s a laid-back record, there’s nothing too heavy on it, it’s quite ambient and fiddly... not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like it.”

While his solo output contains deeply introspective and personal lyrics, HDBA is a mostly instrumental project. “The first album had three songs with vocals, the second had two, and now this one’s only got one,” he says.

“Hopefully the next will be entirely instrumental. The ‘songwriting’ songs tend to get written over a period of months, or even years; about half the stuff [on the new one] was written off the cuff, just playing some guitar and making it up as you go along. It’s quite different to trying to write words, trying to get feelings down, some soul-rich words, which is why I like it – I don’t have to worry about people hearing what I’m thinking.”

Although he has since gone back to making music under his own name, HDBA provides Middleton with the sort of enjoyment that comes with deviating from established patterns and being able to embrace what you simply feel like doing. “[By 2009] I’d done three albums back-to-back, A Brighter Beat, Sleight of Heart and Waxing Gibbous... I was just sick of it and bored of that kind of thing.”

In 2008, Middleton told The Skinny, “I’m starting to feel like I’ve done as much as I can with this creative voice.” Looking back, “it seems stupid, I wish I’d never said that at the time,” he tells us. “[But] sometimes you need to have that little line: ‘No more of this; I’m sick of it, I’m gonna do this’. It made HDBA more fun, a little freer... and it was seven years before my next solo record so I did kind of stop.”

In turn, the break also brought new clarity and focus to his lyrical work when it was revisited, as well as helping to remove some of the worry that comes with expectations. “[The stylistic change] ties in with Bananas from last year,” Middleton says of his most recent album under his own name. “I was having trouble writing a new record because, well, the reason I stopped writing ten years ago was because I was sick of the caricature you make for yourself, you’re sort of tied in by your own lyrics and what people say about you, and this whole ‘miserabilist’, depressing thing. So when I was

writing Bananas I was trying not to write anything like that.

“Then one day I just gave up trying and started writing how I was feeling – you have to try and write imagining that noone else is gonna hear. I was trying to be quite honest, then realising a lot of my honesty was really depressing, but that’s how I was feeling, so I’ve needed the strength to say ‘Fuck it, y’know what, who cares if it’s called ‘miserablist’, or everyone says it’s depressing, it’s exactly the kind of thing I want to write’. So Bananas is coming back round to embracing stuff that I’d been feeling quite negative about. It’s what I’m good at, better that than trying to write happy songs anyway.”

And so, in opposition to that process, Guitar Variations avoids any deep meditations and instead focuses on the self-described ‘deadlier side of guitar playing’. “What did I mean by that? I wrote it and it sounded good,” he says. “It’s probably because it’s not deadly guitar playing... it’s not exactly Joe Satriani. It ties in with – should I say this? – well, the album was nearly called Guitarrarism [sic]. I think I thought that was funny, but I took it out, I wanted something a bit blander. The LP packaging is really basic, I wanted it to be

minimal, so I wrote that line when I had a different title.”

Elsewhere, the description advises listening on headphones during horizontal, heavy rain (or ‘anything/anywhere’ if that isn’t available), hinting at an ideal ingestion environment, but also acknowledging the precious ridiculousness of that type of suggestion. This duality is the very cornerstone of an unlikely source of inspiration; “two or three of the album titles are from – and this wasn’t supposed to be wanky – but I read Catcher in the Rye last year, and if I see a thing that I think would work well as a title, I just write it down.”

One of the titles is Bum a Ride, a track that contains something of a callback. “There’s a song on the first album, H.D.B.A. Theme, that says ‘Human don’t be angry’ with the same computer-generated voice [as the repeating ‘Bum a ride’], so I thought it’d be nice to have a link back to that.” Come On Over To My Place, the album’s only real lyrical song, “has been kicking about for years, and it’s not heavy lyrics; it’s quite open. I actually thought the melody was better without the words anyway, so I almost didn’t include them... but it helps anchor the album a wee bit with my other work.”

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Malcolm Middleton

After a bit of time in Europe, Middleton is performing at The Great Western Festival in Glasgow (23 Nov), performing non-HDBA material. “I had the tour booked ages ago, and everything I’m doing live just now is solo. Someone pointed out it’s quite confusing [having just released an HDBA album], and it is.” Later that day, however, he’s heading over to Edinburgh as part of The Dissection – a series of discussions on classic Scottish albums – to chat shit about Arab Strap’s fantastic Philophobia. “As far as I’m aware it’s gonna be me and Aidan [Moffat] sitting on stage looking stupid, being interviewed about the record, talking about the writing and recording process, that I’m sure neither of us can remember. We’ll talk about it then do some acoustic songs.”

There has been some speculation about new Arab Strap since their reformation in 2016, though there’s been no news/shows since 2017. “We haven’t split up since then so... and there might be stuff happening next year... it’ll all become clear, I think.” So, take your pick of Middleton-related music and watch this space.

Guitar Variations is released on 1 Nov via Around7Corners Records Malcolm Middleton performs at The Great Western Festival, Glasgow, 23 Nov; discusses Arab Strap’s Philophobia at Summerhall, Edinburgh, 23 Nov malcolmmiddleton.com

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Happy Accidents Twins and close collaborators Rachael and Paul Swinton discuss the stark, elegant and haunting debut record from their band, Cloth

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here’s a compelling sense of mystery surrounding Cloth at the moment. Most bands with a debut record on the horizon are likely to be found touring and tweeting relentlessly. The Glasgow three-piece, on the other hand, only have a single show planned to celebrate the launch of their self-titled debut album, having recently returned from a short jaunt around the country supporting Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert.

After uploading their music to YouTube in April 2018, Cloth quickly learned to let their songs speak for themselves. Last Night from Glasgow, home to the likes of Annie Booth and L-space, signed them within a fortnight, and generous support from the likes of Vic Galloway, LP Radio’s Lorenzo Pacitti and 6 Music’s Tom Robinson swiftly followed the release of their debut single.

“Last Night from Glasgow have opened a lot of doors for us,” Paul Swinton begins, speaking in the living room of the label’s founder Ian Smith, who has left his famously enthusiastic dog Bennett to supervise our conversation.

“Lots of people championed and stuck with us.

We’ve been very lucky.”

“ We’ve had to come to terms with there being a rougher element to playing live”

Interview: Fraser MacIntyre

irreplicable magic of bedroom recordings, hence the title of one of the first songs they wrote, Demo Love. “The opening song on the record is an iPhone recording,” Paul begins, referring to Other. “It was really distorted originally, and came out very different when we reversed it. We try and utilise as many of those happy accidents as possible. I’d like to experiment even more going forward, with found sounds and anything that’s slightly different from bashing a chord out on the guitar.”

Ironically, Demo Love is one of the most straightforward songs on a record that, despite being recorded at Glasgow’s illustrious Chem19 Recording Studio (where classic records from the likes of Songs: Ohia, Emma Pollock and Life Without Buildings have all been cut) with in-house engineer Derek O’Neill, still has a few phone recordings present. “The first track is just pure iPhone,” laughs Paul, who has yet to receive a sponsorship deal from Apple.

“Demo Love is the one song that has full-on trashy chords in it,” he continues. “We were listening to Sleater-Kinney and other bands that had this intricate dual guitar thing going on. We knew we wanted it to just be guitars and drums.”

After writing Demo Love, the two, alongside drummer Clare Gallacher (who they met years prior, studying music performance at Stow College) decided to strip things back more, continuing to write in Rachael’s bedroom. In lieu of a bassist, Gallacher “plays the drums and triggers bass noises on her sample pad.”

The contrast between their intensive

recording process and the sometimes thrillingly, sometimes disarmingly unpredictable elements of live performance required a little adjustment for Paul and Rachael, both having become accustomed to spending hours ensuring that parts of the record, “pretty much unnoticeable” to anyone but themselves, were flawless. “We spent a lot of time mixing and got three extensions from Ian,” Rachael explains. “For us to get things to the standard we want them to be at we need full, back-to-back days.”

“Towards the end was mega intense,” Paul nods. To ensure they had the record finished in time for a 2019 release, “the last session was 21 hours straight.”

Around this time, Paul noticed Chem19 regular Aidan Moffat (Philophobia and Everything’s Getting Older, two cornerstones of his formidable discography, were both recorded at the studio) in the crowd during one of their gigs. Moffat, after a short exchange on Twitter, extended an invitation for the three to open for himself and notorious flamencowizard RM Hubbert on the duo’s short farewell tour around the country. “We’d been fans for ages,” Paul enthuses. “It was a really lovely thing, those shows with Aidan and Hubby.”

A few songs from the record received their first airing during that particular voyage.

“Everything feels quite meticulous when you’re in the studio,” Rachael laughs. “It’s kind of hard to get out of that mindset (this doesn’t sound like the record: ergo, it’s rubbish) when you’re playing live.”

“That was a different planet we were on, making that thing,” her brother agrees. “We’ve

had to come to terms with there being a rougher element to playing live. We’ve got a lot of rehearsals planned before the launch show to get everything sounding the way we want it to.”

While Rachael’s elegant and quietly captivating vocal is what those who tuned into the band’s recent Maida Vale session will be best acquainted with, the majority of the lyrics on the record were penned by Paul, who found himself “honing in on relationships with friends and people I know that I think are special people, that have pretty unique outlooks on life, or a trait I really admire and would like to have.”

The second track on the record, Felt – a hypnotic, slow-burner elevated by sharp, shimmering, jittery guitars – was written in response to the twins “hopefully not unhealthy co-dependency.” Paul elaborates: “Rachael and I write everything together. I can find it difficult to work by myself. I like being able to write something people can relate to, and a friend who is a filmmaker already has.”

London noise-pop outfit Chorusgirl and LNFG labelmates Lemon Drink are set to join Cloth at Glasgow’s CCA on 15 November, to celebrate the launch of the Swinton twins and Gallacher’s labour of love. A sublimely crafted, low-key pop gem like Old Bear sits perfectly next to brooding and breathtaking new offering Curiosity Door on Cloth’s highly anticipated self-titled debut: an emotive, beautifully textured offering that rewards close scrutiny.

Cloth is released on 15 Nov via Last Night from Glasgow Cloth play CCA, Glasgow, 15 Nov facebook.com/clothband

Paul Swinton

Photo: Erin Mackenzie

Cloth’s sound is defined by the close collaboration between Paul and his twin Rachael Swinton (vocals), who traces the roots of their approach to songwriting back to a Christmas present she was given by their parents as a ten-year-old: a BOSS 4-track recorder. “For a while it was just me,” she says, “building up harmonies, and then we ended up with so many different 30 second clips on iTunes. A lot of them were just humorous things… power ballad experiments.”

From this experimentation, the two gained an appreciation for “original takes” and the

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THE SKINNY

November 2019

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New King in Town Timothée Chalamet, the 23-year-old New Yorker who made a splash with Call Me by Your Name, is very much in demand. We speak to him about his title role as Henry V in The King

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n a small private island in the lagoon of the world’s most beautiful city, the world’s most in-demand young actor, Timothée Chalamet, is surprisingly chill considering that the previous evening he was on the receiving end of the kind of hysterical adulation usually reserved for à la mode boy bands and royal weddings. Every time there’s a red carpet screening of a new Chalamet movie, screaming fans – let’s call them the Chalamaniacs – assemble en masse to catch a live glimpse of the young actor’s porcelain features and the dandyish designer apparel he’s draped in.

In this case, it was the Venice Film Festival world premiere of The King, a brooding, deeply satisfying adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV (parts I and II) and Henry V, in which Chalamet plays Prince Hal, the disinclined heir to Henry IV’s throne. The eye-catching outfit he wore on the night, incidentally, was a Bowie-esque silver suit by designer Haider Ackermann. Hal spends the first half of the picture as a tousledhaired lush, living it up with best friend and fallen knight John Falstaff (Joel Edgerton) in Eastcheap. In the second half, after the death of his warmongering father (Ben Mendelsohn), Hal’s rockstar hair is shorn into an indie-boy bowl-cut, as he reluctantly takes up the mantle of king.

This 23-year-old actor must surely identify with Hal’s change in lifestyle. In a few short years, Chalamet has skyrocketed from promising young talent (he had supporting roles in Interstellar and TV show Homeland, and a starring role in the excellent but little-seen indie Miss Stevens) to the leadingman everyone seems to be after. His vibrant, heartbreaking performance in 2017’s Call Me

by Your Name was the turning point. In that rapturous coming-of-age romance, he played Elio, a precocious 17-year-old who falls for Oliver (Armie Hammer), an older PhD student who’s come to live and work at his family’s idyllic Italian villa for the summer. Since then, there’s been an Oscar nomination for that role, he’s played a cocky douchebag in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, and given a soulful performance in the awful Beautiful Boy (a true sign of talent).

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It seems that Chalamet is so in demand, in fact, that he hasn’t quite noticed what a big deal he is. “The truth is, for about 22 months I’ve been working solidly on different projects,” he tells us. “I did the King and I did Little Women [reuniting with Lady Bird’s director, Greta Gerwig, and its star, Saoirse Ronan]. I did a Wes Anderson project after that [The French Dispatch, due out next year]; and then I just did Dune for six months. So in the most grateful way, I’ve been able to do what I love and I haven’t really had time to stop and think about it. And I think that’s probably good anyway. In this day and age, there’s a lot of pressure to know yourself. I grew up with the beginnings of social media – and that’s an easy way to talk about it, so I don’t want to put it purely in that context – but, you know, we don’t have to know ourselves.” He smiles and shrugs. “I don’t know if that answers your question in any way.”

Not really. He can’t have missed the hysteria at last night’s premiere? Surely that forces him to consider his own fame and stardom? “Yes and no,” he says. “I mean, the feeling of something like last night, it’s just gratitude that people – and especially young people – care about movie making and a movie making that doesn’t function as clickbait, but you know, that’s aspirational in some way. And secondarily, a night like last night is rare; it was a lot of fun, but it also isn’t something that happens every night.”

Is this young New Yorker being modest, disingenuous or is he simply oblivious to the megastar he’s become in the last couple of years? David Michôd, The King’s director, is under no illusions to his lead’s star-power.

“Last night it felt like, ‘Holy crap! This kid is a full-blown movie star’,” says the 46-year-old Australian. “And I haven’t seen an American movie star that exciting in quite a while, you know? And I’m like, ‘Wow!’ I’m here. I’m standing next to him while this is happening. How extraordinary. What happens to the movie is completely out of my control.”

Chalamet clearly feels more comfortable talking about his craft than his fame. He got the itch to act while attending New York’s LaGuardia High School – famed for being the inspiration for Fame. His classmates included Lourdes

Leon (Madonna’s daughter) and Ansel Elgort. “I had kind of grown up around show business but when I got to that drama high school and it became about plays, and it became about the repetition technique and locking eyes with someone and freeing yourself up as a human, that was particularly formative.” The way that Chalamet talks about acting, it might not just be that he likes performing, it’s more like he needs it. “When I left high school I had an agent and I was still auditioning, but I didn’t have that three to four hours curriculum every day. I saw where the therapy had been lost and I missed that outlet for this energy that I have.”

This need to act might explain Chalamet’s work ethic, but it’s not as if he’s taking any old role. Just look at the directors he’s working with on his next few movies. “I guess the lesson I learned early, not even really an experience, but looking at the actors’ careers that I like, is that it is up to the director at the end of the day and you want to work with great directors.”

What will be interesting is watching Chalamet transition to bigger projects. He was one of the many young actors who tried out for Spider-Man and missed out to British actor Tom Holland. “I read twice and I left sweating in a total panic,” Chalamet told the Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “I called my agent and I said, ‘I thought about this a lot and I have to go back and knock on that door and read again’.” Even today, sitting in Venice in the glow of a massive premiere, we sense that same desperation to succeed. “I just want to work on anything good,” says Chalamet. “It so happened that David Michôd and this project and the opportunity to work with Joel came along, and just the challenge of this character and the period and the material, it was something I really wanted to do.”

The challenges were plenty. For one, Chalamet’s slight frame doesn’t exactly scream warrior king. “I did put on about 15 pounds,” Chalamet notes, perhaps a little perturbed at the suggestion he isn’t your typical action hero, before admitting, “but yes, if David wanted the warrior king he could have easily cast 100 other people who would have been more that vibe. I think what I liked and felt closer to a truth in some way was that the act of entering the battle is the challenge for Hal.

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Interview: Jamie Dunn

It’s not that he goes in there and he’s en garde and, you know, rattles off a lightsaber sequence. In fact, we had fight rehearsals for a month, and when David saw it, he said, ‘No, this is no good. This is not supposed to be sharp choreographed movements. I want this to be messy’. So it’s less about how Hal kicks ass on the battlefield, and more about how he barely survives.”

“ If David wanted the warrior king he could have easily cast 100 other people who would have been more that vibe” Timothée Chalamet

We’ll be seeing Chalamet play royalty again very soon, as the superhuman Paul Atreides, heir of House Atreides, in Denis Villeneuve’s hugely anticipated adaptation of sci-fi classic Dune. “I wanted to work with Denis Villeneuve very, very badly and wanted to be in a movie of that size, but one with real merit too,” he says.

“You know, Frank Herbert’s novel, it has a real place in the canon of sci-fi. You could make the argument that almost every sci-fi film and even the video games that we have, they have a lineage to Dune. But like I said, I hope I’m lucky to keep working, and that could be a play Off-Broadway in New York or a musical or a TV show and a mini-series or movies.”

We get the sense this talented young actor will be in demand on the big screen for a while yet.

The King is released in selected cinemas now and on Netflix on 1 Nov

THE SKINNY

The Wedding Singer Ahead of bringing the new generation of Star Wars to a close, Adam Driver talks to us about his funny and tender performance in Noah Baumbach’s bittersweet melodrama Marriage Story

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dam Driver is basically the man right now. We’re speaking to the 35-year-old actor at the London Film Festival, where he has two films in the programme: Scott Z. Burns’ The Report and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. Both performances have been widely acclaimed and are sure to bag him a second Oscar nomination (following his Best Supporting Actor nod for BlacKkKlansman last year). And in a few months time he’ll help bring the curtain down on a new Star Wars trilogy, where he plays fallen Jedi knight Kylo Ren, who so far in the series has killed his father (Han Solo), fought his uncle (Luke Skywalker) and usurped his master (Supreme Leader Snoke); talk about issues with authority figures.

Driver’s first feature film performance was for Clint Eastwood in 2011’s J Edgar. Since then he’s been bagging roles with legendary filmmakers like he’s playing some sort of auteur Pokémon GO. In the eight years since that debut he’s worked with Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), the Coen brothers (Inside Llewyn Davis), Martin Scorsese (Silence), Steven Soderbergh (Logan Lucky), Jim Jarmusch (Paterson and The Dead Don’t Die) and Spike Lee on BlacKkKlansman – more plum roles than an actor might hope for in a lifetime. And that’s not even to mention his breakout performance as Adam Sackler, the hipsterweirdo boyfriend of Lena Dunham’s Hannah Horvath in HBO’s landmark show Girls.

“I always wanted to work with great directors,” Driver tells us when we sit down to chat in a boujee hotel just off Picadilly Circus.

“It’s a director’s medium, so it seems to make sense to work with the people you admire and who are making interesting movies.” That’s easier said than done, though. “I can want that all I want, of course. A lot of actors want that.

But I was lucky in the timing and being available when those people were doing things. I auditioned for a lot of movies by people I wanted to work for and it just happened to work out, so often it was luck – I would be doing a huge disservice if I didn’t say that was a huge part of it.”

Driver can call it luck all he wants, but it’s clear he offers his directors something the other actors of his generation can’t quite

deliver. He’s as enigmatic as Ryan Gosling, yet with Driver you sense there’s something going on behind the eyes. When the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal or Paul Dano do their crazy guy routine, it feels like pantomime; Driver’s wildness feels real and dangerous. And he’s an intimidating presence, the proverbial brick shit house. He could take any one of Hollywood’s hunky Chrises. Does the fact he keeps being cast by these genius filmmakers give him confidence in his performances at least?

“No,” he says without missing a beat. “I don’t look at it as like, ‘Oh, because I’ve worked with this person, that means I know what I’m doing.’ It’s the opposite. One thing I’ve learned from all these great directors is that they’re really good because they’ve maintained this philosophy of not having a right answer about anything. You would expect to show up on a set with Scorsese and just be a puppet that executes his ideas. But that’s not what he wants at all. He wants you to have an opinion, that’s why he hired you.”

The 35-year-old says he certainly didn’t have all the answers on the set of Marriage Story, the film he’s here to discuss. The title is somewhat misleading. As Baumbach’s 12th feature film opens, the eponymous relationship is in the process of dissolving. Driver plays Charlie, a New York director of avantgarde theatre who could be his character from Girls ten years in the future, with a bit of responsibility on his shoulders. Charlie is married to Nicole (Scarlett Johansson), an actor who gave up her career in Hollywood to be the lynchpin of Charlie’s theatre company.

They have a sweet young son, Henry (Azhy Robertson), whom they both adore. They seem like the perfect family, but years of unresolved conflict sees them shatter apart in a divorce and custody battle that slowly turns from civil to acrimonious. “This is going to be a dog-fight,” is how Nicole’s perfectly put-together lawyer (Laura Dern) puts it.

Every actor in Marriage Story is operating at the top of their game, particularly Driver.

His unique physicality, simultaneously intimidating and goofy, is put to great use as he explores Charlie’s charm, vulnerability and raw, inner rage. The performance didn’t come

easy. “Usually there are scenes in a movie that you dread or they seem too early in the schedule, where you’re like, ‘I don’t really have a sense of my character yet or I don’t really know what it is physically,’” he explains. “But this one, every day felt like that. Every scene was, ‘Oh, this is too early in the schedule.’

Which is a testament to Noah’s writing, that every scene had incredibly high stakes.”

“ Working with Noah feels like an ongoing conversation that starts at a dinner and works its way on to a film set” Adam Driver

This is Driver’s fourth time working with Baumbach. He’s played a Brooklyn ladies’ man in Frances Ha, a supercilious filmmaker in While We’re Young and a spendthrift musician in The Meyerowitz Stories – all fun but smaller roles. Charlie is not only Driver’s first lead for the director, it’s a role he helped build from the ground up. “You try and make all of them personal,” he says of his past performances.

“Sometimes you’re coming in late in the process where you get the script and you’re shooting straight away. You weren’t involved in crafting it, but you have to make it make sense to you, and you’ll maybe change things here or there. But this was totally different.

This started with a conversation that Noah and I had years ago. That’s what working with Noah feels like. It’s an ongoing conversation that starts at a dinner and works its way on to a film set.”

Early in those dinner chats, Baumbach

Interview: Jamie Dunn

had the idea that Driver should sing the Stephen Sondheim song Being Alive from the great 1970 musical Company. “I’ve half-joked that I’ve reverse-engineered this entire movie just to get Adam to sing that song,” Baumbach tells us. “Adam and I had been talking about Company a lot, and that song in particular and how great it is. And I kept thinking, ‘I’ve got to find a way to get Adam to sing that song’.”

Charlie’s a cappella rendition of Being Alive comes towards the end of the film; Johansson gets a song from Company to sing too. It might sound strange for a raw, heartbreaking study of divorce to burst into song at its climax, but for this couple, it makes perfect sense. “I find singing in general terrifying,” says Driver. “If you asked me to sing an Elvis song here for you now, that’d be terrifying.

Luckily in that scene, it’s focused around character. And Noah was very clear it wasn’t just a song for a song’s sake, it had to have meaning and purpose.” Charlie and Nichole’s relationship was forged in the theatre, so rapturous song and dance routines that capture the love and heartbreak they feel about moving on to separate lives feels completely apt.

Driver should get used to being terrified.

His current project, directed by French filmmaker Leos Carax (Holy Motors, Les Amants du Pont Neuf), also requires him to use his pipes.

The music in the film, called Annette, comes courtesy of the mighty Sparks. “They wrote a kind of opera that we’ve been talking about for six years, and we’re finally doing it,” explains Driver. “I’m really excited about it cause [Carax] is such a unique filmmaker who hasn’t been given the opportunity to make many films.

“Everybody’s singing, but it’s not conventional, as you can probably imagine a [Carax] movie wouldn’t be. It’s beautiful... he’s just one of those, I hate to say important, cause I don’t really know what that means, but he’s one of the great filmmakers alive. I can’t believe that someone’s paying for us to do it.”

That’s another genius auteur off the list then. Don’t bet against Driver catching them all.

Marriage Story is released in cinemas 15 Nov and on Netflix 6 Dec; The Report is released 15 Nov by Curzon; Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is released 16 Dec by Disney

Marriage Story

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Experimental Science for Radical Politics Roughly every year, Arika assembles some of the most exciting artists and thinkers in Tramway over the course of a few days. This year, cutting-edge maths and physics is paralleled with experiences of Black, POC, Queer, Trans, Indigenous communities

Interview: Katie Dibb

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How and why do maths and physics come into all of this?

Barry Esson: “We have been in this research group called the Institute of Physical Sociality, so a made-up thing, a geeky space where we all get to geek out. It’s not an institute, it’s a way of us instituting our getting together.

We’ve been to CERN, the Large Hadron Collider.

“But underneath it there is a critique that Western colonial logic has been used around classical ideas of maths and physics. Classical physics thinks of the world as made up of physical objects with essential characteristics that act on each other through laws of force and the Western colonial logic imposes a similar idea on to society; that we are individuals who have essential characteristics of race, gender, ability and that we can be mediated by these immutable laws of force and it gets that authority through classical physics.

“Well actually that’s not what physics says anymore. The world isn’t made up of fixed objects with essential characteristics, actual objects are the transition between something virtual into actual for a set of possibilities.

Things aren’t separated from each other but can be entangled and when you act on one you can affect the other. Or they can happen across distances that can unpick cause and effect.

“Fred Moten and Denise Ferreira da Silva are saying that physics now actually thinks of the world in a completely different way, but maybe that’s more in keeping with how Black, POC, Queer, Trans, Indigenous communities imagine the world and have always been imagining the world.”

Bryony McIntyre: “Because shit is complicated at the moment and if maths can help then why not try?”

What would you say to readers that are perhaps intimidated by the scientific vocabulary used in the programme?

BE: “There are lots of different ways into it. No one has to do any sums. All of the performances are supposed to embody the ideas that are in those study sessions so you can come to the performances or the exhibition!”

BM: “The thing about maths and science is that because of how we were all schooled and the relationship we have with schooling, that can be quite a space of trauma.”

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Constantina Zavitsanos at the I wanna be with you everywhere Study Day

Photo: Filip Wolak

rika is co-directed by Bryony McIntyre and Barry Esson. It started in 2001 originally as experimental music and moving image festivals; forming as a company in 2006 it has now become so much more. Now, roughly every year, for several days in Tramway in Glasgow, Arika launches a new Episode: a programme of talks, performances, workshops and exhibitions by radical and progressive artists, thinkers and community organisers. The organisers describe it “more like an open research project than a festival or biennale.” This month, their upcoming episode is themed around the potential for maths and physics to contribute meaningfully to making new ways of thinking about social, political and personal relationships.

Image Description: Someone is reading into a mic, from a piece of paper. They have a blue cap, red neckerchief, and leather gilet on, their left arm supported by a cane.

BE: “Fernando Zalamea has definitely said we have all been taught completely wrongly.

One of Fernando’s things is that all deep and important maths should be able to be understood through hand gestures.

“We also shouldn’t apologise that they are going to deal with important ideas because it’s a fucked up time at the moment and things are very complex and we need to have complex ways of understanding what’s going on.”

“ Shit is complicated at the moment and if maths can help then why not try?”

Bryony McIntyre

Could you also talk about some of the other work that you do?

BE: “We also do something called Local Organising, a practice of trying to act in solidarity with particular groups that we have come quite close with. So that is predominately people in the Sex Worker Struggle, AntiPoverty Organisers and the Migrant Struggle, both in Glasgow.

“It doesn’t always go on our website because sometimes it’s not for the public, sometimes it’s just for those groups.

“We were in the Whitney Biennale in 2012.

Since then we have done a project in New York most years. The last one we did was with the disability community or Crip Community in

New York at Performance Space. That was a 4/5 day festival full of disability aesthetics and justice. It was set up with a steering group of people from the community and they basically made all the decisions but we raised the money, we set up the venue relationships, we managed the programme, the production, we did all the behind the scenes work.”

BM: “That is something to say about how we approach the programming, we want to be in longer-term, slower, deeper conversations with people. A desire to just respect the relationship.”

On the conversation of allyship [being an ally to people with whom you might not share characteristics like race, gender, sexuality, class] what are the practical ways that you do this?

BM: “We have been thinking about this for a long time; what is our relationship to our own lived experiences, how do we analyse our privileges and how to be in a relationship with other people from different situations?”

BE: “To start an important thing that we thought was to centre the voices of people who have a lived experience of those struggles. So the Episodes started having more POC, Trans, Sex Worker, Disability Activists, from various different lived experiences.”

BM: “For a temporal context, the first episode was 2012. So at that time there was still a dearth of work by diverse folks even just being seen on the stage or represented in programmes.”

BE: “Then we thought, maybe that’s not enough. This pamphlet [Accomplices not Allies by an Indigenous Perspective] is really great in that it doesn’t want people in privileged access to resources to give up those positions. It’s recognising that at present the access to resources and privileges that we

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have and actually doing something with them.”

BE: “Our relationship with The Sex Workers Organisation was built over roughly 5 years, so the first time we did stuff with them we asked would you like to come to some of our events and you don’t have to do anything, just come and we will cover your bus fare and you will get fed and everything. And then one of them is like ‘Oh actually I want to say something.’”

BM: “We were speaking to the Tramway for a few years about changing their toilet designation and so that managed to tip over into being gender neutral for the last Episode.”

BE: “...and maybe they had gender neutral toilets from 2018, so it took 3 or 4 years. But that’s not just from us. Harry Josephine Giles has written some amazing stuff around access not being for everybody. There’s this idea in the right-wing press or society in large that people have an entitlement to go to everything, whereas I don’t want to be in a space with a fascist! People with trans experience maybe want to just be in a space with trans people. So if I don’t have that experience then I can’t be in that space.”

Are there any final things you would like to say?

BM: “If there is anything we can do to make it easier for you to attend than please get in touch and we mean it. Some people have been like actually I really need a high backed chair.”

BE: “...something to put my feet on...”

BM: “It can be small, it can be big, but that offer is there.”

Episode 10: A Means Without End takes place at Tramway, Glasgow from 20-24 November.

I wanna be with you everywhere took place at Performance Space New York and the Whitney Museum of American Art in April 2019 and was organised by Arika, Amalle Dublon, Jerron Herman, Carolyn Lazard, Park McArthur, Alice Sheppard and Constantina Zavitsanos.

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All About Me

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ow in its fifth year, Fokus: Films from Germany (running from November to January across the country) presents an exciting, eclectic snapshot of the contemporary film scene in Germany. The festival is a partnership between the Goethe-Institut in Glasgow and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, but the two-month tour of Scotland also incorporates screenings at Byres Theatre in St Andrews, the Hippodrome in Bo’ness, Dundee’s DCA, Ayr Film Society and Aberdeen’s Belmont Filmhouse, plus the GFT as an extra venue in Glasgow.

The opening film – which screens at

Photo: UFA Fiction

German film celebration Fokus returns. We dive into the programme, which takes us back to the hope and creativity of the Weimar era, the darkness of National Socialism and to the most daring works of New German Cinema today

Filmhouse on 21 Nov before making its way to the other participating venues – is the UK premiere of Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus.

The documentary, funnily enough, explores the history and lasting influence of the Bauhaus period of art, design and architecture at the time of the school’s 100th anniversary.

Speaking of 100 years ago, Filmhouse and GFT will each host a screening of a silent film from 1919 that was almost destroyed in the Nazi era (the original, not the current one).

Once believed completely lost, Different from the Others is said to be the first explicitly

LGBTQ film made anywhere in the world, at least in terms of a pro-gay message. It sees a romance between a musician (The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’s Conrad Veidt) and his pupil complicated by stigma and the interference of a blackmailer. These centenary screenings will be accompanied by an illustrated talk on queer culture in the Weimar Republic by researcher Keava McMillan.

Filmmaking and Nazi Germany are also addressed in Hitler’s Hollywood, a documentary that explores the roughly 1000 feature films produced in Germany between 1933 and 1945 and how the film industry there projected certain values and attitudes into the minds of the German people at the time. The National Socialist regime is also present in documentary The Resistance, which incorporates dramatic re-enactments alongside interviews to tell the story of four contemporary witnesses to incidents of Jews hiding underground in Berlin in 1943.

Taking place in the more recent past, Adam and Evelyn is an arthouse romance set in 1989 as the border with Austria falls, allowing the eponymous couple to decide whether to make the Eastern or Western world the place to make a happy life together. Gundermann, meanwhile, tells the story of the life of Gerhard Gundermann, a singer-songwriter with strong social commentary in his work, whose musical career began in the former

Words: Josh Slater-Williams East Germany. After the reunification, his fame spiked once again thanks to his music’s popularity among East Germans who felt disenfranchised in the new era. All About Me is another biopic, based on the autobiography of beloved German entertainer ‘Hape’ Kerkeling and portrays his onscreen surrogate’s childhood in the context of his mother’s mental health struggles.

Non-period films are on offer in the form of The Most Beautiful Couple and Atlas, two dramas which deal with the repercussions of criminal activities of different types: the former looks at the aftermath and lingering trauma of an assault on a young couple, the latter concerns a complicated father-and-son story in the context of an illegal real-estate business in German cities.

Fokus also offers a second chance at a big-screen viewing of one of the most acclaimed German films to have received a nationwide release in UK cinemas earlier this year: Wolfgang Fischer’s sea-set drama Styx.

As we said in our review from its Glasgow Film Festival screening, Styx offers “one of the most compelling cinematic attempts to tackle the ongoing migrant crisis because it boils it down to one empathetic woman’s personal experience, placing her in a moral quandary that offers no easy answers.”

Fokus, 21 Nov-31 Jan, various venues across Scotland

Bright Ideas A look ahead to this year’s North East of North – aka NEoN – ahead of the Dundee arts festival

ovember brings with it the eleventh edition of North East of North (aka NEoN). The Dundee festival brings together artists, researchers and curators from across the digital arts, collaborating with galleries, universities and institutions around the city. NEoN’s programme includes a host of exhibitions, workshops, performances and discussions, and aims to connect artists, academics and audiences together to explore our physical and digital worlds.

We’ve had a rummage around in this year’s NEoN programme, and picked out five pieces to keep an eye on ahead of this year’s festival...

Utopia Generator 1.1 Julia Schicker’s new work uses deepfake technology to, quite literally, put words in people’s mouths. In this case, Swiss climate sceptic Roger Köppel offers his explanation of the urgency of tackling manmade climate change in a piece that tackles issues of propaganda, spin, and how our society functions when you can’t believe a word coming out of anyone’s mouth (or whether those are their real mouths to begin with). Wellgate Shopping Centre, Level 1, 4-10 Nov, 10am-4pm, free Re:make / Re:sist The NEoN 2019 group exhibition features work by Igor Vamos, presenting their Barbie Liberation Organization project in which the voice boxes in Barbie and GI Joe dolls were

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swapped to challenge the gender norms presented; Tina Keane, whose film work recognises women’s historical struggle against nuclear weapons; and Addie Wagenknecht, whose Liberator Vases are made up of 3D prints of the Liberator, the world’s first open-source, 3D-printable handgun. Wellgate Shopping Centre, Level 1, Space 2, 4-13 Nov, 10am-4pm, free Genetic Automata, and Sensor Artist-run space GENERATORprojects hosts new work by Larry Achiampong and David Blandy, plus a response by Dundee-based artist Toby Jackson. Achiampong & Blandy’s Genetic Automata looks at issues of race and identity in the context of online avatars and gaming platforms. Jackson’s contribution comes in the form of live digital installations challenging the ways in which our spaces and realities can be digitally manipulated. GENERATORprojects, 25/26 Mid Wynd Industrial Estate, 2-17 Nov (Thu-Sun), 12-5pm The (Not) Listening Project A new podcast from documentary filmmaker (and Skinny contributor) Sam Gonçalves, (Not) Listening draws on this year’s NEoN theme of ‘REACT’. Over its episodes, the podcast will highlight stories which people have “always wanted to say but rarely found the opportunity”. First episode out on 7 Oct

Steve Lambert, Capitalism For Me! True/False

Capitalism Works For Me! True/False Cash rules everything around us, but should it?

That’s the question at the heart of the 20-footlong outdoor artwork by American activist artist Steve Lambert. Capitalism Works for Me – True or False is an illuminated scoreboard that invites passers-by to cast their votes on the system, regardless of their position in its machinery, and to start a dialogue about new visions

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for the future. Steeple Church, Nethergate, 4-10 Nov, 10am-4pm, free This year’s NEoN also features a live set from Field Music at NEoN at Night, a selection of workshops and talks, a poster exhibition and an immersive screening of Blade Runner at V&A Dundee. northeastofnorth.com

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Photo: Bryony Jackson

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Bright Sparks This month, the Traverse will give six new writers, plucked from a pool of 400 open submissions, an opportunity to showcase their work as part of the new First Stages Festival. The Skinny speaks to three of the playwrights selected

Natalie McGrath Natalie McGrath is a playwright, producer of arts and heritage projects and Co-Director of Dreadnought South West. She is based in Devon.

Rachael O’Connor Rachael O’Connor is a playwright and acupuncturist based in Edinburgh. I’m Not Here is her first play.

Congratulations on being selected for the First Stages Festival! What is your play, Blessed, about, and what inspired it?

NM: Thank you! In the play, a war photographer and a medical doctor are hiding in a basement in a war zone, during a siege. They’ve been there for long enough that, for the war photographer, the trauma of their immediate situation starts bleeding into what she has just left at home: the death of her mother.

The city is never named, and that’s partly because it could be so many cities in the 21st century that have been under siege. I was trying to [write about] where we come from – the bricks and mortar that make us who we are – and also a political situation that I feel incensed about, the 21st century, and how our attention is drawn in so many different directions in terms of political conflict.

I was thinking about how worlds can collide and meet in order to locate the personal and tell a story. I’ve never been in a war zone – I can read everything I can, research it... but I can’t make a grand statement about it. What I can do is engage with the work of people like Marie Colvin and Paul Conroy [journalists who covered the Siege of Homs in Syria], and try and find an emotional root into something, and so that’s what Blessed has tried to do.

Tell us a little bit about your play.

RO’C: The play is about an elderly couple who are lost inside a building – which may or may not be the Modern Art Gallery – where they are supposed to meet their estranged son. As they wander through the rooms, firstly trying to find him and secondly trying to find their way out, they are confronted by resentments and traumas from their shared past as well as acknowledging the joys. I wanted it to be about the disablement of old age, which will come to us all, as well as focusing in on them as individuals.

What impact are you hoping Blessed will have on audiences?

NM: Well, I don’t think you can ever predict that, and nor should you – you don’t know what audiences will bring, where they come from or their particular understanding of the world.

Audiences always surprise you! But one of the things [that resonated] during the two day development with the Traverse, is captured in a line from the play – “we move so fast, we forget too quickly and the world moves on.”

Those are very simple words, but I do feel that we have forgotten about Syria – and I hope that the play [encourages] people to spare a thought for the people of Syria, to send a message of hope or care. We all have a place we call home, and the 21st century seems to have disrupted that enormously.

How did the idea for I’m Not Here first come about?

RO’C: I dreamed the play one night after listening to the song How to Disappear Completely by Radiohead multiple times. I woke up in the middle of the night with the idea for the play in my head, and started to write it the next day. It was quite strange as I had actually never, ever thought of writing a play before in my life!

How has the dramaturgical support at the Traverse been helpful to you?

RO’C: The Traverse have been brilliant – they have offered constructive criticism and guidance from the time the play was chosen to take forward but, even previously, I attended a couple of their ‘Open Booth’ Sessions which

helped me by giving reassurance. Playwriting is such a lonely business, probably a calling only attempted by introverts who are happy spending endless hours on our own, so it’s invaluable to be able to check in with others.

The two development days with the Traverse taught me how to do it better next time – which questions to ask myself as I go along, or even before I start, so as to take the play to a deeper level, quicker.

I’m Not Here will be showcased on 8 Nov, 5.30pm.

Conor O’Loughlin Conor O’Loughlin is an Irish playwright based in Glasgow. In 2016, he was one of Playwright Studio Scotland’s mentored playwrights.

Your play Exquisite Corpse is about a theme park attendant and her manager who “make a grim discovery” at their workplace. Intriguing!

Could you expand a little on that?

CO’L: The premise is that a theme park attendant called Iona discovers a body on the premises of the theme park. It’s inspired by various internet urban legends and rumours that within that sector there’s an unofficial practice that if that happens, you’re supposed to move the body off the premises before calling any authorities, to protect the family friendly reputation of the franchise. I liked the idea of digging down deeper into the moral dilemma that the premise poses: the value of human life as opposed to corporate interest. I also quite liked the idea of the play as a theme park – a place to play around with themes.

Interview: Eliza Gearty

What about the title?

CO’L: The title comes from the original name of a game where one person writes a paragraph on a piece of paper, folds it over so only a line is visible, the next person carries it on, and then at the end you all unfold the paper and read the full story. It’s a device I use in the play, where every ten or 15 minutes there is a sudden turn in the story. Within the play, there is also an explanation as to why that title applies...

What got you into playwriting? What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

CO’L: I’m from Ireland originally, which has a strong history of playwriting and storytelling. I can’t speak much for how it is now, but just before I left, the feeling on the ground was that there was much more of a focus on that rich tradition than there was on sustaining a new generation of writers. Scotland has a great approach to new writing – you have the Traverse, Playwrights Studio Scotland, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe – you’re almost spoilt for choice.

As much as possible, attend plays. One drawback I think people are justified in levelling at theatre is that it can be prohibitively expensive – so join a library, and get out play-texts to read too. There is a wide network out there, and it’s all about persevering and getting your scripts in front of people who are in a position to support you.

Exquisite Corpse will be showcased on 9 Nov, 1pm First Stages Festival is at the Traverse, 7-9 Nov traverse.co.uk/whats-on/first-stages-festival

Photo: Lara Cappelli

What advice would you give to someone who wants to write their first play, but isn’t sure where to start?

NM: Have a writing friend. I have a reader of my work who never bullshits me. For new writers, initiatives like The First Stages Festival are a vital lifeline too. Also, don’t be prescriptive about what you write – write about what you want to write about, not what you think other people want.

Blessed will be showcased on 9 Nov, 1pm.

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Happy Days Suzi Ruffell is happy, and she doesn’t care that everyone’s watching

uzi Ruffell’s current tour show is a feel-good hour of comedy that has already earned acclaim on its run at the Edinburgh Fringe. And the show’s title, Dance Like Everyone’s Watching, leaves little room for doubt as to its tone. “It’s about happiness and it’s about joy,” Ruffell tells us.

And that’s not to say it’s devoid of some of the sociopolitical commentary which is characteristic of her shows. But, ultimately, given the events going on in her life, from getting engaged to considering having kids, the timing for a happier show was right.

“There’s that old trope that comedians are all miserable,” Ruffell says, “which we’re really not. Most of my best friends are comics and they’re really fun. I think there’s this sort of idea of the sad clown, and we come on stage and we’re all miserable, but I think that’s a cliché that’s mostly dead now. Most of my mates that are stand-ups are quite happy people. We certainly see the world through a slightly different lens, but there’s also a lot of joie de vivre between comics.

“I’ve covered a lot of stuff in my stand-up,” Ruffell continues, “I’ve covered grief, I’ve covered heartbreak, I’ve covered having an anxiety disorder, and it takes quite a lot out of you to do that sort of show every week.”

Ruffell still doesn’t shy away from tapping into the big issues, but the distraction of bringing others together through comedy can feel

like energy better spent. “It’s so hard finding funny in the news at the moment,” she explains. “I mean, what’s going on with the Kurdish people in Syria and Turkey, and Brexit – everything is so bleak, and politically it feels like such a sad time. I wanted to write something this year that was fun. I wanted to take people out of that.”

“ There’s that old trope that comedians are all miserable, which we’re really not” Suzi Ruffell

Suzi Ruffell

And yet, while distraction can be a welcome relief, there’s still that desire to provoke thought amongst her audiences. “I feel like if I make you laugh for an hour, I can make you think for a couple of minutes.”

Ruffell’s success is still a bit of a surprise to her. “I got into comedy because I loved comedy,” she says. “It never even occurred to me that I could make a career out of it.” She’d

Photo: Jiksaw

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Interview: Yasmin Hackett

been gigging for about 18 months when her agent suggested it could be a long-term plan.

Now she’s been doing it for ten years.

And despite shying away from the suggestion of her being a ‘role model’ (“I drink far too much”), her platform as a successful female, working class, gay comedian has made her into something close to it. “If people feel that I have the kind of life that they might want

some day and that I’m quite confident in being a gay person in the world, I think that’s a really lovely thing if people feel they connect to me in that way.”

Christmas is coming; you’re skint, we know. But what if we told you your comedy fix needn’t break the bank?

Interview: Polly Glynn

Suzi Ruffell: Dance Like Everyone’s Watching, Glee Club, Glasgow, 17 Nov, 7.30pm, £12-14 suziruffell.com

Cheap Laughs cotland’s got a wealth of comedy nights right on your doorstep and nearly all of them do gigs for a fiver or less. When you can have a night out for less than a pint, what have you got to lose?

The one with a mighty name for itself Red Raw, The Stand. £3. Every Monday (Edinburgh), every Tuesday (Glasgow) and every Wednesday (Newcastle), if you dare leave sweet Caledonia.

Red Raw is the long-established night at The Stand which features folk trying out their first ever sets, circuit comedians trying out new material and, if you’re lucky, pretty big names dropping by just for the hell of it. Ross McKail, booker of the infamous night, says: “Red Raw is massively important as it gives people a starting point and a chance to do comedy in an already established and well-known room. Red Raw crowds are always very supportive and want the acts to do the best they can do.”

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The experimental one Peter Pancakes’ Comedy Extravaganza!, Second Monday of every month, Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, Free Entry with a donation bucket at the end.

Phil O’Shea, aka Peter Pancakes, organises this night, allowing his favourite performers to run wild. “The acts range from stand-up to musical comedy, character acts, clowning and one-off collaborations that only happen for the night. We always try and create a friendly show in collaboration with the audience, where you see things that only really make sense because we are all in the room together.”

That sense of community harks back to O’Shea trying to find a space to experiment in front of a willing crowd. “When I was starting out in comedy, it was invaluable to find nights where a good atmosphere was created and more unusual acts were supported and allowed to thrive. I feel so glad to have been able to help create this for the acts I love.

Myself and James McIntosh have also developed a double act through appearing together regularly at the night, which has been a joy. It’s one of the many unexpected things that has happened as a result of the fun, collaborative atmosphere that all the performers have created together.”

COMEDY

The ones worth a mention Less regular, but worth the wait is Vision Board, created by Gemma Flynn and John Aggasild. Frequently showcasing premium acts trying something new and different, this night is only a fiver at the Flying Duck, Glasgow. Next show coming up in January.

We keep banging on about Chunks, but that’s because you need to go. More acts than you can shake a forest at, each comic gets three minutes to do anything but stand-up.

Unpredictable and with just a sprinkling of late-night-fringe-cult-spirit, you can find it once a month at Glasgow’s State Bar. Free Entry, donations bucket on exit.

It’s also worth checking out The Edinburgh Revue and GLASS’s (Glasgow Laughter and Sketch Society) regular student comedy nights. Guaranteed new ideas and new comic voices, you might even get to wear that ‘saw them first’ badge with pride.

So fly, my pretties, to your nearest comedy club. Netflix and chill ain’t got nothing on this.

Next shows: Red Raw, The Stand, every week, £3; The Edinburgh Revue, Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, 5 Nov, 19 Nov, 3 Dec, £2/Free for students; GLASS, Glasgow University Union Debating Chamber, 5 Nov, 19 Nov, 26 Nov, £2; Peter Pancakes’ Comedy Extravaganza!, Monkey Barrel Comedy, Edinburgh, 11 Nov, Free/PWYW; Chunks, State Bar, Glasgow, 25 Nov, Free/PWYW; Vision Board, Flying Duck, Glasgow, 25 Jan, £5

THE SKINNY

November 2019

27

Colonial Legacies in Uganda Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa shares the stories and surprises she’s come across in the ten years of her longterm artistic project, Uganda in Black and White

mma Wolukau-Wanambwa’s exhibition, Promised Lands, currently in Collective Gallery (until 24 Nov), is the latest instalment of works as part of her longterm project, Uganda in Black and White. This is an ongoing series of installations, photographs and films that Wolukau-Wanambwa has made over the past ten years around “the legacy of colonialism and what you might call colonial hangovers in contemporary Uganda.”

For the Collective exhibition, WolukauWanambwa in part builds a film work around footage of a sunset from a 2010 research visit to Uganda, the very beginning stages of the overarching project, Uganda in Black and White. During her initial research visits, she intended on making a work about two houses built by men in her family, after anecdotally understanding some of the social importance of these practices. This was a means of developing her longterm interests in “how societies remember, and how memory is organised collectively.” While there, she came to understand in greater detail that there is a “fascinating and complex relationship between building and burial practices, practices to do with memory and land ownership.” She stresses that this is the case “along the North shore of Lake Victoria. I’m not talking about the entirety of the country.”

At the same time, she had an equally strong intuition against her original plan: “I realised that I couldn’t make [the work as first imagined].” This was a feeling that she recognised and has had before and since.

“Every few years I have this very strong desire to make some kind of film and it never really works. It always breaks down and something else happens which is more interesting.”

In the years since, Wolukau-Wanambwa has devoted her attentions to the way that colonialism has been through time shown and sold visually by government and other

interested groups. She describes, “the centrality of representational practices to the project of colonialism, because of the amount of propaganda, the amount of images of ‘there’ that had to be brought ‘here’ in order to build political support for the project, which is not self-evident. At this point, we tend to assume that everybody in Britain was sold on the idea, but actually governments had to put an awful lot of work into persuading people of the... value of these places for British citizens. And through this process one starts to discover that East Africa is a particularly potent site in the British colonial imaginary.”

Over the period that Wolukau-Wanambwa has been working on Uganda in Black and White, she has returned to these myriad misrepresentations and fantasies that have been projected onto Uganda by colonising influences, especially over the previous 150 years. Drawing out some of the complex histories of Uganda, Wolukau-Wanambwa explains: “This is where Joseph Chamberlain, in 1905, proposed to the British Zionists that they could found the state of Israel in what is now Uganda.” She also notes that it’s where the oldest homo sapiens skeleton was found, which means it’s often considered the site for “the origin of human life in some way.”

She continues; “It then becomes this fantasy playground. 500 miles to the west in Kenya, there was Happy Valley, which is where all the British aristocrats… who couldn’t conform to pre-War [social] conventions, used to go to live to have multiple partners, take drugs, so there’s this idea of being a free space where a white person could do what they wanted.” It was in researching the trend of the eccentric colonising expat that Wolukau-Wanambwa came across Theodor Hertzka, an Austro-Hungarian economist. His book Freeland proposed creating a colony in British East Africa, and against fact he

“ We tend to assume that everybody in Britain was sold on [colonialism], but actually governments had to put an awful lot of work into persuading people of the value of these places” Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa

proposed that there was no one there and that therefore a colony could be set up. At the time, it was infiltrated by Austrian and British spies so Freeland remained unrealised.

Wolukau-Wanambwa features parts of the book in the Collective exhibition. “The book is very fascinating for the way it reinscribes the notion of terra nullius (land owned and inhabited by no one, the implication being that it has been discovered and can be claimed) where palpably it was not terra nullius, but also this fantasy of colonising without violence […] They’re so proud of themselves because they don’t kill anyone but actually what they do is they just blow up stuff next to people to demonstrate the power of their guns… as a way to intimidate the locals into acquiescing.” Crucially, for WolukauWanambwa, “Hertzka stands for many”, including figures like Winston Churchill who wrote an entire memoir about his time in East Africa. “It’s a longer story, but [East Africa] has a particular place in the British colonial imaginary, and ‘imaginary’ is the key word there... what’s being projected onto this landscape, and what’s being enacted in service of those projections.”

On the evening that Wolukau-Wanambwa set up a camera to document the sunset that

Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, Promised Lands, Film Still. 2015-2018 SD Video. 18’

28

Feature

ART

Credit: Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa

E

Interview: Adam Benmakhlouf

features in Promised Lands, there was also a gathering of some of her family who were excited to see her, keen to learn what her plans were and why she was filming. Her uncle’s voice becomes a central part of the soundtrack of the film, as he gives an extensive and idiosyncratic tour from afar of the different areas around. It was specifically in her uncle’s description of, and deliberate mispronunciations of place names, that Wolukau-Wanambwa identified a further layer of mythologising that complicates the many visions of different European writers, and political powers that crafted misleading visions and propaganda about East Africa: “There’s not only the colonial fantasy, there’s also another level of mythology that the people who live there bring to their own environment.”

Wolukau-Wanambwa refers to some examples of the different naming practices around the place where the film is shot. “The Bagisu people are giving everyone Baganda names, and the Baganda are the people from the centre after whom the country was named because the British [favoured] them.” In the film, her uncle deliberately mispronounces the Tororo region as Toronto, and calls where they live Penderosa, “because of the name of the ranch in Bonanza [American radio and TV programme that ran from the 1950s to the 70s]. My father and their brothers love Bonanza, so to this day they still refer to my grandparents’ farm as Penderosa, which is a misnaming. It should be Ponderosa, but they’re very good at repurposing language.

There’s multiple layers of projections, with different levels of power and agency attached to them. Not everyone makes these fantasies with equal amount of agency.” So the uncle’s voiceover “turns out to be completely brilliant as he renames this environment.”

Though the interview includes discussion of the work currently on show in Collective Gallery, Wolukau-Wanambwa describes the “long processes”, many people and relationships from which her works emerge. Ending the interview, Wolukau-Wanambwa shares part of her schedule for the week, including a visit to an older woman, who Wolukau-Wanambwa met last year, when the older woman first granted her access to an archive of materials kept by the older woman’s father. As WolukauWanambwa continues her open-ended research, she makes very clear: “It doesn’t just end because you’ve made an exhibition.”

Promised Lands, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, until 24 Nov

THE SKINNY

How to Time Travel in the Middle East

The Skinny: What can we expect from your upcoming show at CCA? Basma alSharif: I had been thinking for a long time that I really wanted to do a work centred around a text that I wrote, and that the exhibition itself would be a reading space for this book essentially. Whenever I say book, I feel a little uncomfortable because it’s not something I would publish officially but something that really is an artwork that exists in a gallery, that doesn’t leave.

I decided to make a text about a fictional journey. It goes along trainlines that used to exist in the Middle East, that became discontinued when Palestine was occupied. So I reconstructed those trainlines – there are certain connections that never existed, some which were actually train stops. The story moves backwards in time, so it starts in the present day Lebanon, to Palestine in 1935 and winds up in Egypt’s Late Dynasty, roughly 1150 BC. The book itself is filled with a lot of allegories that we find ourselves in today like how heavily present borders are which didn’t used to exist. It does some work to undo them, to undo these physical borders. It also brings up sociopolitical issues that are present – what if that hadn’t happened, what if the Middle East hadn’t been colonised? What if Palestine was never occupied? So, inherently through this fictional story I was wanting to deal with things becoming obsolete that we imagine are irreversible. For me that tied into making this book and having it be a physical object, something that’s not digital, that can’t be shared. Something that you really have to hold and read, because I also feel a separate agenda of the work is that I feel like the act of reading a book is becoming antiquated practice.

“ What if the Middle East hadn’t been colonised? What if Palestine was never occupied?”

Basma alSharif

The text is written in English and Arabic. It is a vernacular Arabic, so it’s not an official

November 2019

Interview: Katie Dibb

Basma alSharif, A Philistine, 2019

written language but the way that people speak, because there’s a very big split between the way people speak and how people write Arabic. There is classical Arabic which is very formal, then there is the colloquial vernacular Arabic which differs region to region. It is written in a Palestinian vernacular and we are going to have a voiceover of someone reading an excerpt from the book.

Your use of science fiction and erotica styles is particularly intriguing, what artistic freedoms did that allow you?

I wanted it to be kept in three different genres.

One was history, one was science fiction and fantasy, and the last, erotica. Having this leniency to imagine things in these landscapes that didn’t exist and to portray the history of what actually happened.

[I] force the reader to imagine something other than what is present or past and also to push the language. Especially with the erotica section, [I] insist that the text needed to be written in a vernacular language because classical Arabic doesn’t have a lot of erotic terms. There are a lot of people who just don’t believe that vernacular Arabic should ever be written, that the only form of Arabic is classical Arabic.

You talked about using archival footage – how much do you use archives and what is your experience of approaching these places as an artist?

I have used archives a lot. It is often a mix with my own work. Especially when it is regarding

colonial [photographs] that were taken in Palestine by foreigners or colonisers essentially. I feel like there is something [of interest] about bluntly reappropriating these images and getting to decide how they function, regardless of whether or not it is right or legal.

Because to me what happened previously is neither right or legal. We can’t maybe outwardly call it a political act but an insistence by using many of these images that are not mine to varying degrees of copyright infringement.

Have you had much resistance to your work or perhaps incessant questioning? What is the emotional labour of having to explain yourself like?

There hasn’t been much resistance. But I think what does happen quite often, and I think maybe more and more now when spaces are trying to be more inclusive of non-Western artists, is that in seeing my work, you become a representative.

Your work becomes a statement of the entire region, which I find really absurd and frankly really problematic. It’s surprising also because I grew up in the West. I speak English and I was educated in the United States, and I feel like a lot of my references are unfortunately primarily coming from Western culture. So it’s very strange to have my work be contextualised and be [representative of] a kind of Middle Eastern perspective. Which it is trying not to do. If anything I am trying to make my work perspective-less, a multi-perspective. [I’m] taking into account different cultural contexts and languages and not speaking to or from anything in particular. Although obviously a lot of it is my

ART

Credit: Basma alSharif

Artist Basma alSharif’s new exhibition in CCA centres on a novella that is in parts sci-fi fantasy, historical fiction and erotica. Titled A Philistine, it undoes political borders in the Middle East, and reimagines possible pasts and futures

connection and background to Palestine. But I often feel like it gets boiled down to “you’re an Arab artist, you’re a Palestinian artist, you’re speaking on behalf of something.”

What is the art scene like in Cairo? Is that where you’re based right now?

As far as my experience anyway from 10-15 years ago to now, I feel like there are more spaces for contemporary art and film, and there’s definitely more artists, but at the same time it’s a very difficult place to organise things.

It’s difficult to organise even a public opening, because there are no protest laws. So any kind of gathering is forbidden and art space funding is difficult. It wasn’t an easy decision to come and live here. Sometimes I question it.

But I think these things exist in one way or another, and here you are really confronted with it and there’s something to not being able to ignore the reality of how fucked up the state is. It is really important and makes you think about how are you going to make a piece and exist as a person and how do you create a community? It is not worth sugar-coating the fact that it is difficult, but the very fact that people want to put on shows or have screenings is really meaningful. It feels really good to be close to that and it is important to be present here when a lot of people are trying to leave.

They have given up for good reason. But if you have the privilege of having a passport that allows you to leave whenever you can it’s actually worth trying to be here and engaging with whatever cultural scene is present.

A Philistine, runs at CCA, Glasgow until 15 Dec

Feature

29

“The story never left me” With the sequel to the sensation Call Me by Your Name being released into the world, The Skinny talks to André Aciman about returning to his characters in follow-up Find Me

A

ndré Aciman didn’t think Call Me by Your Name was going to be a good movie. In fact, the author really didn’t think the adaptation of his book was going to be good, so much so that he didn’t bother attending its world premiere. “I think it’s because I’m very negative about myself,” contemplates Aciman about why he didn’t think the film would work.

He’s calling from Budapest and his sentences are occasionally punctuated by the dramatic swoosh of a passing car. “I had written this book and didn’t even expect it to get published. Then, ten years later, it was going to be made into a movie and I just thought the movie wouldn’t be great.”

It was a pleasant surprise, then, that Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation wasn’t just great; it was career-best, Oscar-nominated great. “The night of the premiere, suddenly I was getting a million tweets saying everybody’s crying, everybody’s applauding,” chuckles Aciman.

“Turns out this was a very successful movie.”

Call Me by Your Name is the story of seventeen-year-old Elio, who falls in love with his father’s grad student, Oliver, during a summer in Italy. It’s an unashamedly romantic story about first love, lost love and queer love.

While Call Me by Your Name was critically acclaimed when it was first published in 2007, Guadagnino’s film turned Elio and Oliver’s love story into a cultural sensation. Fans rallied for a sequel to Elio and Oliver’s relationship and it was a pleasant surprise when Aciman announced that he too would love a sequel to Call Me by Your Name – in fact, he was finishing one.

“The story never left me,” he explains.

“Elio and Oliver were always in the wings. You never forget that you’ve written such a story because it stays with you for the rest of your life. After writing Call Me by Your Name, I finished another novel and then I started writing the sequel.”

The sequel, Find Me, begins not with Elio’s voice but his father’s. He is about to embark on his own life-changing love affair with Miranda, a woman he meets on a train. “I had started Find Me with the voice of Elio but it wasn’t working,” Aciman explains. “I tried again and again and again, gave up and then started again.

“I found that starting with the father was

the best way to go back into this story. I realised that Elio will come back at the very end of this chapter and that’s how we’re going to discover who he is ten years later. I didn’t want to confront him right away. I needed that external voice around Elio to make a few comments so that when you do meet him, you have a good idea of who he has become.”

This parent-child dynamic from Call Me by Your Name is fleshed out further in Find Me. “The father/son or father/daughter relationship is and has been very important to me in my own life,” says Aciman. “It’s a very rich relationship, full of intimate exchanges. In Call Me by My Name, we have the father giving the son advice and here we have the son saying it’s nice to see his father in love again. So there’s an exchange of roles but a sense of indelible intimacy between them, that they know nothing can come to destroy or come to challenge it. And the same thing is between Miranda and her father. She travels every week from one city to another city to take care of him. She jokes with him but she’s basically there to watch him die.”

Aciman’s novels could better be called investigations into the intricacies of relationships’ intimacies. “I think that being intimate with someone else is probably the best thing that can happen in our entire lives,” he explains. “That’s why people have such strong relationships with their mothers even if their mother is cruel. Because from childhood, there is an instant intimacy and that stays with you – it morphs and changes – but it’s with you for the rest of your life and your mother’s life.”

Aciman compares these intimacies to layers of tectonic plates. “They’re constantly shifting places. The plate that was on the bottom comes to the top and that one goes to the middle and so on. I think we’re that way in everything: in our professional lives, sexual lives and religious lives. All these aspects of ourselves are mobile. It’s not that we’re unstable, it’s that we’re constantly changing.

But in our core – if we have an inner core – it’s the same one we’ve had since we were very young children.”

This constant morphing is why Aciman

refuses to use labels in his writing, particularly those surrounding sexuality. “I don’t do it intentionally but it comes very naturally to me, to avoid labels and names and to avoid anything that is specific. It’s the stuff that is ambiguous in our lives that is interesting.

Once you give it a name, that’s it! Where do you go from that? I have no interest in labels and particularly sexual labels. I think we’re – to use the word we all use nowadays – fluid.

Or, rather, tectonic plates.”

As a sequel, naturally much of Find Me meditates on the past: past relationships and past versions of the characters. “There are memories of our lives all over the place and we go back to revisit things or people sometimes,” says Aciman. “We don’t know why but it’s as if we want to pull back time. I ask people this question all the time and they laugh and then they admit to it: why do many of us call our ancient telephone numbers? Or revisit an apartment we used to live in years before? What is being accomplished? It’s as if we’re not just trying to reconnect with the past but we want the past to sort of come towards us and draw closer as if we can

Interview: Katie Goh

become whole again, which is what I call the act of homecoming. It’s that sense of coming home as if you’ve finally found your centre again and as if you’ve been living off-kilter your entire life. So you want to come back home and return to places that were once dear to you to feel accomplished. But it turns out it’s the expectation that you’re going to do it that is itself the accomplishment.”

Is writing novels, then, how Aciman accomplishes a homecoming?

“Yes,” he says, after a pause and a swoosh of a passing car. “That idea of homeland has been difficult for me in my personal life. And still; when I go to paper and I start to write I feel like I’m building and entering my home again. The act of sitting with a computer and typing away is in many ways like finding your centre again. It’s ironic in a way that it should be on paper and not in real life but real life is really very invasive. Paper anchors us far better, don’t you think?”

Find Me is out 31 Oct from Faber faber.co.uk/9780571356829-find-me.html

“ I think that being intimate with someone else is probably the best thing that can happen in our entire lives”

Photo: Chris Ferguson

André Aciman

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Feature

BOOKS

THE SKINNY

LI FE ST

Living in Auckland

Y LE

New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland offers jobs, easy access to the outdoors, and a strong LGBTQ+ scene

or a country so obviously defined by its natural landscape – partly due to the immense popularity of The Lord of the Rings films – it’s curious to arrive in New Zealand and discover that modern cities thrive here too. A momentous statue of a Tolkien dwarf may greet international visitors upon arrival at Auckland Airport, but this is where the LoTR connections end.

Auckland is comfortably New Zealand’s largest city (34% of the country’s population lives in the city region) and offers the opportunities and activities that one would expect from such a bustling metropolis. The city’s core skyline is rising weekly and its iconic Sky Tower is still the tallest freestanding structure in the entire Southern Hemisphere. There’s a burgeoning food scene, particularly with Asian delicacies due to the influx of students and workers from the region. It’s proud of its sport, with Eden Park being home to the country’s legendary All Blacks rugby team. Auckland is, in other words, a global city with world-class potential.

Its vast multiculturalism has only made it better, but it’s also true that, as a result, the city holds no local flavour. There’s nothing that really defines Auckland as being quintessentially ‘Kiwi’ (something that the city and its people are mocked for by other New Zealanders). London and Los Angeles, then, are its closest Northern Hemisphere counterparts. Much of the tourism industry in Auckland Central focuses on day

trips elsewhere and perhaps the city would do well to consider promoting their own highlights more consistently.

Finding Work in Auckland Most travelling to New Zealand come to Auckland first. This is partly functional, given it’s where the main airport is, but also for economic reasons: if you want work as soon as possible, Auckland’s the place to go. The bars located in the city centre are filled with working holiday makers, and there are several Irish bars that are always open to workers from home.

Industrial businesses and warehouses are centred in the south of the city and hold plenty of opportunities for those not afraid of some hard work. A common path that people take is committing to six or seven months work in Auckland in order to save money, before travelling to tourist destinations like Queenstown and Lake Taupo.

Getting Around Auckland Returning to the comparison with Los Angeles, it’s helpful to have a car while in Auckland.

Public transport is ineffective and woefully expensive – Auckland continues to be the world’s third most expensive city for public transport, coming behind only London and Dublin. The city has acknowledged the need for greater options, especially given its rapid population growth outwards into the suburbs,

Auckland's skyline and Sky Tower

and while projects are underway, for now motorways dominate.

The comical Lime scooters were introduced last year but, given this is a city of volcanoes, they’re not recommended as a substantial means of travel (and that’s before you get to the, ahem, small glitch of the scooters suddenly braking at high speed). If you do need to rely on public transport, purchase an AT HOP card – it’s a fare payment card that can be topped up when required and helps save a little on each trip by train, bus or ferry.

Piha Beach

November 2019

Photo: Camilla Sofie Danielsson

Where to Stay Rising above the city business district (CBD) on its western edge, Ponsonby is a highly sought-after address, the type of hipster neighbourhood newspapers like to write about.

Its main thoroughfare, Ponsonby Road, is overflowing with hip bars and cafes.

Venture a little further west and Grey Lynn is a cheaper and less crowded alternative, gentrification having not swallowed it whole just yet. Although it’s picturesque and affluent, avoid the North Shore: the public transport across the harbour is the ferry, which is often extremely overcrowded during peak times.

Things to Do Avoid the obvious but expensive trip up the Sky Tower and take a short trip to Mount Eden and climb the city’s highest volcanic peak, Maungawhau. The view from the top is clear and remarkable, and includes the Sky Tower stretching above Auckland Harbour in its vista.

Cultural offerings are paltry when considering the size of the city, but Auckland War Memorial Museum is a highlight, both historically and architecturally. Built in the neo-classicist tradition, it sits atop Auckland Domain, a large public park adjacent to the CBD; its steps offer an excellent photographic opportunity, facing back to the city and the harbour. The museum’s collection is strong too, focusing on New Zealand history.

In the CBD, there’s a little gem of a cinema, tucked down a basement beside the Central Library. The Academy Cinema is a true home for independent and arthouse films and it also strives to show as many New Zealand and Pacific Island productions as possible. Go on a Wednesday and any film costs a mere $5 [£2.48].

TRAVEL

Photo: Camilla Sofie Danielsson

F

Words: Conor Lochrie

Auckland’s Nightlife and LGBTQ+ scene Auckland doesn’t differ greatly from the UK in terms of its nightlife. There are clubs for students, like Impala, which mainly plays standard electronic and techno, and there are high-end clubs like 1885 Britomart, where the music isn’t the important part.

Karangahape Road is the rawer alternative to the CBD’s uninspiring selection. Once notorious for drugs and prostitution, the strip now has plenty of interesting watering holes for after dark. Its centrepiece is St Kevins Arcade, which offers a range of venues. Try Whammy Bar for the best gigs nightly, or The Wine Cellar, a wonderful little dive bar. Verona Cafe is a great spot night or day, serving good food and music direct from local community radio station KFM 106.9, who blast their tunes from the bar right into the street.

Further up K’ Road (as it’s colloquially known to save time) is Ink Bar. An underground club that attracts top house and techno DJs, it’s worth braving the overwhelming sweat and claustrophobia for.

Auckland is fiercely proud of its LGBTQ+ scene. Centred around Karangahape Road again, Family Bar has been an LGBTQ+ institution for years. Housed over three floors, it’s often the end point for an Aucklander’s night out. Across the road, Caluzzi Cabaret is home to drag queen dinner theatre, and its performers usually find their way over to Family Bar to drink and entertain.

Heading Outdoors: Day Trips from Auckland Auckland is perhaps a city more attractive to families and its proximity to nature is a large reason for this. Within 15 minutes of the CBD, in any direction, are wonderful beaches.

Mission Bay is the most famous, with its crowded cafes and ice cream parlours, but try Takapuna Beach on the North Shore for a quieter alternative.

Rangitoto Island is iconic and can be noticed in the distance from most areas of the city. A popular day trip, its volcanic peak is reachable on foot. Further afield, a 45-minute trip by car through the Waitakere Ranges brings visitors to Piha Beach, one of New Zealand’s most popular black sand beaches.

It’s a favourite of Aucklanders, particularly in summer for its surfing opportunities.

Lifestyle

31

Writing from the Margins The Scottish BAME Writers Network is creating space in Scotland’s literary scene. One writer looks at how the group is doing just that

T

he sun is hot and every available lawn chair is occupied. Charlotte Square is buzzing with the energy of festival season. As I await my event, I take stock of all those taking up space. I start to think of who is and who isn’t in attendance. It’s something I often do at these types of events. I carefully read through festival programmes, review the diversity of panel events and make a mental note of who is in the room. As I’ve grown older, I’ve begun to question who is allowed to enter these literary spaces.

You see, storytelling is a part of every culture across the globe. It’s how communities distil knowledge, share customs and pass histories from one generation to the next. You will have experienced storytelling in your own life, whether it’s sharing the events of a night out or listening to the older generation describe life “way back when.” But for some reason, a disconnect exists between storytelling and writing. Historically, the act of putting pen to paper and then publishing this work to be read by others is reserved for a select few.

When we speak of writing and publishing in Scotland, we tend to centre it within the English language, western world and northern hemisphere. As English is the predominant language in the USA, Canada, Ireland and the UK, it is writers from these countries who usually secure publishing deals or top bestseller lists. When exploring an English literature class, reading a literary magazine or scouring the shelves of our local bookshop, the general public is often met with the realities of the book world. The authors, publishers, main characters and secondary ones tend to be cisgender, heterosexual, white and middle class. Therefore, it is difficult to visualise a career in writing or publishing when you don’t fit this demographic. It can seem like the literary world is not yours to enter.

While diversity does exist within writing

Words: Andrés Ordorica Illustration: Jacky Sheridan

and publishing, much still needs to be done to create more inclusive spaces. A 2018 report

by CLPE found that 7% of children’s books featured a Black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) character and only 4% had a BAME main protagonist. How sad that children, when discovering the joys of reading, often fail to see themselves represented in the books they pick up. But diversity is more than black or white. I’d be amiss to not mention how there is also a need to create more inclusive reading lists that feature working-class, trans, non-binary and/or disabled characters.

If you can’t see it, then how can you dream it? For underrepresented writers, this is an ever-present question as we seek publishing deals, submission acceptances and validation from our writing peers. The same can be said for those trying to become publishers, editors or book reviewers.

It all comes down to visibility and representation and has a lot to do with what we are told is good writing. What is deemed “canonical” is pretty homogenous. We have all heard it before: “male, stale and pale.”

Somehow, in the 21st century, we’ve yet to break away from the idea of this elite and archaic list of writers.

There exists a diverse multicultural body of writing outside the confines of university mandated reading lists or whitewashed literary prizes. But why is it so difficult to find these writers? The truth is there are lots of hurdles to overcome and marginalised writers are fully aware of them. We understand there are gatekeepers with inherent biases of what is “good writing” and in-groups who solicit work from already known and established writers.

When we do get past the proverbial gates, there is often an expectation that writers of colour will write from trauma or their racialised identity, because that is what is interesting and what sells. But that silences those who

want to write beyond their lived experiences. It also assumes, as writers of colour, we carry baggage when it comes to our ethnic or racial identities. This mindset lacks nuance and will never allow for innovative storytelling.

“ It’s difficult to visualise a career in writing or publishing when you don’t fit its demographic. It can seem like the literary world is not yours to enter” So, what can be done? Marginalised and underrepresented communities waiting for cultural change is not going to be the answer.

Instead, underrepresented communities need to create their own avenues to get diversity on the page and on the masthead.

Across the UK, there are initiatives to combat this unbalance. Nikesh Shukla and Julia Kingsford, who founded The Good Literary Agency, seek to increase opportunities for under-represented writers living in the UK. Publishing house Knights Of and their bookshop Round Table Books, founded by Aimée Felone and David Stevens, are improving diversity within children’s and YA literature. The Octavia Poetry Collective, founded

by Rachel Long, creates a space for womxn of colour to “read beyond the canon and write themselves.” These are just a handful of UK-based organisations creating space for more diverse voices in the literary world.

Fortunately, here in Scotland similar changes are afoot. The Scottish BAME Writers Network, co-founded by Alycia Pirmohamed and Jay G Ying, was established to rewrite the narrative of Scottish writing and publishing.

Its mission is to shine a light on the many new and established BAME writers, publishers and books reviewers in and around Scotland. The network has already launched a poetry pamphlet, won a Creative Edinburgh award and will guest-edit the upcoming issue of Gutter magazine, to be published in 2020.

The network’s aim is to create a space where writers of colour living with any connection to Scotland can respond to national and global debates of race and decolonisation. The network therefore organises Writers of Colour – a writing group which meets regularly at The Scottish Poetry Library and is facilitated by Hannah Lavery.

Over the past year, with funding from the Royal Society of Literature, the network has hosted masterclasses led by distinguished writers including Raman Mundair, Leila Aboulela and Nadine Aisha Jassat. By sponsoring these programmes, the network helps numerous writers strengthen their craft and meet other writers who share both similar cultural and professional experiences.

The work of the network speaks to a history of BAME writing and activism in Scotland. Writers like the award-winning Aboulela and Scotland’s current Makar Jackie Kay are renowned for creating diverse characters whose experiences reflect a side of Scottish life rarely depicted.

Recently, Kay named Jassat as one of the ten best BAME writers living in the UK. Jassat herself organises Readers of Colour with Glasgow Women’s Library, which introduces readers in her group to diverse established and emerging literary voices by women, trans and non-binary writers.

These are just some of the writers of colour who have put their stamp on Scotland.

It is the hope of The Scottish BAME Writers Network that the publishing world continues to look within Scotland for diverse voices to join literary panels, editorial teams, fellowships and the many other important art initiatives happening up and down the country. Our words and characters all add to the rich history of Scotland’s literary heritage.

It’s time our contributions are more widely acknowledged and for us to move from the margins into wider discourse.

The Scottish BAME Writers Network hosts its first networking event at Augustine United Church, Edinburgh, 23 Nov, as part of Book Week Scotland Follow @ScotBAMEwriters to find out more information about this event and others

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Our Home Is (Literally) On Fire From the Amazon to Scottish flat blocks, fire disasters are political. One writer explores how a fire above his home connects to a fire in his other home, Brazil

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uring the summer, I woke up at 5am to the sound of someone kicking the door to my flat. Still a little drowsy I walked over to it, slid the security chain on and opened the door with the smallest possible gap. Out on the stairs, a firefighter yelled at me to get out, there was water cascading behind her and a maze of hoses on the floor. She started pointing to specific spots for me to step on and make my way downstairs. As I got out to the parking lot with the other residents we were told the flat right above mine was on fire and the firefighters were struggling to contain it.

No one was seriously hurt, though some tenants had to be taken to hospital due to smoke inhalation. One of them lived directly above the burning flat and had to climb up on to the roof of the building to escape the smoke.

In the two weeks that followed, we couldn’t return to the building due to some safety concerns. During that time, while feeling an overwhelming sense of anxiety and chaos, I found myself repeatedly going to the internet, a place where those feelings are both soothed and empowered. Around that time there was one thing you couldn’t escape online: the devastating and multiplying fires happening in the Amazon.

The Brazilian rainforest is not naturally prone to fires. It’s human intervention that causes them. Cattle ranchers and loggers will run clandestine operations in order to turn rainforest into acquirable and profitable terrain. In the last year, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research has seen an increase of 84% in the number of fires ravaging the Amazon. Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, is one of the main causes for this increase. Being “pro-business” at all costs, his administration has overseen the weakening of policy and regulation protecting the Amazon and its people.

The burning of the largest rainforest in the world is a global crisis with a global fallout.

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Scientists believe that if it continues to burn at this rate, the Amazon will start a death spiral and recovery will be impossible. As I did my own kind of spiralling online, well-meaning perspectives came flooding in response to the rainforest crisis. In a desperate plea for action, many were suggesting that economic sanctions were put on Brazil from the international community. A few even suggested military intervention. An end-of-world mood had been set on social media and it seemed like it was our duty to play the heroes.

“ The burning of the largest rainforest in the world is a global crisis with a global fallout” But this is not the first time an intervention was suggested or carried out on Brazilian soil. The very first one happened in 1500 with the arrival of Pedro Álvares Cabral in South America, a continent now defined only in contrast to its northern neighbour. Back then, however, no thought was given to the depletion of natural resources. Latin American land was syphoned off for centuries, its riches stolen, and its people enslaved, raped and murdered in the name of progress and civilisation.

Beyond a playground for atrocities and genocide, colonies were seen as inferior in every way. The thinking was that the indigenous people couldn’t be trusted to organise a society; they had to be taught, they had to

be civilised. This approach continued on far past official colonial rule. Recently declassified documents by the United States show the American government threw its support completely behind the Brazilian military coup in 1964. The justification of it, also found in these documents, was about control – Brazilians couldn’t be trusted to elect and run their own government. For the sake of a civilised world, the adults had to step in.

To this day the effects of colonialism, slavery and capitalism can be seen ripping apart every natural resource and shackling every thought of independence in the Global South. Bolsonaro himself built his platform by exploiting the vulnerabilities of Brazil’s young democracy. The military dictatorship, which he fervently defends, has emboldened world destroyers like him for over 50 years.

We can point to many issues with military intervention or economic sanctions in Brazil, where all the hurt caused will filter down to the poorest and most vulnerable Brazilians – never, at all, to the people actually responsible for these crimes. But the most fundamental issue is that these interventions would simply further the colonial structures that inspired the catastrophe in the first place. It is not surprising that those floating the idea of military intervention in Brazil did not for a moment consider dismantling their own country’s beef industry, for instance. This is colonial thinking with a new coat of paint.

While I couldn’t go back to my flat, the online freefall I was in led me to several related articles about fires that have happened on my street. Over the last ten years, that one street had seen its fair share of incidents of this type, one which resulted in the death of a woman back in 2011. On the next street over, however, parallel to where I lived, I could not find records of any recent fires. The difference? My street scores dead low on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. Specifically, on housing it

INTERSECTIONS

Words: Sam Gonçalves Illustration: Rachael Hood

scores the lowest (worst) possible number.

Meanwhile, the other street (literally a minute’s walk away) scores quite high and is a reasonably affluent area in the city.

The bigger story these flat fires tell is one of shocking inequality that can be found in Scotland and the UK. It is the story of how income and inherited wealth make the difference on the type of housing you can access and, therefore, the type of risk you’re in of making it through a fire. By furthering these widespread inequalities, we are lighting a figurative match that can set real fires.

Colonialism has lit its own match. It has shaped the world around reckless consumption and proud disregard for every life it doesn’t consider “civilised” enough. So, in order to save the Amazon, we need to understand that we are not the “saviours” in this story. We need to subvert the patronising systems that impose white expertise on native life. Like the economic inequality in Scotland being responsible for some of those flat fires, colonial oppression and “first world” economic interest is responsible for the Amazon fires. In both cases, we can’t fix the problem by repeating the same behaviour that got us here.

In no way am I advocating that we cross our arms and do nothing about the climate.

We must challenge our leaders and companies. We must strike. We must look at our power around the world and find ways to dismantle it. We must fight for justice in every instance of human rights abuse perpetrated by our government. While we do that, we can also learn from the groups throughout the world organising around climate justice. We can take a page from the people fighting Bolsonaro’s policies every day while they are targeted by them. We can support the native people of the Amazon, to whom the slogan “our home is on fire” carries a lot more weight. We can begin learning how to share the world.

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THE SKINNY

For Pod’s Sake Here’s what happens when a 200-year-old whisky distillery runs headfirst into a meme about teenagers eating soap

Words: Peter Simpson

“ This story is a knotted ball of online outrage, big brands, and Enormous Twitter Energy” his is a story with a fairly inauspicious beginning. At the start of October, to coincide with London Cocktail Week, the Glenlivet whisky distillery unveiled a new collaboration to kick off the week’s festivities. The distillery had been working with award-winning bartender Alex Kratena and fancy-pants cocktail bars Tayēr + Elementary on a new trio of whisky cocktails, with a unique twist.

These new cocktails came not in a glass, a tumbler, or even one of those lovely earthenware mugs with no handle. No, these drinks – in Citrus, Spice and Wood flavours – came in the form of edible capsules that look a tiny little bit like pillows. They were served up as welcome drinks over the course of the week, and were, by most accounts, quite nice. So far, so good. This is where the story twists into a knotted ball of online outrage, big brands, and Enormous Twitter Energy. Oh, and one of America’s leading detergent companies.

The Tide Pod Challenge In early 2018, people in certain corners of the internet started talking about something new and odd – the Tide Pod Challenge. To the uninitiated, washing machine pods are those self-contained blobs of washing liquid in a dissolving capsule, with Tide’s variety being particularly colourful and reminiscent of the most corporate children’s treat imaginable. As early as 2015, people were pointing out that this clothes-cleaning stuff really looks like the kind of food you’d aim at children, and so naturally the challenge set by the edgy teens of the 2018 internet was to eat one. A Tide Pod, we mean, not a child.

Now, when people hear the word ‘challenge’, the word ‘internet’ and any word that doesn’t sound immediately edible, their ears prick up a little, and soon the Tide Pod Challenge joined its cinnamon and car-surfing cousins in the pantheon of online scare stories.

The fact that fewer than 100 people were reported to have actually eaten the detergent during challenge season – contrast that with the more than 10,000 under-fives who ate, inhaled or otherwise ingested the stuff by accident in the previous year – became largely irrelevant. “Are teens really eating soap?” “Not in any significant numbers!” “Sorry, I only heard ‘teens… eating soap… in significant numbers!’

Better tell everyone about it right away.”

So what does this have to do with whisky, which is entirely edible and occasionally delicious? Well, look again at those Glenlivet capsules. Squint a little, and they do look a

November 2019

The Glenlivet Capsule Collection

teeny, tiny little bit like something you’d stick in the washing machine. That’s handy, because it allows everyone to jump straight in with headlines like ‘At Long Last, Alcoholic Tide Pods Are Finally Here’ and to razz Glenlivet on Twitter until the cows come home, shitfaced on whisky capsules.

It seems the internet hadn’t got over their last bout of detergent mania, so the sight of a liquid-filled square was enough to kick things off again. In those conditions, all a story like this needs to really get rolling is a catchy, search-friendly term like ‘whisky tide pods’ and boom – several days of online snark, served up buffet-style. That’s why there’s now a paragraph on the Wikipedia page for Consumption of Tide Pods (a real thing that we have not made up) which reads as follows: “Glenlivet has announced they are releasing a new kind of ‘cocktail’ that appears to have been directly inspired by the Tide Pod Challenge.” That “directly inspired” line, by the way, comes from Michael Walsh of the Nerdist who, thinking out loud, says that’s what these cocktail capsules look like to him as a third-hand observer. That’s one way of using the word “direct”, we suppose.

Down with This Sort of Thing So that’s the general public’s response – mockery and nostalgia for a big moment in meme history. The response from whisky fans – keen to prove that they know what’s good when it comes to drinking old, brown liquid – was a different story altogether. This is a disgrace to the heritage of Scotch whisky; this

makes whisky drinkers look stupid; how are you supposed to sniff something that’s inside a bag made of seaweed?

There were the somewhat-elitist arguments about the importance of “appreciation”, and how that trumps having fun with weird whisky blobs, and a good number of people re-fighting old battles about whether or not it’s OK to put anything other than a drop of water in your dram. Lads, cocktails exist, get over it. In fact, these whisky blobules are only here in the first place to hype Glenlivet at a cocktail festival, where the whisky will be served... wait for it... in a cocktail.

Of course, that’s the whole point of all of this – to hype the brand by annoying and outraging people who may or may not ever get anywhere near the actual product. The real purpose of the mouse’s pillowcase filled with whisky and bergamot is to make you talk about the whisky brand, to raise awareness of this particular whisky brand, and to sell more whisky. The logic behind creating colourful bundles of washing liquid that look like sweets is to sell more washing liquid, and if the best way to do that is to make them look really appetising then, well, better tell people not to eat them and hope for the best.

Outrage Marketing The thing about marketing is that it has an impact whether you appreciate the message or not, and as companies try to grab our attention they’re often reaching for the advertising equivalent of a taser. If a soft drink

FOOD AND DRINK

Photo: The Glenlivet

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company suggests police brutality can be stopped by Kendall Jenner and a bag of cans, it’s taking a punt that you might be so shocked you remember them next time you’re standing next to the fridge. When a razor brand calls out toxic masculinity, they’re working on the basis that everyone will flap their jowls about said brand, whether they support the message or really, really don’t.

If you’re shouting about an enormous multinational drinks brand, by name, for the Twitter glory, you’re sort of doing their job for them, even if it is in the context of them being a bit daft. Your outrage, righteous or otherwise, helps them grow stronger (and before you start, yes, we realise the irony of pointing all of this out in an extremely public forum).

That’s why when Glenlivet make a PR statement to back up their PR stunt, they don’t simply release a sheet of A4 with the Thinking Face emoji and a footnote reminding their adult customers not to eat detergent. They say: “We want to reassure you The Glenlivet is committed to producing safe, responsible & delicious products for adults.” If it was all about damage control and disassociating from youths who eat soap, you probably wouldn’t pop the word “delicious” in there, would you?

When something pops up online, question where it’s come from. If a story seems too simplistic, it probably hasn’t been explained very well. If a brand is trying to get you fired up, don’t fall for it. And above all else, please, please, for the love of pod, do not eat washing detergent.

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Wish Upon A Star In honour of a new Michelin-starred restaurant around the corner from The Skinny office, here’s a guide to emulating their wares at home! Well, sort of!

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hout out to Condita – the tiny restaurant in Edinburgh’s Southside, with a constantly changing seasonal menu and a location next door to the Post Office where The Skinny sends its mail and buys its Monster Munch,

COCO Chocolatier

has bagged a coveted Michelin Star. It joins a handful of restaurants in Scotland with the honour, which confers enormous clout but sadly doesn’t guarantee an audience with the Michelin Man himself.

Michelin Star dining is associated with a certain kind of cuisine – small plates, big visuals, fancy ingredients – but research from restaurant supply website Sous Chef suggests that the well-to-do aren’t that much different from us. They analysed (as in, ‘read’) the menus from the nicest of the Michelin Star restaurants across the country, and picked out a list of the 12 ‘most Michelin ingredients.’

Does this make sense as an exercise? Not really; food is food so there aren’t going to be many big surprises. It’s not as if the rich literally feast on the blood of the poor, that’s just a metaphor (for now). But might it offer the chance for some amusing #content? You betcha. Here’s our guide for where’s best to pick up each of these 12 ingredients in Edinburgh and Glasgow, so you can eat the same things as the super-fancy.

Chocolate You like chocolate, we like chocolate, people who run swanky restaurants like chocolate.

And Scotland is home to a surprising amount of good independent chocolate, given we’re thousands of miles away from cocoa-growing

territory. Edward & Irwyn sell incredible dark chocolate shards, Coco make fantastic bars with all manner of additional stuff in them, and Chocolate Tree have a great range of bean-to-bar chocolates from growers around the world.

Apple, Lemon, Potato, Beetroot, Mushroom, Onion, Tomato Fruit and veg, it turns out, are big on restaurant menus. Who would have thunk it? Still, it’s always nice to beat the drum for nice people who sell good veg, so that’s what we’ll do here.

In Glasgow? Head to Locavore; they grow a lot of their own stuff, and will do you a humdinger of a veg box. Love tasteful window displays?

Head to Roots Fruits and Flowers, and immediately feel bad for disrupting the well-arranged lemons by actually buying them.

In Edinburgh? Get to the New Leaf Co-op in Marchmont, Dig-In in Bruntsfield, or Global Fruits in Tollcross. If you want to take things up a notch, it is the tail end of mushroom foraging season – as long as you know which ones are which, you could end up with a free meal (offer only valid if you like eating mushrooms).

Scallops, Lobster, Crab Getting a good potato is always fun, but the quality issue is much more pressing when it

Words: Peter Simpson

comes to seafood. Luckily, there’s plenty to go around in both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Marchmont students are lucky to have Eddie’s Seafood Market on their doorstep – get down early and you’ll find the place overflowing with watery goodies. Armstrong’s of Stockbridge do a similar line in well-sourced and nicely looked-after fish at the other end of town.

Glasgow’s quality seafood sellers, on the other hand, seem to absolutely be in this for the puns. The Fish Plaice in Glasgow Cross deserves a thunderous round of applause, while Wilson’s Catch of the Day in Finnieston is run by a former chef, who will innately understand your dreams of Michelin stardom.

Caviar The rest of the list was fairly straightforward, and a nice excuse to recommend some of our favourite indie shops and producers. This part took us hours of scouring and just kept leading us back to the Waitrose website. So yes, if you want to go Full Michelin Star, and aren’t fussed about the ethical side of scooping out the insides of a still-living prehistoric fish, then Waitrose are your folks.

Personally, we’ll try our chocolate, potato and lemon amuse bouche without the cav first, and see how we fare... theskinny.co.uk/food

Chews Bulletin This month, find out what Rick Stein’s been up to, and learn about this great new drink called... *checks notes*... gin

W

e start with a pair of fairly topical booze-ups courtesy of The Pop Up Geeks. Their bar at the Market Street Arches hosts King (28 Oct-3 Nov) over Halloween, scaring the bejeezus out of you all with some Stephen King-inspired tipples. If there isn’t a drink inspired by The Running Man on the list, we’ll be very disappointed. That’s followed by the launch of Cantina (from 11 Nov), their new Star Wars-inspired concept that seems to be inspired more by the bad lads in the Death Star than by the good guy Rebels or the soft, lovely Ewoks. Arch 14, East Market St, Edinburgh, thepopupgeeks.com Longing for summer trips to warmer climes? Or just unsure what to make for dinner? Either way, TV’s very own Rick Stein has a new book of French recipes to go with his new BBC series. He’s in Edinburgh this month to flog said book, and talk a bit about his long relationship with French food. Will he be able to tell you why your sauces keep splitting? Who knows, but it couldn’t hurt to ask in the Q&A. Greenside Church, 1b Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, 8 Nov, 8pm, £26 (includes book), tickets via toppingbooks.co.uk The Edinburgh Vegan Festival returns with another oversized programme of animal-free talks, exhibitors and stalls. There’s a Vegan Christmas Market to help you get stocked up for the months ahead, and a Chocolate Tasting

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Words: Peter Simpson

Workshop that’ll look at the ethics and origins of chocolate before letting you loose on some tasty treats. There’s also a programme of talks, a live podcast recording, and a whole host of other plant-based stuff to check out. Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, 10 Nov, 10.30am-4pm, £1-15, tickets via veganfestival.co.uk It’s a similar situation over in Glasgow, as the Glasgow Vegan Winter Festival returns to the Trades Hall in the Merchant City. There are 50 stalls per day featuring a host of vegan delights from all over the shop, as well as cooking demos, workshops, talks and more.

Trades Hall, 85 Glassford St, 23 & 24 Nov,

10.30am-4.30pm, £3-15, tickets via Eventbrite Next, an afternoon of tasty beers and lovely tunes courtesy of a couple of favourites round these parts – community-minded record label Last Night from Glasgow, and the always-fabulous Inn Deep. Tunes On Tap features sets from the likes of Zoë Bestel and Mt. Doubt’s Leo Bargery to go alongside a selection of tasty pints from Williams Bros.

That’s a not-bad Sunday afternoon, we reckon.

Inn Deep, 445 Great Western Rd, Glasgow, from 1pm, free or £5 to pre-book (includes a pint), tickets via tickettailor.com And finally, it’s off to the Southside for

GinFall Gin Festival. We’re talking exclusive gins, gin cocktails, and gin liqueurs. Ever wanted to meet a gin distiller? They’re right there, talking about botanicals; go and have a chat! Want to *make* a gin cocktail? You can!

Looking for some food? GinFall has ‘gin-inspired’ cakes! Also, a gin raffle, which is fairly self-explanatory. Oh, and if you somehow end up at this event but don’t like gin, there’s also a rum room. Pollokshields Burgh Hall, Glasgow, 30 Nov, 12-4pm & 5.30-9.30pm, £15-20, tickets via tickettailor.com theskinny.co.uk/food

Glasgow Vegan Winter Festival

FOOD AND DRINK

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RE V IE

Taking Stock

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Pop? Experimental? Reclusive? An oddball? Electronic producer and performer Edwin Organ is cool with being all these things and more on his three EPs exploring men and masculinity

eople are constantly trying to justify their lifestyle to others, to be told they’re doing it wrong. As long as you’re not being a wanker, you’re fine.”

Edwin Organ is talking about men, and men do indeed suck. What it is to be a man, and traditional versus modern notions of masculinity, is a rabbit hole that has seen the Glasgow-based electronic pop producer and performer spawn not one, not two, but three releases on the subject this year.

This Beta Band-esque trilogy of EPs, all entitled Men, populated by worried loners and real-life reply guys, doesn’t so much contain Earth-shattering revelations – that people should be accepted for who they are, assuming their behaviour isn’t problematic, deviant, or criminal – as it does absurdist musings on toxic male behaviour, questioning the ecosystem of dudes online telling other male-identifying individuals that their approach to masculinity is incorrect, and in turn, as he puts it, “examining myself and figuring out where I fit into this mess.”

It was sprung from a pool of songs he’d written over the course of a couple of years but hadn’t yet corralled into a meaningful project. It took some ambiguous personal tumult to focus his creativity and figure their place. “I was processing a lot of things that were going on in my life at the time,” he explains. “Like everything that you could imagine happening, good and bad, in a year, happened around the space of when I was lyrically putting these songs together.”

It made him take stock of his friendships, his behaviour and that of the men around him – in social circles, in work environments, on the internet. “I enjoy the absurdity of things; it helps me process the strangeness of life.

That’s what this [criticism of manliness] is.

Putting emphasis on being a breadwinner, rather than on sharing feelings… it’s like, what the fuck is going on? There is no exact role a man should play in society.”

Interrogating that is the bare minimum we can ask of ourselves, as a cross-section of a society where we hold an extremely privileged position. Organ’s music doesn’t necessarily pick it all apart and provide answers; he teases out the humour in interactions that simultaneously make you laugh and feel weary, like the umpteenth screenshot of a man – always a man – telling someone, usually a woman, on Twitter that they’re wrong, always in increasingly incredulous ways. The rainbow scattered unpredictability of the music – at one point crunchy hip-hop (Truths & Beliefs), then psychedelic pop, and later loungey muzak (Virtue of Grace), and beyond – only emphasises this.

Topical as it is, it jars at first – there’s an air of mystery around Organ, not least because he prefers to be addressed by his pseudonym, a tribute to Scotland’s first national poet, a moniker chosen in the same vein as other electronic acts like Joy Orbison.

When he speaks genially on the phone, banal references ground him. He’s in his mid-20s. He studied music, and came of age living in Ayr with a kind of dreary coastal nonchalance. “I spent a lot of time there hanging out with a good bunch of people who were also stuck in

November 2019

this place doing a degree, which at times required a lot of effort, but also a lot of the time didn’t,” he says. “It left a lot of time free for other endeavours. I got heavily into techno.

It was really a hermit period.”

But paired with his idiosyncratic, eccentric, constantly morphing productions, Organ exists in a kind of musical magical realism, imbued, unusually for our modern era, with a sense of the unknown, which alternately is familiar within electronic music. “I’m not trying to give [using a stage name] extra meaning, but I do feel like it adds to the persona I’m trying to put across. It helps people focus on the music and what the music is saying, rather than trying to delve too far into personal details, which to me just isn’t that important or interesting. It adds a bit of pizzazz.”

“ What the fuck is going on? There is no exact role a man should play in society” Edwin Organ

Since transitioning to this style of off-kilter, not quite definable, pop as Edwin Organ, from more rigid house and techno inspired club bangers earlier in his life, Organ has stretched what it is to be an electronic producer. There’s the melting pot of sounds.

It’s a bit of a pointless exercise, though fun, to

try and pick out all the potential reference points – a bit of Mount Kimbie here, a dash of Dirty Projectors there, a love of “brostep and bastardised dubstep” which morphed into favouring jazz, soul and other styles that don’t sound anything like these hard to place pop tunes. In fact, it’s studio wizardry he feels most inspired by. “I admire production techniques, artists like Kevin Parker and Ruban Nielson – essentially one-man bands who are process heavy and dive into sounds,” he says.

Then there’s the use of his voice: at times commanding and present, at others deliberately dead-eyed, always sweetly melancholy.

Across the three Men EPs, and especially on Panning and 0.8 Me Rate Me from the yet to be released third instalment, it’s been the emotional anchor among all his playful melodic and production ideas.

Organ doesn’t quite fit in anywhere musically. He’s been described as “reclusive” and an “oddball” – not exactly typical tropes of masculinity. We put it to him that, in the context of a poisonous Reddit thread about being a man, those types of words wouldn’t necessarily be used complimentarily. “I don’t really take being called weird and a recluse as derogatory. It doesn’t bother me; it sums me up well,” he beams. “Ex-girlfriends will agree, I spend a lot of time pissing about indoors. I place all of my attention on my music. As I’ve gotten older, and learned that men often make no new friends after the age of 25 [the subject of his song Gabriel], I have started to think, ‘I haven’t been out in a week, maybe I should let people know I’m not dead.’ I don’t dislike people, I just like spending time on my own.”

A preference to be alone translates to his working methods. “I’ve had a lot of bad experiences in bands not being able to convey

what I want to make. All of my ideas are in my head. Physical musicianship is something I do in the moment. Some take a lot of time in honing their craft, but for me it’s about getting ideas down when I feel like my physical hands are what’s letting me down. That’s a lot easier when you’re on your own.”

Further glittering the picture, Organ is a skilled dancer. Well, was, he says. “I quietly call myself the best dancer in the Scottish music industry,” he jokes. “I used to dance a lot (as part of Scottish Youth Dance), but I am terribly inflexible these days. I’m a big fan of it, and still appreciate the form, because it’s fucking hard, and when people are good at it, they make it look easy.”

After standalone singles and EP Missing the T, Men seems like a fully-formed artistic statement. Crucially, though, Organ chose for these songs not to be part of his official first album. It will surely come, but with a seemingly tireless work ethic, he’s constantly looking for something new. “I write obsessively – coming up with ideas is what I find most rewarding. Logically, you’d think an album would be next, but I’m open to whatever ideas present themselves to me. I’m into dabbling in VR. Right now, I need to finish the mixes for this third EP. It’s the eleventh hour and we’re still here tweaking shit!”

That about sums Edwin Organ up – a kind of madcap scientist dabbling in whatever flight of fancy swims along. Fortunately, he’s able to turn that experimentation into genuinely affecting pop music.

Men III is self-released on 22 Nov Edwin Organ plays The Poetry Club, Glasgow, 8 Dec edwinorgan.com

Photo: Alex Cameron

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Interview: Tony Inglis

Music

Review

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Mind the Gap We chat to SKOOP Records’ co-founder Tzusan about sci-fi, sampling, and loads and loads of egg boxes

Interview: Becca Inglis

Tzusan

Too many to name them all, but it feels appropriate that those he does cite include David Cronenberg and Ben Wheatley, both known respectively for their psychological horrors and sci-fi thrillers like Crash (1996) and A Field in England (2013). It hints at an introspective brand of hip-hop, built from fragmented images into a series of vignettes.

“I think that’s the world we’re living in. It’s quite dystopian and disconnected from itself and just a weird jumble of madness,” says Turner. “You find these crazy little stories and pockets on the internet. There’s odd stuff going on all over the place, and I tried to make an album that would reflect on the weird world that we’re inhabiting.”

Helping to set that tone on Babau were the dishevelled surroundings that Turner

Turner describes an album awash with arthouse samples and sly lyrical nods to sci-fi films. “I’m a bit of a cinephile. It’s a thing that I draw a lot of influences from,” he says.

“There’s a few directors who I rate very highly.”

Do Not Miss El Rancho Showcase @ The Flying Duck, Glasgow, 14 Nov Celebrating the launch of their management and booking agency El Rancho Music, Glasgow’s El Rancho Records are putting on a special showcase tonight at The Flying Duck, featuring four bands from across the label and roster. Savage Mansion, LYLO, Sweaty Palms and The Lawnmower – who recently released The Pleasures of the Table via the label – will all play. Head to theskinny.co.uk/music for El Rancho’s recent takeover of our weekly EH-FM radio slot.

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Review

Photo: Ian McCall

The Lawnmower

Carla Dal Forno

Photo: Samual Davidson

Jacob Turner

chose to record in. Early tracks like Lobster Shell Beach and No Brainer began their life in a dilapidated garden shed, which he’d transformed into a makeshift studio with the help of egg boxes hoarded from his job in a kitchen – an old life hack, he tells us, for dampening the sound. “It suited the aesthetic as well, so why not? It was a proper little cave.

No windows. There’s old boards with graff on them. I would work in there for ages, not see the light, make beats. It was quite apt, the rundown vibe.”

From these humble beginnings, Turner has taken Babau up and down the country, stopping off in Glasgow, Leeds and Bristol along the way. Even on his solo debut as Tzusan, he couldn’t resist collaborating with the wider hip-hop community. Babau features

Carla dal Forno @ The Glad Cafe, Glasgow, 16 Nov; The Raincoats @ Mono, Glasgow, 16 Nov If you, like Julia Stiles’ character in 10 Things I Hate About You, are mad about The Raincoats, then you’re in luck. The post-punk band, formed in the late 70s, are celebrating 40 years since the release of their self-titled debut album and are playing Mono tonight.

Just along the road from them you’ll find Berlin-based, Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Carla dal Forno, who plays The Glad Cafe tonight following the release of her second album, Look Up Sharp, in October. Pick your poison.

Babau is released on 27 Nov via SKOOP Records skoop.bandcamp.com

Declan Welsh and the Decadent West @ Beat Generator Live!, Dundee, 19 Nov It’s been a busy year for songwriter and poet Declan Welsh and his band The Decadent West.

With a coveted appearance at Glastonbury under their belts, where they played Billy Bragg’s stage, things leveled up a notch last month with the release of their debut album, Cheaply Bought, Expensively Sold. Now they’re taking it on the road to see out 2019 in style. Tonight they play Dundee; they also play Saint Luke’s, Glasgow, 15 Nov; Mad Hatters, Inverness, 17 Nov; The Tunnels, Aberdeen, 18 Nov.

Music

Declan Welsh and the Decadent West

Magpie Blue

Photo: Neelam Khan Vela

“ I tried to make an album that would reflect on the weird world that we’re inhabiting”

extra textures from artists like Glasgow’s SAMA-award winning trap MC Kid Robotik, newcomer to the Northern England scene Donimitsu, and his old-time SKOOP collaborators CRPNTR, Papillon and Skillis.

“Musically, I get influenced by stuff all the time, but a big part of that is the other boys in SKOOP,” says Turner. “Hearing what they’re coming up with and trying to build a sound together. A lot of us make this dusty boom bappy hip-hop, and then some of the more producer heads make straight grime and electronic music. I think I fill that gap in the middle.”

That network is arguably one of SKOOP’s greatest strengths. There are pockets of the label all over Edinburgh’s music scene, with previous nights including a guest set at their second birthday party by drum’n’bass DJ Anikonik, and a performance of their own at a live gig curated by trip-hop four-piece Earth Wire. “There’s so many different people in the collective, everyone will bring something else to the table,” says Turner. “One night we’ll do a crazy hip-hop night, another we’ll do a more jungly night, and another we’ll do live bands.”

What started out two years ago as a loose collective of artists has amassed into a definitive leftfield hip-hop niche – one that drives futuristic bars with a heavy experimentalism. It’s exactly the setting that would produce an aural melting pot from jangling keys, ambient movie soundtracks, and Dante’s Inferno references, all the while surrounded by an egg box barricade.

“The ethos of SKOOP is quite ramshackle.

It’s rough and ready, do it yourself,” says Turner. “Don’t be one of those people who’s like, ‘I would make a banging album but I can’t afford this incredible guitar’. Just get a plastic band and a cardboard box and make the noise with it. You can make anything sound good. I think the album is testament to that.”

Magpie Blue @ Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, 20 Nov Having released her stunning debut single as Magpie Blue, Just In Time, back in June, we were delighted to premiere Millie Hanlon Cole’s accompanying music video on our website. With a smattering of Lucy Dacus’ Night Shift, this exciting young singer-songwriter’s debut is full to the brim with swirling guitars and driving drums, and tonight she plays her debut headline show at Sneaky Pete’s. If the rest of her repertoire is as polished, then Magpie Blue is certainly one to watch for 2020.

THE SKINNY

Photo: Northhold Photogtaphy

here’s something about taking a sound that’s really disgusting and making something a little nicer out of it,” says Jacob Turner, co-founder of experimental hip-hop collective SKOOP Records, aka rapper and producer Tzusan. He’s describing the magpielike approach he’s taken to producing his forthcoming album Babau, which picks fragments of distorted found sounds and samples to construct an uncanny soundscape. “It’s quite surreal,” he says. “A lot of the samples that I used are from horrible movie soundtracks and ambient white noise, noises like people hitting corrugated iron sheets with shoes.”

Babau is Turner’s first solo album as Tzusan, following his 2017 collaboration with fellow SKOOP artist CRPNTR on The Teriyaki Tape. That first LP made an exemplary record for the Edinburgh label, showcasing an ethereal and futuristic branch of hip-hop along with a signature sombre mood in Tzusan’s production. On Babau, that lo-fi melancholia is intensified. “It’s a bit darker, more eerie,” says Turner. “I wanted the album to have this weird cult sci-fi feel to it all the way through.”

Photo: James Keyte

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Wade in the Water We speak to Sarah McWhinney, aka Swampy Cello, about how observing rural life and bothy hopping around the north of Scotland helped inspire her debut EP

aves are really exciting!” Sarah McWhinney grins. The low-key folk legend, and cello phenomenon, has spent a lot of time in caves. “I used to explore them growing up, and I was really interested in their rock patterns and water systems.” McWhinney first picked up the cello aged nine – during a rare moment surfaced from her caving explorations – and has barely put it down since.

The sound she has refined over the last five years is unique and unparalleled to any current experimental folk artists, which she owes to her time spent in caves. “Water erodes caves in a really slow way, gradually changing its form,” she says. “The idea of things slowly developing into something new – all the layers of time building up, with the various patterns that form around that – seemed really connected to music for me.”

somewhat alien to more traditional uses of the instrument. Plucked reverberations weave around swoops of the bow; thumping beats go on a wander with undulating scales; fluid melodies echo alongside scratching strings. Layering these sounds together produces music that is both contemplative and intangibly enjoyable.

For McWhinney, nature has always been foundational to her music. Even her name is infused with environmental imagery, and it’s why she called her solo act Swampy Cello. “I found out a few years ago that my surname literally translates to ‘one who lives in a muddy, boggy field’,” she explains. “I loved that, because it made me think of wading through the Scottish landscape. And I think ‘wading’ is the right word here, because you don’t go for a walk on the land when it’s raining – you wade through. A lot of my music feels like that – as if you’re

immersing yourself in layers of the landscape.”

As research for her self-titled EP, McWhinney spent weeks planting vegetables, observing rural life and bothy hopping around Glenelg. “I loved how slow the pace of the day was there,” she says, “I found a totally different rhythm of life. There was so much stillness everywhere you looked.” Each track on the EP is named after bothies around Glenelg and the north of Scotland, which was reflective of the recording process itself.

“It was a time of rest for me,” she says. “I’d been playing live a lot, but didn’t feel like I had any structural framework for the shows, as I mostly improvised my sets. So during the writing process, it was about playing until I found something I settled on. It’s probably the only thing I can sink into [...] I have a really busy brain, and playing is a place of calm for

“ Projections are a way of adding to the feeling of being absorbed into something. It’s about sucking people in through all their senses”

November 2019

Withered Hand @ Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, 20, 21 and 22 Nov Celebrating ten years of Withered Hand, Edinburgh-based Dan Willson and co are playing not one, not two, but three nights in a row at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms this month. The first of these three nights will feature a performance of their debut album, 2009’s Good News in full, with the second featuring a runthrough of 2014’s New Gods. The final night will be more of a greatest hits affair, showcasing some brand new songs for good measure.

A discounted ticket is available for super fans who want to do the tripler.

Withered Hand

Photo: Paul Storr

HYYTS @ Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, 21 Nov There’s been quite the buzz around Glasgowbased R’n’B/alt-pop group HYYTS this year, and following a slew of well-received singles, November sees the duo releasing their debut EP. Kicking things off with a date at London’s iconic Old Blue Last, HYYTS then hit the road for a run of dates on home turf starting with this one at Edinburgh’s Cabaret Voltaire; they also play Church, Dundee, 22 Nov; The Tunnels, Aberdeen, 23 Nov.

Photo: Bex Day

HYYTS

Swampy Cello

Squiggles

Blanck Mass @ The Art School, Glasgow, 23 Nov; Squiggles @ The Flying Duck, Glasgow, 23 Nov Another Saturday night in Glasgow brings with it another difficult decision to make. Our top picks are as follows: either you go and get quite literally shook by Benjamin John Power, aka Blanck Mass, as he plays The Art School in celebration of his latest album, Animated Violence Mild. A couple of top notch drag queens – Violet Grace and Frans Gender – are on support duty.

Or, you could head to The Flying Duck for Niall McCamley from The Spook School’s new solo project, the mental health-fighting superhero Squiggles. Decisions, decisions.

Music

Photo: Richie Morgan

The result is a cacophony of patterns that interact with each other in highly unexpected ways. Using only the cello, McWhinney creates a vast collection of sounds that, when filtered through loop pedals and the like, become

Photo: Josephine Lohoar Self

Sarah McWhinney

me.” So naming tracks after bothies – places of shelter at the end of a long ramble – reflected McWhinney’s process of finding her own music in the hills. That feeling expounds itself to listeners, who she hopes will find a pocket of calm and warmth within the intricate layers of Swampy Cello.

A Glasgow School of Art graduate, McWhinney’s creativity goes far beyond music.

Making film accompaniments to her live performances, she creates an atmosphere that lets you sink further into the landscapes she renders with her spectral sounds. Mossy colours, fluid silhouettes and abstract shapes all flicker to the music and play out alongside each other. These shapes are based on water and how it transforms solid material very gradually. “When making the films I wanted to focus on the random interplay of water-like movements and how they come together at points,” she says. “It almost feels like having another instrument in the room, like adding a voice to the conversation.”

So how does this enhance the music? “The projections are a way of adding to the feeling of being absorbed into something. It’s about sucking people in through all their senses.”

The result is a captivating blast of sound and visual imagery that create both a space of relaxation and a total absorption in the present moment. The listener will roam the landscapes that Swampy Cello expertly weaves, and hopefully find some quiet space inside a busy brain.

That’s what McWhinney wants: to give listeners the same feeling of ‘drifting’ that she gets when she plays. “I guess the end goal is to take everyone down the rabbit hole with me,” she muses.

“I’m not quite there yet, but that’s the aim.” So take a leap into the caverns with Swampy Cello; you certainly won’t be disappointed.

Swampy Cello is self-released on 8 Nov Swampy Cello plays The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, 25 Nov facebook.com/swampycello

Bossy Love @ Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow, 29 Nov Glasgow duo Bossy Love released their debut album Me + U on 31 October and it’s an absolute beaut, cementing them as one of our favourites. Celebrating its release, John Baillie Jnr and Amandah Wilkinson, aided by the impeccable talents of keyboardist Ollie Cox, will be officially launching it into the world with a proper knees-up tonight at Sauchiehall Street’s Nice N Sleazy. They truly are one of the best live bands in the country, so with support from the mighty Wuh Oh, this is one show not to be missed.

Bossy Love

Review

Photo: Paul Storr

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Interview: Niamh Carey

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Album of the Month FKA twigs

MAGDALENE [Young Turks, 8 Nov]

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FKA twigs’ gorgeous second album was birthed from pain and struggle, both emotional and physical. Come its end, MAGDALENE presents a woman, shattered and rung out – by the prying eyes locked on an intensely public relationship and break-up; by the six fibroid tumours removed from her uterus – yet standing, resilient.

Finding strength in vulnerability, and the tug of war between contrastingly feeling powerful and helpless, angry and devastated, after heartbreak, has rarely been so well conveyed on record. Yes, it’s in twigs’ words; but it can be found in her tone, in the way a piano swells and sours.

Nowhere is this more evident than on mirrored heart where twigs proclaims pointedly: ‘I’m never gonna give up’. But it’s the one moment on MAGDALENE when she can’t help but let her anguish overwhelm. She sees other couples on the street, settled, content.

But she can’t feel happy for them: ‘They just remind me I’m without you’. Even then, she

Girl Ray

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Making a career of crafting delicious chamber pop nuggets, Tindersticks have existed on the peripheries of relevance and fashion for almost 30 years now. This month they return with their 11th album, No Treasure But Hope, continuing a great run, though not quite as confidently as you’d hope.

The album’s arrangements are uniformly beautiful, coddling Stuart Staples’ vocals at all times, though sometimes to the point of being overly cloying. Pinky In the Daylight is pretty enough, but the simple, saccharine detail drags out unnecessarily. Carousel and Take Care In Your Dreams are similarly lovely, yet forgettable, while See My Girls is by far the most experimental song on the album, dealing in wonky Eastern textures and choppy strings, but the overly sentimental lyrics about enjoying seeing photos of his ‘girls’ on holiday don’t stray far from surface level.

The final three songs are better, delving into the nature of father-son relationships (The Old Man’s Gait), adding a hint of brassy funk (Tough Love) and finally coming full circle with another superlative piano ballad. There’s more good than bad on No Treasure But Hope, but its insipid mid-section bogs down what could’ve been another stellar release from one of the most consistently underrated bands out there. [Lewis Wade] Listen to: For the Beauty, Tough Love

Review

knows that she was never committed to in all her facets, and she doesn’t deserve this pain.

‘Did you want me? No, not for life / Did you truly see me? No, not this time / Were you ever sure? No, no, no, not with me’. Every ‘no’ a gut punch.

In the writing and production process, twigs is aided by one of the most impressive credits lists for an album in some time, but twigs’ stamp is everywhere. These are pop songs – sad day is a widescreen ballad – and would be treated as such were it not for twigs constantly pushing the boundaries of her music, refusing to conform with traditional arrangements and peppering tracks with unpredictable sonic pathways.

The crux of MAGDALENE is twigs. Her voice – whether choral and operatic (thousand eyes), digitally manipulated (home with you), or bent from impeccable to strained in a single line (fallen alien) – is centred. Much will be, and should be, made of how this work ties into her experiences with her former partner,

Tindersticks

No Treasure But Hope [City Slang, 15 Nov]

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FKA twigs

with her operation and ailments. But MAGDALENE is about a woman stepping out of the shadow of all that.

The album ends with its first single, cellophane, when this new pole dancing, wushu swinging, twigs was reintroduced to us.

It’s still as breathless and breathtaking as it

Cloth

Girl [Moshi Moshi, 8 Nov]

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On their debut album Earl Grey, trio Girl Ray delivered a blend of indie riffs and woozy rhythms that evoked the warmth of a cosy, hot cuppa. Skip forward a couple of years and they’re diving into new territory on Girl.

Delving into the realms of R’n’B and pure pop, the trio have added new dimensions to their sound, bringing bright synths and snappy beats into the mix.

The results are quite often charming.

Show Me More is propelled by funk-inflected guitar licks, while Friend Like That flourishes with clashing cymbals to punctuate its soaring hook. Off-kilter keyboard characterises the instantly-grabbing opening to Because, the trio spinning this beginning out into shimmering synth and swooning harmonies. At other times though, Girl can feel like it’s trying too hard to differentiate itself from its predecessor to detrimental effect, particularly towards the back end of the album. The motif of Go To the Top evokes 60s lounge music in a way that comes across more dated than nostalgic, while Beautiful gently leans towards reggae but feels ephemeral.

Stepping away from the core sound of their debut was a bold move from Girl Ray; they don’t always quite pull the change off but, when they do, Girl can be a charismatic record. [Eugenie Johnson] Listen to: Because

Cloth [Last Night from Glasgow, 15 Nov]

On Cloth’s self-titled debut, the Glasgow three-piece are moody and assured, with flashes of brilliance that offer a glimpse at a promising future.

With Swinton twins Rachael and Paul, and Clare Gallacher on drums, Cloth’s default setting is hushed and starry alt-rock with a bubbling undercurrent of an electronic groove. The record is least satisfying when this blurs into a vibe miasma – the pleasant mid-tempo bounce of the final two tracks running into each other without event. But that makes the moments of standout even

The Ninth Wave Infancy Part 2 [Distiller, 15 Nov]

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Infancy Part 1 came as a collection of six songs which transitioned through the genres into one coherent, audacious little package. Part 2 arrives as not only a continuation of that but simultaneously a conclusion to Infancy with a set of stellar tracks.

Again, 80s influences vastly underpin the record’s true quality, with their continued knack for large, swelling choruses matched equally by some wonderful electronic production and fizzing guitar work. Lead single Imitation is fuelled by the gallon on this notion,

RECORDS

Photo: Matthew Stone

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first seemed. An artist doing, as she sings, ‘a woman’s work’, pleading not to have to share her love with anyone else. [Tony Inglis] Listen to: mary magdalene, mirrored heart, cellophane

more exciting.

It may be a familiar early single, but Demo Love is the best example. Beginning by wrong-footing the listener and then flourishing quickly into an indie-pop stunner akin to Soccer Mommy’s Cool – it’s confident and glistening. Sleep’s minor tones could be introducing a Julien Baker emo ballad, later threatening to soar into a Tycho drop, though it never does, leaving its more immediate pleasures untapped. It’s a special trick that the song feels better for it.

Tripp’s bopping synthetic beat butts in between latter half tracks that feel a little under-developed, breaking up any lingering monotony. That is thankfully short lived here – Cloth is an impressive first stab for a band worth getting behind. [Tony Inglis] Listen to: Felt, Demo Love, Tripp guided by bouncy rhythms and a hook-led chorus of epic, post-punk proportions.

Haydn Park-Patterson’s crooning vocals continue to glide gloriously alongside Millie Kidd’s on this collection’s rowdier moments, like the aforementioned Imitation and thunderous closer Flower Into Wounds. Yet, the more reserved tracks like brass-clad Human Behaviour, or the toy-box drumming of Sometimes the Silence Is Sweeter contrastingly displays the duo’s masterful ability to mix it up sonically. In all, the level of variation achieved on both this part and throughout the record as a whole, while still being coherent enough to follow down the same path deserves great credit. [Dylan Tuck] Listen To: Human Behaviour, Imitation, Sometimes the Silence Is Sweeter

THE SKINNY

Me + U [Self-released, 31 Oct]

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Bossy Love are a Glasgow-based duo consisting of Scottish drummer and producer John Baillie Jnr and Indonesian/Australian vocalist Amandah Wilkinson and Me + U, their debut album, is a glossy pop stomp, frontloaded with some of the year’s most infectious jams.

Girlfriend cribs heavily from Robyn, with Wilkinson moving from shock – ‘I was like, what the fuck, ‘cause I just found out tonight, that you got someone else’ – to acceptance over propulsive synths, while The E opens with an intro that tees up a hyper processed SOPHIE banger before unfolding into a slick electro R’n’B jam with crackling explosive vocals layered up like an ice cream sundae.

The Vegan Leather

Poor Girls / Broken Boys [Midnight Pink / Believe Digital, Out Now]

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Fast-paced pop, imploring lyrics, delicious melodies: The Vegan Leather have been gathering speed in Scotland’s underground pop scene since 2014. This year, the Paisley quartet have refined their own brand of artpop in debut album Poor Girls / Broken Boys,

Turnover

Altogether [Run for Cover, 1 Nov]

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Over this dwindling decade, emo has taken a strange turn. In the mid-80s and late-90s we witnessed the sub-genre disappear as quickly as it came, and what we’ve learned this time is that the bands have a longer shelf-life if they mutate into other ‘more mature’ genres.

Turnover are probably the biggest culprits of this, having made the biggest switch. Their fourth album, Altogether, brings them to soft-jazz/ alt-rock territory.

While Altogether is a pleasantly enough constructed record, it’s just not particularly enthralling for older fans. However, taken out of the context of the band’s emo heritage and instead as a follow-up to Good Nature, the trio have created more of the same songwriting gems they’ve become known for. [Adam Turner-Heffer] Listen to: Much After Feeling, Plant Sugar

November 2019

Foreign Lover is a duet with BABE’s Gerard Black, which manages to be both endearingly sincere and floor-shakingly camp, while Who Said It pitches itself firmly in the stomping pop category, with a tremendously kitsch spoken word section reminiscent of the Spice Girls or Britney Spears.

It’s a little strange to hear Want Some, a single from more than three years ago, appear here while this year’s Whiplash misses out, but there’s no doubting the duo’s ability to craft a pop curio that delves into 90s R’n’B and mid-00s electro; flitting between the contemporary and the nostalgic.

At times the relentless bright colours and synth-pop maximalism can get a bit much, as if you’ve downed one too many vodka Red Bulls in a short period, but with hooks as sticky as these there’s always the risk of a sugar overdose.

Fortunately there’s some levity too, with album closer Girlfriend II delivering a kiss off a record that shows promising growth for the band, yet manages to retain its danceexhorting simplicity that first brought TVL to our attention.

The record is a delirious punch of disco punk-pop, never losing pace and always staying on message. With themes of social anxiety and female struggle at the heart of many songs – always accompanied by a pulsing tempo to match – the album marries music to subject matter seamlessly. The Hit does this particularly well: the driving beat accompanied by urgent, shouting vocals are a

Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage

Bad Wiring [Moshi Moshi , 15 Nov]

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Condensing Jeffrey Lewis’ genius for playing live into the rather more mundane medium of albums has, over the years, proved tricky.

However, with new band name The Voltage, featuring the same bassist (Mem Pahl) and drummer (Brent Cole) Lewis has been touring with for the past four years, Bad Wiring could be the greatest album of his career to date.

As usual, song topics walk the line between comedy and tragedy, and while the music itself never strays far from the usual anti-folk template (In Certain Orders’ replication of The Cult’s mid-80s stadium rock sound aside), there’s a focus and commitment to make each of these songs sound the best they can. It’s a plan that’s worked and Bad Wiring is an electrifying addition to the Lewis canon. [Jamie Bowman] Listen to: LPs, Exactly What Nobody Wanted

Bossy Love

Photo: Barney The Dog

Bossy Love

anthem to end. Me + U might be the work of talented duo but it’s surely a record that will win them many more friends and admirers.

[Max Sefton] Listen to: The E, Girlfriend perfect match for the anxiety-ridden and violent imagery of the lyrics: ‘Let the glass cut silence / Cut the glass control violence’.

The band’s appreciation of its Scottish pop predecessors is clear on many tracks.

Unorthodox, an album highlight, plays like a revamped Franz Ferdinand tune in its suspicious tone, smooth vocal production and infectious melodies. Or take Days Go By, an extremely danceable track reminiscent of Glaswegian synth-pop duo Strawberry Switchblade. Poor Girls / Broken Boys takes these influential sounds and reworks them into

something that feels notably current and fresh.

Some may find the persistently upbeat melodies and allusions to noughties’ indie-pop a tad tiring; and it’s true that the familiarity of the sound, alongside the pop-rock-synth production, can become a little grating. Still, with Poor Girls / Broken Boys there’s no doubt that The Vegan Leather are a driven and ambitious band with a mission to create instantly pleasurable music. [Niamh Carey] Listen to: The Hit, Days Go By, Heavy Handed

Omni

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy

Lung Dart

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Networker [Sub Pop, 1 Nov] On their third, pin-sharp record, Networker, Atlanta’s Omni mine similar 80s post-punk fare to their previous output, their guitar strings wound tighter than ever, but clean up their lo-fi tendencies, imbuing already razor-like chords with earslicing abilities for a Sub Pop debut.

Omni songs are fidgety mini-epics, refusing to stay still, moving in fits and starts. Closer Sleep Mask stutters satisfyingly, while Courtesy Call’s languid Marquee Moon phases are periodically snapped to attention. Underage has a smooth breakdown for a filling. There are lyrical themes explored here – social media and the ‘digital you’ face criticism, as expected from a sonically past-indebted act – but they are window dressing for songs full of rhythm, forward motion and tightly packed kinetic energy. [Tony Inglis] Listen to: Courtesy Call, Present Tense, Skeleton Key

RECORDS

I Made a Place [Domino, 15 Nov]

I Made a Place is the first collection of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy originals in eight years, the longest gap in his discography. He began recording it without a real view of the finished product, and it’s this loose, uncertain attitude that seems to have led to creating some of his most aggressively upbeat and polished material yet. However, the contrived positivity and dazzling overproduction does wear a bit thin by the midpoint.

Such a long break in the canonical calendar has perhaps made for an album that feels overstuffed at points, but it’s still a fine record, with plenty of Will Oldham idiosyncrasies along with the bluster. If it suffers for being a little less austere than usual, who’s going to begrudge the bonnie prince a little optimism? [Lewis Wade] Listen to: The Glow Pt. 3, New Memory Box

Slouching Towards Meridian [PRAH Recordings, 29 Nov] The ‘Rest Zone’ in the Millennium Dome was designed so that visitors could lie down and let soft, pulsating lights drift over them as a soundtrack designed to be 1000 years long washed across the area.

Though the Rest Zone has since vanished, its lasting impact on Lung Dart emerges on their latest album, Slouching Towards Meridian.

Although the Rest Zone’s composition may have been designed to last a millennium, Slouching Towards Meridian features only one track that breaks the six-minute mark, while most last less than three.

It’s perhaps somewhat telling that the longest track on the album is also its most engaging, taking its time to develop. Slouching Towards Meridian contains moments of beauty; they’re just often a bit too fleeting. [Eugenie Johnson] Listen to: 6am (Ambient Mix)

Review

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Spread Your Wings

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rying to describe Giant Swan is no easy feat, and it’s probably best it stays that way. The Bristol duo, comprising of Robin Stewart and Harry Wright, are currently one of the most exciting acts in electronic music, and a large part of that excitement is due to the inability to put them in any kind of box.

There are no restrictions when it comes to their fanbase either, and you’re as likely to find a techno-head at one of their gigs as you are a mosher, such is their diverse and widespread appeal. At their raucous live shows, you can usually find the pair thrashing around and riling up the crowd, as well as each other, with their infectious energy, while performing a largely improvised set using guitar pedals, amps and drum machines.

Giant Swan are definitely not your typical techno duo, but that’s a good thing. They’re a breath of fresh air in an industry that has for too long suffered from a purist attitude and that is too often at risk of turning into a parody of itself. “We learned a lot about DJ culture just from feeling that we were kind of dropped in it really,” says Wright. “There are certain etiquettes that exist almost just within DJ culture.”

Stewart adds: “People who bitch about it, they create the environment where it’s part of it to care about that and it’s just weird… It doesn’t encourage people to contribute in

new and exciting ways if you’re just devout to something in a really close-minded fashion... it just goes against the spirit of techno and dance music completely.”

Much of the duo’s lack of pretentiousness can be attributed to their humble musical beginnings and close relationship, having grown up together and spent their formative years in previous band The Naturals. It was a chance incident almost ten years ago, though, that eventually developed into what we now know as Giant Swan, when Stewart enlisted Wright’s help mixing some music for a project he was working on for Bristol art gallery Arnolfini.

“About that long ago we started playing, just the two of us, with the idea of doing something different,” says Stewart, before Wright retorts: “I don’t think it was actually ten years… I think it’s more like eight years actually.” While they eventually agree – following a lengthy debate – that the groundwork for a future project was laid following that endeavour in 2009, it took them a good few years to properly consider it as a legitimate prospect.

“It was probably closer to like 2011/12 when we actually started putting together different circuits of gear and just pretending for a little,” says Stewart. “It feels like different bands, like every three years we kind of changed quite dramatically… so I guess from, like, 2013/14 we were really getting into the

“ We've always felt quite on the outside of whatever scene we're in and I think just having our own label for our own album... we wanted it to be just completely ours” Robin Stewart

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Interview: Nadia Younes

Photo: Keith Leaf

Giant Swan are breaking down all kinds of barriers in the electronic music scene. Ahead of the release of their debut album and first ever headline tour this month, we speak to the progressive duo

way we were playing together in this new way.”

Chance is something that has played a part in the development of Giant Swan on more than one occasion, too. When Wright broke his arm before they played their “first show in a dance context”, he says, they were forced to improvise. “I bought this looper pedal, which would store guitar loops and had this sort of metronome on it that had this basic kick drum, and we used that as a basis to accompany the stuff I could do with one hand; from then it just kind of grew and we got used to having drums as an element,” Wright continues.

Now nearly ten years into the band’s existence, give or take, the duo are preparing to release their debut album and head out on their first ever headline tour as Giant Swan.

With the announcement of their self-titled debut album also came the announcement of the launch of their own label, Keck, on which the album will be released. While launching your own label is becoming much more commonplace in electronic music nowadays, it’s another move demonstrating the duo’s uncompromising attitude to making and releasing music.

“As soon as you sign with a label, or not even sign, just if you release your music with any label that’s already got an agenda, you do sort of compromise something… We’ve always felt quite on the outside of whatever scene we’re in and I think just having our own label for our own album... we wanted it to be just completely ours,” says Stewart. Wright adds: “Arguably, a good working relationship with a label is you both building something together and, for us, it didn’t make sense to build something with someone else because we had such a clear idea of what we wanted to do.”

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That clarity extends to their aforementioned live shows. With them, the duo flip the idea of a live club set on its head and recontextualise what it means to perform in a club environment. There’s an unrivalled energy to their shows unlike many other club performances, and they’re breaking down barriers in their attitude towards these as much as they are through their music alone.

“There was a gig we did in Paris a few years ago where we were still playing guitars and we had like a set; it was much less free-form than it is now,” begins Stewart.

“We only played for about 20/25 minutes, and at this particular show we were playing at about five/six in the morning, and we were met with this really ridiculous response of people being like, ‘what the fuck are you doing? You’ve got to keep going’... and then I think our performance became more involved with what the club setting really is, like what it’s for,” he continues. “Our performance became more about, I guess, injecting what we want to see in the club, what we want to hear at a techno gig... you get our version of the rave, which has come from a really exploratory place.”

Giant Swan are shaking up the status quo in the electronic music scene in such a massive way that’s, hopefully, indicative of a bigger change looming on the horizon; it’s one that is incredibly exciting and one that feels like it’s been a long time coming. We’ll gladly take their version of a rave any day.

Giant Swan is released on 8 Nov via Keck Giant Swan play Room 2, Glasgow, 15 Nov facebook.com/giantswanmusic

THE SKINNY

November 2019

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THE SKINNY

Running Tracks Continuing our series focusing on Scottish labels, Craigie Knowes co-founders Mitch Hunter and Max Spittal talk us through the label’s history and their new reissue label Wormhole Wisdom

Interview: Nadia Younes

W

hile their logo may suggest otherwise, Craigie Knowes is definitely not moving at a snail’s pace. Forming in October 2015, the Glasgow-based record label run by Mitch Hunter and Max Spittal has rapidly built a reputation as one of the most exciting and interesting new imprints in Scotland.

So much so that in July this year they were invited by electronic music tastemakers Boiler Room to play a headline set in their London studio, just a day ahead of the label’s showcase at London nightclub FOLD. Despite their rising success, however, the pair remain humble. “We don’t want to say whether or not [the Boiler Room show] went well as it’s probably best to let the people who watched it make that call,” they say.

Since its inception, the label has championed many local artists, releasing tracks by the likes of The Burrell Connection and Sebastian Swarm, but also setting their sights even higher with releases from bigger international names including Textasy and Jensen Interceptor. When it comes to selecting which tracks to release though, they aren’t affected by an artist’s status. Instead, they take a pretty simple approach to business: “If we like it, we’ll release it.”

A stand-out in the label’s catalogue is their annual War Child Fundraiser compilations, proceeds from which are donated to the

Craigie Knowes

War Child charity. Past editions have featured tracks by huge names in dance music, such as Bicep, Move D and Shanti Celeste, and the pair are currently putting the latest compilation in the series into production, with tracks by No Moon, DJ Python and more. “Everyone should give a little back if they have the power and time to do so,” they say. “We try to bring in a mix of local producers and friends; artists we like but haven’t worked with before and artists

that are on our label fairly often.”

But running one label isn’t enough for Hunter and Spittal. They’re also currently working with Glasgow-based DJ and producer Parts Unknown, (real name George Elliott), on a reissue label called Wormhole Wisdom, reworking old, unheard recordings. “Looking for the original recordings we were interested in has been amazing, both for us and the artists responsible,” they say. “Getting to know these

guys who came from a different generation of electronic music is great; how their lives have changed opens your mind up to see where the story goes in 10, 20, 30 years.”

As well as running record labels, the pair also DJ together under the Craigie Knowes name, and this month sees them join the line-up on Slam’s Maximum Pressure Halloween event at SWG3 (1 Nov). On the night they’ll play alongside a host of techno heavyweights, with headliners including Helena Hauff, Karenn and Paula Temple. The night after, they’ll return to their home city of Perth to support Detroit underground legend DJ Bone at The Ice Factory.

Along with even more gigs lined up across the UK and Europe in the coming months, they also have some new releases planned. Showing no signs of slowing down any time soon, the pair are set to release EPs by SJ Tequilla and James Shinra on Craigie Knowes, as well as a three-part series of reissues by Grumptronix and Diode on Wormhole Wisdom, before the year ends, hopefully followed by a well-deserved break.

Craigie Knowes play Maximum Pressure: Halloween, SWG3, Glasgow, 1 Nov; Voyage x Groovement: DJ Bone, The Ice Factory, Perth, 2 Nov; Craigie Knowes: 4 Years, La Cheetah Club, Glasgow, 23 Nov facebook.com/craigieknowes

Club, Actually An unmissable B2B, an underground legend and an Amazon fundraiser make up just some of this month’s clubbing highlights across Scotland

Sensu: Midland Sub Club, Glasgow, 1 Nov Just a couple of days after the release of his first record in three years – a four-track EP entitled The Alchemy of Circumstance – Harry Agius returns to Glasgow under his musical alias Midland. The EP was released on Agius’ own Graded label, which he formed in 2013, and was described as “the sound of R2D2 having a meltdown in Ikea”; strange as it sounds, it’s a pretty fitting description. Taking a step away from playing festival main stages across the world, don’t miss the chance to catch him in the Subbie basement.

Voyage x Groovement: DJ Bone The Ice Factory, Perth, 2 Nov DJ Bone may not be the biggest name to come out of Detroit but he’s certainly one of the most respected. The alias of Eric Dulan, DJ Bone has been a key figure in Detroit’s techno scene for well over 20 years and continues to pave his own trail. And as if that wasn’t enough, Lunacy resident and producer AISHA, Glasgow-based label and DJ duo Craigie Knowes and Dundee’s Hilltown Disco are all on support duty, alongside Voyage and Groovement residents.

Words: Nadia Younes Illustration: Katie Malone

STORYTIME presents Axel Boman The Bongo Club, Edinburgh, 8 Nov Axel Boman has his fingers in many metaphorical pies. Outside of his solo output, the Swedish DJ and producer also makes music as one half of Talaboman, alongside John Talabot, and helps to run the Studio Barnhus label with Kornél Kovács and Petter Nordkvist. However, this show, put on by irregular promoters STORYTIME, sees Boman make his long-awaited Edinburgh debut, alongside local support from Edinburgh-based selectors Miss World and Andrea Montalto.

La Cheetah 10th Birthday Part 3: Ben UFO & Joy Orbison La Cheetah Club, Glasgow, 2 Nov La Cheetah’s 10th birthday celebrations just keep getting better and things (almost) draw to a close with a truly unmissable showdown between Ben UFO and Joy Orbison. The former is one third of the founding trio behind esteemed record label Hessle Audio while the latter co-runs the equally esteemed Hinge Finger imprint, but together they’re a force to be reckoned with. If you’re yet to see either of them play, there could be no better setting or no better occasion than this.

Nightrave & Room 2: Amazon Fundraiser Room 2, Glasgow, 8 Nov A team of Glasgow’s finest DJs come together in a time of desperate need to raise money for those affected by the fires in the Amazon rainforest. LEZZER QUEST, Liam Doc, LISALööF and Nightwave will all play sets on the night, alongside an as yet unannounced special guest. All of the takings will be donated directly to the Huni Kuin tribe, a group of indigenous people based in the village of Nova Fortaleza, whose lives are being threatened by the catastrophic fires.

Red Bull & Dimensions present Get Down Early Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, 21 Nov Red Bull team up with Dimensions once again for the second edition of their Get Down Early series, which sees usual club line-ups flipped on their heads as regular headliners play in a support slot ahead of emerging talents who are given headliner status. The series makes use of Dimensions’ DJ Directory, a talent development space created by the festival which supports rising DJ talent across the UK. For the Edinburgh edition, Swiss DJ Sassy J will warm up for founder of record label Tiff’s Joints, Born Cheating. theskinny.co.uk/clubs

November 2019

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Exquisite Cadavers

By Meena Kandasamy

rrrrr Following frustrations with the reception of When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife, a bold and often brutal feminist depiction of domestic violence self-defined as a novel but labelled a memoir by some critics, Kandasamy sets out with her latest book to explicitly examine strengths and weaknesses

of the dividing line between autobiography and fiction.

The title, Exquisite Cadavers, refers to the experimental Oulipian technique of assembling artworks from multiple contributors’ pieces, and this book marries two forms. Running centrally through the book is a fictional account of couple Maya and Karim, and in the form of notes in the margins is Kandasamy’s parallel account of thoughts and research while writing it, scrupulously showing her workings and asserting which is which.

Often, the authorial notes are more satisfying than the fiction, but they come together to explore overlapping themes. What transpires is a rich and absorbing text full of allusion to domestic Indian politics, Marxism and feminism. It’s equally a fascinating account of a writer’s process, and a successful reclamation of her own authorial control. If what we write is of course informed by what we know, Exquisite Cadavers asks the old question of why books written by women are dismissed as memoir so often, but does so in a remarkably fresh way.

Kandasamy’s work becomes more bold and exciting with each new book. [Laura Waddell] Atlantic Books, 7 Nov, £5.99 atlantic-books.co.uk/book/exquisite-cadavers

Rhyme Watch Two book launches at The Scottish Poetry Library, centenary celebrations for Hamish Henderson continue and a new open mic night comes to Kirkcaldy

Car Park Life

By Gareth E. Rees

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Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets and Advice for Living Your Best Life

By Ali Wong

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For the majority of us, car parks are areas of little note to quickly traverse before entering a supermarket, a DIY store, or an outlet centre. Yet for Gareth E. Rees they hold a particular fascination. In Car Park Life, Rees sets out to discover more about a series of retail car parks he visited between 2015 and 2018.

On the surface, this may seem like a tedious proposition; even Rees occasionally questions his own captivation. Yet Car Park Life isn’t at all dull, mostly due to Rees’ genre-spanning approach. It’s a semi-autobiographical work that often touches on the breakdown of Rees’ marriage, or a childhood pretending to be an astronaut in a Makro car park; such reflections offer occasionally tender moments. At the same time, it’s a psychogeographical exploration, mapping everyday behaviours as well as drug dealing and dogging, laced with satirical wit. He notes that herbivorous Iguanodons are perfect prehistoric cyphers for contemporary Britain, procrastinates on the suggestion to “experience the joy of 7,000 free parking spaces”, and posits that building a Harvester named after the Amesbury Archer is “as he would have wished.”

With Car Park Life, Rees manages to breathe life into these otherwise utilitarian non-spaces. [Eugenie Johnson]

In Ali Wong’s own words: she is not Maya Angelou, nor is she Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Brown, or that moustache guy who faked his memoir and got yelled at by Oprah. But in her own memoir, told through letters to her daughters, Wong doesn’t need to be anyone else other than her brilliant, hilarious self.

Beginning with how she met (trapped) her husband, through pregnancy, parenthood and a life in comedy, Wong’s secrets and straight-talking advice to living your best life are a delight to behold, cutting through her preconceptions, deconstructing those of others and their unending questions and comments projected on her own success.

Each letter feels strangely intimate while being packed with notes on erectile dysfunction, flies swarming bodily fluids, and pube-flashing comedy routines. A note from mother to daughters ripe with the unfiltered, filthy humour of her stand-up; most times you’ll laugh aloud, others you’ll feel a heartwarming sensation spread through your body.

Ali Wong is a force both on the stage and page.

Taking readers through her experiences and thoughts on dating, family, marriage and more, Dear Girls is a frank and hilarious journey through the messiness of life.

[Heather McDaid]

Influx Press, Out Now, £9.99

Canongate, Out Now, £14.99

influxpress.com/car-park-life

canongate.co.uk/books

Words: Beth Cochrane

The end of the year certainly isn’t slowing down in Scottish poetry, with many more launches and events due before the festive season threatens to drown us in tinsel. The year has been full of celebrations; a particular jewel in 2019’s calendar was the centenary of Hamish Henderson. On 7 November, Hamish Henderson: Collected Poems is released.

Edited by Corey Gibson, it’s the first collection of poems from Henderson since 2000, advocating for, like the celebrations throughout the year, a broader appreciation of Henderson’s works.

In a very different vein, Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac by Dorothea Lasky and Alex Dimitrov, launches with Picador on 31 October, ready for your November reading list.

Whatever your view on astrology, we can all agree that the online phenomenon of the Astro Poets are experts in insight, advice and humour. Making light of the everyday but insistent on creating clarity in the contemporary world, this is astrology never before seen in newspapers. This is online astrology for the 21st century, ready with sharp wit and millennial musings.

Carcanet continues its huge 2019 output, releasing multiple titles in November. Douglas Crase releases The Revisionist – his first collection from 1981 reprinted – and The Astropastorals. Having been out of print since 1987, Carcanet has recognised the need for this collection to re-enter the literary consciousness. Carcanet, in collaboration with the Wordsworth Trust, will also publish Lucy Newlyn’s Vital Stream and Carol Rumens’ Smart Devices. Both collections are remarkable in their own right. Newlyn’s is a long sonnet sequence which takes place across six months in 1802, while Smart Devices is a

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collection of 52 poems Rumen has previously discussed in her regular Poem of the Week column for The Guardian.

If listening to poetry is more up your street, there’s a new open mic night launching at Kings Live Lounge in Kirkcaldy. Organised by Left Behind Productions, the night takes place every Tuesday at 7pm and is open to all poets, comedians and writers from across multiple genres. Although entry is free, donations are welcomed.

Combining news of an exciting launch and accompanying event, Stewed Rhubarb is delighted to announce the publication of playwright Jo Clifford’s The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven. Launching on 19 November at the Scottish Poetry Library, the collection has been brought together to celebrate The Gospel’s ten year anniversary.

Clifford has contributed a new foreword to the collection, and there are works from the family of artists and activists who have supported the work over the decade. A multitude of voices rise together in this celebration of the play’s success and longevity.

On 16 November, also launching at the Scottish Poetry Library is The Valley Press Anthology of Prose Poetry. Guests on the night include contributors Katrina Porteous, Samuel Tongue, Mark Russell and Mark Ryan Smith as well as editors Anne Caldwell and Professor Oz Hardwick. Prose poetry is often overlooked in literary circles, but it’s with delight this anthology includes work in the form from a huge range of writers from across the UK, including new Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, as well as other long established poets such as Jen Hadfield, Helen Mort and George Szirtes.

An Orphan World

By Giuseppe Caputo, translated

by Sophie Hughes and Juana Adcock

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Love

By Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken

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Bound on either side by the sea and the lights of wealthier neighbourhoods, a young man and his father trawl the beaches near their empty home, looking for anything to supplement an unsteady income. Always together and always with an eye towards the stars, the pair find wonder and beauty in the everyday grind.

As purse strings tighten and they clash over the father’s increasingly naive schemes for instant cash, the son immerses himself in the city, exploring his sexuality in encounters with an endless roulette wheel of male bodies, becoming both object and subject of male desire. When a grotesque incident of homophobic violence shakes the neighbourhood, father and son fall in with a cast of lovable reprobates.

Gritty but never jaded or mean, on the surface An Orphan World appears almost naive.

But this facade hides an effortlessly multi-layered plot that challenges the reader to question everything, blurring the line between observer and observed, human, animal and inanimate object. Flashing back and forth until past and present blend into a single bright moment, Caputo juxtaposes the tender devotion of family against quotidian violence against a jubilant carnival of music, sex and light, in a book that seems to say, “I am you and you are me. We are the same.” [Eris Young]

Told over the duration of an icy night, Love is a novella set in rural Norway. New to town, single mother Vibeke and her eight-year-old son Jon are the book’s protagonists. In the evening, Vibeke leaves Jon at home hoping to have a run in with the library’s engineer, and while she’s gone her son slips out and has his own adventure at the visiting carnival. Tomorrow, we learn, will be his ninth birthday, but his mother has forgotten.

Love is a simple story told in a startling fashion. The narrative moves from Vibeke’s perspective to her son’s in alternating paragraphs, so rapidly that sometimes you’ve just realised that the narrative has moved on before pivoting back to the other. On the page, Vibeke and Jon’s subjectives may be intertwined, but a cold distance between mother and son soon becomes apparent. While Jon can’t stop thinking about his mother, he becomes a ghost in his mother’s consciousness.

The titular love in Hanne Ørstavik’s novella is one of near misses. As Vibeke and Jon come close to one another, they repel each other like magnets unable to foster intimacy. Ørstavik’s writing is shrapnel sharp as she carves out a nuanced portrait of queasy love told through slithers that is eerie in its estrangement and quietly devastating in its loneliness. [Katie Goh]

Charco Press, Out Now, £9.99

And Other Stories, 7 Nov, £10

charcopress.com/bookstore/an-orphan-world

andotherstories.org/love

BOOKS

THE SKINNY

Alberta Whittle Dundee Contemporary Arts rrrrr Titled How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth, the exhibition opens with three reprints of 16th century engravings showing the progression of colonisation from a first encounter to horrific violence. Through their bright recolouring and crisp, clean edges, the archival images become visually buzzing, destabilising the otherwise familiar historical illustrations.

In the next room, an audio work of the richly hoarse voice of Whittle’s grandmother traces their family tree. A clay mask sits fixed in a bemused grin, a bronze tongue is wrapped in a shell, with elastic bands, a hoodie and a broken jaw bone. Subtly, attention is drawn to the violence and power dynamics left unspoken when the grandmother alludes to Scottish colonial administrators having sex with enslaved workers.

The largest gallery holds a huge sunken Caribbean-style house, a fallen limbo pole and figure made of streamers, and a bell hung from joined ponytails. Directly alluding to natural disasters in the Caribbean, the atmosphere is

of recent calamity and eerie calmness.

In two recent film works these references are developed. Lines of influence and causality between slavery and colonialism recur in sailing and sea images, archival videos of enslaved people, and in footage of charged performances and choreography by Whittle and her players – her term for the cast of predominantly Black performers, friends and artists that appear in her videos. For example, a whirling dancer becomes a hurricane seen from above through a careful edit.

Coming as the final works of the exhibition (one is dated to the previous month of the exhibition opening), express urgency is given to the consistent intention across the exhibition of unsettling history and contemporary international political configurations. Artificial separations between then and now melt as injustices of colonialism and anti-Blackness manifest in contemporary and consistent diversion of attention and resources from natural disasters in the Caribbean and Central Africa. [Adam Benmakhlouf]

Civic Room’s windows have been recoloured, casting a pink-purple light throughout the gallery, and a large screen shows a silent film of a demolition process. Without the noise of construction, the crane is transmogrified. It becomes a stiff and careful arm, then something like a dinosaur or monster gnashing up bricks. Its movements are unexpectedly captivating, despite being a common sight around the city.

On an adjacent screen, questions are displayed in Zulu while English shows on the larger screen: “What do you remember?/ Ukhumbhulani?” “Do you remember the songs of your bones?” “How do we excavate the dreams laid to rest in these walls?” The background colour is the purple-pink of the windows, and of the ‘People Make Glasgow’ branding seen throughout the film.

At points, the Glasgow City Chambers is the carefully-framed backdrop of the swinging crane, an example and symbol of the profits of colonialism and slavery. Leaning against the wall, the screens implicate the gallery building, a former colonial linen bank.

How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth, Dundee Contemporary Arts, until 24 Nov, free

Demolition continues, a fence is put up, then a net, and finally a thick black wall. The spokes and weave of the net are mesmerising visual layers, before the the wall bisects the screen in an abstract, dramatically-composed shot. Finally, Rachia as the cameraperson passes through the City Chambers’ resplendent interiors. The final shot is the construction site seen from above, directly across the road from the Chambers.

Along with the demolition, fencing and partitioning become politically-charged actions of obscuring and erasure as the film installation draws attention to the significance of colonial architectures within collective memory, and the memories and ‘dreams’ they hold. Demolition and city planning that often goes unnoticed in the urban environment is carefully witnessed by Rachia as an insidious process of wiping out, without reparation, the traces of Glasgow’s role in the slave trade.

[Adam Benmakhlouf] of sugar and Bones, Civic Room, Glasgow, until 3 Nov, free

Thulani Rachia, of sugar and Bones, Civic Room

Photo: Matthew Arthur Williams

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

Photo: Alberta Whittle

Thulani Rachia Civic Room rrrrr

CCA Highlights CCA’s winter programme converts philistines to the arts, launches a debut album from Cloth while celebrating a Scottish classic, and sets a festive trap for Santa Claus

t’s hard to ignore a baby’s cry. Its calling can begin long before the delivery, or even conception. It may start with your own parents who, apparently bored with you, mew about wanting to become grandparents. Get a spouse, get a mortgage and live everyone else’s sensible fantasy of your sensible life instead of your own. Eirini Kartsaki is a writer, performer and lecturer from East15 Acting

School, University of Essex. Her work explores sexuality and desire with surreal humour. She now brings HERPES (6pm, 11 Dec) – a performance about sex, STIs and fantasising about the Duchess of Cambridge (when everyone else wants to talk about pushchairs) – to CCA as part of the eclectic Buzzcut Double Thrills programme.

Humour turns to horror in Matchbox

Eirini Kartsaki

November 2019

Photo: Eirini Kartsaki

I

Cineclub’s festive screening. On its bauble-like surface, the French film Dial Code: Santa Claus (7pm, Fri 20 Dec) compares to Home Alone.

Pre-dating the American hit by a year, director René Manzor even felt Hollywood stole his idea. His story follows Thomas – a boy home only with his elderly grandpa – as he tries to get in touch with Santa Claus on Minitel (the 1980s online network that still had millions of users in France into the 2000s). Naturally, online-Santa turns out not to be the jolly fat man we all love and want to believe in, but a shady red devil intent on burgling Thomas’ house on Christmas Eve. Expect elaborate traps as the gadget and Rambo-obsessed boy defends his castle.

Born in 1983 in Kuwait of Palestinian origin, Basma alSharif’s exhibition A Philistine (2 Nov- 5 Dec) is based on her novella of the same title. Across three gallery spaces, using an array of materials – including a mise-en-scène reading space for spectators to become participants – a train journey moves backwards through history. From present day Lebanon to New Kingdom Egypt (circa 16th-11th century B.C.E), inhabitants of Greater Syria and North Africa intertwine. Borders dissolve as the titular

ART

Words: Ben Venables

‘Philistine’ encounters mythical creatures and rituals and questions of morality – a story often told with vivid and erotic writing.

In music, Cloth launch their eponymous debut album (8pm, 15 Nov). The Glasgow-based trio comprise of twins Rachel Swinton (vocals/ guitar), Paul Swinton (guitar), and Clare Gallacher on drums. Their alt-rock and electronic sound attracted label Last Night From Glasgow, who they signed with and released their first single Demo Love last year. For the launch, Cloth are supported by London’s Chorus Girl and LNFG stable-mates Lemon Drink.

From the latest Scottish album to a classic, there’s a special anniversary a month later. 432 presents De Rosa – Ten Years of Prevention (7pm, 14 Dec). De Rosa, formed in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, recorded their debut album Mend back in 2006. But it is for their second LP Prevention, released on Glasgow’s Chemikal Underground Records in 2009, which launched the band onto a larger European platform. Ten years on, featuring special guests and friends, there’s a one-night chance to hear the cult Scottish album played in full. cca-glasgow.com/programme

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In Cinemas Sorry We Missed You

Director: Ken Loach Starring: Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Rhys Stone, Katie Proctor

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Sorry We Missed You is the latest incendiary from Ken Loach. Here, his ire turns again to unfair employment practices, a familiar theme given a botched, modern-day facelift in the form of zero-hour contracts and the gig economy.

The Turners are struggling to eke out an existence. Ricky is the family’s crestfallen patriarch. Abbie is a carer, both domestic and professional. When Ricky takes a freelance courier gig, their decade-long losing streak hits a new low: missed delivery targets mean mounting debts, and unpredictable working patterns exacerbate tensions at home.

In less capable hands, Sorry We Missed You would be run of the mill, through-thewringer stuff. But its sermonising is cloaked in an involving human story and there are shafts of humour that pierce the overriding gloom.

Kris Hitchen and Debbie Honeywood contri-

bute very strong lead performances too, grafting believable, world-weary flesh onto the bones of characters who could otherwise be crude cyphers of hardship.

Things do creak at points. Take Ricky’s boss, Maloney: a bullying brick shithouse clad in an indestructible layer of corporate indifference. His speechifying is too on the nose, his villainy too arch. He’s a bogeyman; a useful idiot obscuring a wider, systemic evil.

These simplifications present a dilemma: do we criticise the film or its political targets?

Loach’s best work transcends such concerns, and this isn’t quite that. But it’s an affecting effort that proves the director is still a necessary force in contemporary agenda-setting.

Policy and public opinion are lagging behind reality. For the government, people like Ricky are data points on the road to record employment. For everyone else, they’re the anonymous agents of convenience. Sorry We Missed You is a special delivery from them to us all. We should listen. [Phil Kennedy] Released 1 Nov by Entertainment One; certificate 15

The Irishman

Director: Martin Scorsese Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Anna Paquin, Harvey Keitel, Stephen Graham, Bobby Cannavale

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For decades, Martin Scorsese has been misconstrued as a director who seeks to glamorise gangsterism and masculine violence.

The Irishman is one more underscore for the people in the back as to what the great director really thinks of these men: that their lives end in ruin and death; that there is no honour among thieves.

At three hours and 29 minutes, The Irishman is a long film – and yet it is a film about how fleeting the spoils of war ultimately are. The movie is violent, funny, revealing and packed with characters and incident. But by the end, as hitman Frank Sheeran (De Niro) moves into old age and is shrouded in the aloneness of his choices, there are some of the most desolate scenes Scorsese has filmed.

De Niro is reunited with his Goodfellas co-star Joe Pesci, coming out of retirement to

play crime boss Russell Bufalino. Al Pacino, working with Scorsese for the first time, plays legendary Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa in a roaring, egotistical performance. De Niro’s “working stiff ”, in contrast to Hoffa’s largesse, gains these men’s trust by doing what he’s told. He is a quiet, blank little boy, who “paints houses” – a slang term for carrying out executions – with the workmanlike plainness of an actual house painter.

The Irishman has already garnered much press for its digital ‘de-ageing’ technology. It’s an odd, otherworldly effect, with De Niro in particular carrying uncanny, augmented colour in his eyes. You may feel, watching this, that this filmmaking team is a group of old-world men swimming in virtual aspic on the verge of a post-human world. And you may wonder how you feel about that, and how you feel about this film oddly and differently covering some of the same ground as their earlier work. And by the end, the vision coheres into one final nub that’s profoundly unnerving. [Ian Mantgani] Released 8 Nov by Netflix/Altitude (streaming on Netflix 27 Nov); certificate 15

Sorry We Missed You

The Nightingale

Director: Jennifer Kent Starring: Aisling Franciosi, Baykali Ganambarr, Sam Claflin

Knives Out

The Report

Marriage Story

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Director: Scott Z. Burns Starring: Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Jon Hamm, Ted Levine, Maura Tierney, Michael C Hall

Opening in 19th century Tasmania, Jennifer Kent’s follow-up to The Babadook concerns an Irish convict, Clare (rising star Franciosi), who finds herself trapped in inescapable servitude to a hateful British officer, Hawkins (Claflin). When her husband Aidan (Sheasby) begs for their freedom, Hawkins punishes him by raping Clare and having their baby dashed against a brick wall, before finally having Aidan shot. It’s a punishing, gruelling scene, designed to shock – and it does.

Left for dead, Clare awakens to find Hawkins has fled, and so she sets out to enact her revenge. The film explores masculinity at its most toxic, while simultaneously tackling the cruelties of colonialism, providing a female perspective on a genre typically told from a male point of view.

Kent is a skilful director, crafting a film as beautiful as it is horrifying. She’s willing to manipulate the tropes of the genre for her own purposes, and never entirely gives in to audience expectations. In the end, we don’t walk away wholly satisfied; instead, we are forced to confront the horrors of the past that reflect our present. [Joseph Walsh]

Steven Soderbergh’s frequent collaborator and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns has a hard sell with his debut feature. In grim detail, The Report chronicles the US Senate’s investigation into the government-sanctioned Enhanced Interrogation Methods (see also: torture) that went on during the Iraq War. Daniel J Jones (a typically brilliant Adam Driver) is given the unpleasant task of heading up the inquiry.

Burns’ screenplay impressively manages to condense the context of the Iraq War, the content of the real report and continual flashbacks and flashforwards into a tight package.

The combination of this solid foundation with stellar casting – including Annette Bening as the conflicted Senator Dianne Feinstein – moves The Report along deftly with urgent, quiet, righteous fury.

Burns never lets the film fly off the handle and The Report is better for his control. As a director, he might lack the stylish flourishes of other filmmakers in this genre but nonetheless, The Report is engaged, political filmmaking, featuring one of Driver’s best performances to date. [Katie Goh]

Released 29 Nov by Vertigo; certificate 18

Released 15 Nov by Curzon; certificate 15

Director: Noah Baumbach Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Azhy Robertson, Laura Dern, Ray Liotta How does a filmmaker make white, middleclass, heterosexual relationship woes feel fresh? Audiences have seen Marriage Story ’s divorce narrative – the happy moments barely feature – play out in endless variations across cinematic history. Emotional beats thus feel predictable as Nicole (Johansson) and Charlie (Driver) hurtle towards their divorce, and the quirky clichés of the supporting roles are straight out of Noah Baumbach’s previous work.

That said, the central performances are faultless, and the writing keeps audiences on both parties’ sides as their separation takes on new complications. Johannson’s Nicole plays off determination and frustration as her goal becomes increasingly unstable, and Driver may have reached his career peak as Charlie’s demons threaten to destroy the little peace he has left. His rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s Being Alive may be one of the plot’s more artificial points, but its balance of soulfulness and self-awareness prove genuinely poignant.

While Randy Newman’s score brings the wrong type of made-for-TV energy, the camera’s careful focus on faces – and who remains in focus at what moment – is evidence of the film’s craftsmanship. [Carmen Paddock]

Knives Out

Director: Rian Johnson Starring: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield

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A crime caper with an allegory for modern America at its core, Knives Out shows all the signs of being a fast and flashy crowd-pleaser but its slow burn leaves it feeling a little tame.

Daniel Craig, having a great time here with a Frank Underwood-esque Southern drawl, is Benoit Blanc, a hammy detective called to the Thrombey mansion after the suspicious death of patriarch Harlan Thrombey (Plummer). With his throat slit, seemingly by his own hand, the question of Harlan’s will and the ongoing criminal investigation draws his heirs together to play out the murder mystery.

The title promises more of a romp than the film actually delivers, despite flashes of fun and the inevitable fulfillment of knowing exactly who done it. And while Craig gets to thrive in a showy role, the other cast members have less room to take things up a notch. It is a playful film with some nicely placed tricks and jokes that land well, but it craves something sharper, wilder and louder to truly liven up the action. [Caitlin Quinlan] Released 29 Nov by Lionsgate; certificate 12A

Released 17 Nov by Netflix/Altitude; certificate tbc

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Review

FILM & TV

THE SKINNY

At Home Succession

Unbelievable

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Director: Vince Gilligan Starring: Aaron Paul, Jesse Plemons, Krysten Ritter, Robert Forster, Charles Baker, Matt Jones, Jonathan Banks, Bryan Cranston

If the first season of the most toxic show on television introduced us to some of the most venomous, self-serving snakes in the form of Logan Roy (Cox) and his offspring, then the second is shedding season. Kendall (Strong), wayward son turned daddy’s broken boy in season one, returns as the husk of man he thought he was, and is now reduced to suffering the humiliating consequences of his forced volte-face. Shiv (Snook), so desperate to strike out on her own in season one, discovers that peeling away is not as easy. Roman (Culkin), meanwhile, still spits withering insults at anyone and everyone, but the show makes it clear – he’s not the same anymore.

In fact, it seems no one is the same anymore. It’s almost as if the poison has become too much even for the Roys.

They’re no longer viciously hurling a never-ending, yet ever-inventive barrage of abuse at each other for fun while desperately trying to seize control of Logan’s multi-billion dollar empire. No, instead they’re doing that now while being forced to unite to make sure there’s even an empire left. The results make the show more caustic and more watchable than ever. Just wait until you witness cousin Greg (Braun) take part in Logan’s sadistic, compulsory ‘Boar on the Floor’ game, or watch the uxorious Tom die on the inside every time Shiv makes their marriage a little bit more open, or pity Ken and his puppy dog eyes when Logan breaks him just a little bit more.

That’s the secret of Succession’s enduring success. The more the season progresses, it shows that new skin or not, snakes are still snakes. And yet, perversely, you continue to care for the Roys and their ultra-rich problems even if they don’t care about anyone but themselves. Because, after all, they may be snakes, but they’re still human. [Benjamin Rabinovich]

Riding the true-crime wave as they have done previously with Mindhunter and When They See Us, Netflix expand Pulitzer prize-winning article The Unbelievable Story of Rape into an engaging and downright dismaying mini-series. It tells the concurrent stories of a teenage rape victim and two detectives who identify and eventually track a serial rapist who has been avoiding detection because of his knowledge of police procedure.

Marie Adler (Dever) is brutally and repeatedly raped in her apartment complex for vulnerable teens and she’s made to re-live the experience ad nauseam due to two incompetent detectives. As she gives her statement for what seems like the hundredth time, Marie begins to miss out certain details, which in turn leads the police to doubt she was actually assaulted. As her friends, foster family and support network all turn against her, detectives Grace Rasmussen (Collette) and Karen Duvall (Wever) have come together because Karen has coincidently been made aware of several rapes that follow the same MO. As these stories eventually intersect, we begin to realise why the title works on so many levels: the unbelievable way in which police systems are not linked from state-to-state; the unbelievable and heinous nature of the crimes themselves; the unbelievable machinations of a patriarchal police chain of command; and eventually Marie as an “unbelievable” witness to her own rape.

What sets Unbelievable apart from a show like Mindhunter is that it is, first and foremost, from the perspective of the victims and their female counterparts working against a male system of indifference. It zooms close-up into the minutiae of victim trauma, telescoping back out to reveal how the whole picture is rotten from top to tail. [Adam Stafford]

When Jesse (Aaron Paul) drove off into the night, letting loose primal screams, we knew all we needed to: he was free of his cage (literal and metaphorical) and was no longer a pawn to be used by Walter White, Uncle Jack or anyone else. Free of them, he’d be free in turn. Looking to taunt the fates by returning to what is widely regarded as one of the greatest series ever made, Gilligan gives us a closing chapter which shows that as free as Jesse might have seemed, the path he’s trodden around the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico is so well worn that he may not know how to escape it.

There’s a necessary shift in Gilligan’s writing for El Camino.

His previous focus has been on schemers capable of being methodical and, when it required it, cruel. Jesse is neither of these things. He’s scarred and beaten, and prematurely aged for a 20-something. Jesse’s treatment while in captivity makes it easier to accept the 40-year-old actor returning to the role, but an excellent Jesse Plemons, back as the sociopathic Todd, takes rather more time to adjust to. Jesse responds instinctively to each hurdle he faces, and on the rare occasion that he tries to channel his inner Walt, he ends up wrong-footed.

Gilligan and his cinematographer Marshall Adams conjure up plenty of striking shots, and give the film a suitably cinematic sweep, but El Camino is, first and foremost, Paul’s show. Moving between fleeting moments in the past and a not so positive-looking present, Paul gets to rage, despair, put on false bravado, and much more besides. Weather-beaten as much as emotionally beaten, his Jesse still sets out to try and do right in a world that seems set out to do so much wrong.

[Tom Charles]

Available on NowTV

Streaming on Netflix

Streaming on Netflix

Creator: Jesse Armstrong Starring: Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Matthew Macfadyen, Nicholas Braun

November 2019

Director: Lisa Cholodenko, Michael Dinner, Susannah Grant Starring: Toni Collette, Merritt Wever, Kaitlyn Dever

FILM & TV

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie

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Review

51

Access Points “O

n 9 November 1989, everything that was happening in Berlin was broadcast on Bulgarian National Television,” Katherina Radeva, the Bulgarian-born theatremaker, artist and set designer, tells us of her memories from the the day the Berlin Wall fell.

“We watched it all,” she continues, “The following day, I was with my mum and dad on the streets, taking part in these giant protests.” The protests were violent, but they “didn’t feel that way” to the then seven-yearold Radeva. “Looking back, I’m like ‘bloody hell’ – that was proper violence,” she says. “But how I experienced it was as another beginning, another opportunity. I was born under the same dictatorship my parents were born under – overruling that was a massive point of jubilation,” she pauses. “It was an absolutely brilliant, fucking amazing party – still the best one I’ve ever been to.”

“ The most dangerous thing for any political regime is someone having a bright idea, and people getting behind it” Katherina Radeva

But no party lasts forever. The years following the fall were tough. “When a massive system stops, everything stops,” Radeva says of growing up in Bulgaria in the early 90s.

“There was famine... the run-up was massively beautiful and positive. But when it happened – the feeling was, ‘what now?’”

Fallen Fruit – Radeva’s solo show – revisits this period of history and her life.

The work is rooted in her “childhood memories” of the era. Writing it was the first time she became “really aware” of the disconnect between Soviet and Western societies. “The actual fall of the Berlin Wall was broadcast in Western media, but what life was actually like between 1945 and 1989 definitely wasn’t,” she says. “It was a mystery on both sides.”

Depicting it through the eyes of a child was useful in terms of connecting the experience with Western audiences: “everybody relates to the idea that we want the best for any kid in the world, at any point in time.”

Radeva first wrote the play ten years ago, prompted by the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. In 2018, she felt compelled to return to it. “Alister [Lownie, her creative partner, and the other half of her theatre company, Two Destination Language] and I reread it, and immediately felt that it was so relevant,” she says. The show struck them as having the potential to “open up a conversation” in a new, politically polarised context in the UK, specifically in the wake of the Brexit vote.

Radeva got to work rewriting Fallen Fruit, keeping the foundation the same, but weaving her memories of a childhood under communism with her experiences as a Bulgarian woman in Brexit Britain. The revised version includes, for example, an interactive game

Interview: Eliza Gearty

Fallen Fruit

show where she “gently pushes on notions of politics... it’s a very fun, innocent game which is also, in many ways, the most political tool of the work.”

The “most fundamental” difference this time around, though, is the emphasis on “dialogue with the audience after the show.” Radeva stresses how valuable these conversations have been so far on the tour, and mentions that the audiences have been diverse, with different opinions on Europe. She thinks that the most important thing we can do now is simply to listen to each other, and is excited by the potential of theatre and live art to break down the metaphorical walls that block free communication.

“Sometimes [the post-show dialogue] is longer than the bloody show!” she proudly tells us.

What’s the value of art in a world that feels increasingly polarised and extreme?

Photo: Alex Brenner; Two Destination Language

Katherina Radeva first wrote Fallen Fruit, a solo show about her childhood in Communist Bulgaria, ten years ago. Now, as the show tours the UK, she tells us why it felt like the right time to revisit it

“Nobody likes being told how to think,” Radeva says. Art is about “trying to find the access point – the crack in someone’s thinking – to actually get through to them in a non-threatening way. After that, we’re more likely to have a better conversation.” As an artist whose earliest years were spent in a carefully controlled cultural landscape, she’s arguably got more insight into the power of creative expression than most. She wryly tells us: “The most dangerous thing for any political regime is someone having a bright idea, and people getting behind it.”

Fallen Fruit runs at Paisley Arts Centre, Paisley, 1 Nov; Aros Community Theatre, Skye, 2 Nov; Universal Hall, Findhorn, 6 Nov; Lyth Arts Centre, Wick, 7 Nov; The Barn, Aberdeenshire, 8 Nov; Eden Court, Inverness, 9 Nov; Perth Theatre, Perth, 10 Nov twodestinationlanguage.com/on-stage/fallen-fruit

Stage Directions We take a look at what's happening in theatre across Scotland this November before Panto season gets fully underway. Oh no we didn't!

Edinburgh Theatre Highlights The Traverse Theatre have an exciting month of shows ahead, kicking off with Hope and Joy, a Stellar Quines and Pearlfisher co-production that examines the colliding lives of two women against the backdrop of a chaotic and changing world (1-2 Nov). Lisa Hammond, Lee Simpson and Rachael Spence’s acclaimed creative experiment Still No Idea, during which they compel the public to write the story for them, gets its Scottish Premiere, running from 5-8 November (all performances are relaxed).

There are also two wonderful sounding festivals – First Stages and Emergence – taking place at the Traverse in November. First Stages Festival is a brilliant initiative. Focusing on encouraging and nurturing emerging talent, it includes script-in-hand readings of six selected plays from an open submissions window, writing workshops, panel discussions and networking opportunities (7-9 Nov). Check out our profile on the festival, and interviews with three of the writers selected, in this issue.

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Review

Presented by Youth Theatre Arts Scotland, Emergence also puts the spotlight on new work and talent, presenting new works-in-progress from a range of youth theatre directors from across the country (15-16 Nov).

At The Lyceum, on 4 November Talk Show will be inviting artists, authors and thinkers to watch that night’s performance of Barber Shop Chronicles, taking to the stage afterwards to share their responses to the show. And the Christmas season officially kicks off there at the end of the month with An Edinburgh Christmas Carol beginning its run on 28 November, while festivities get under way at the Festival Theatre on 26 November with their opening night of Dr Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical.

Elsewhere, opera fans won’t want to miss Scottish Opera’s Tosca at the Festival Theatre (14-23 Nov), while Becoming Electra: A Queer Mitzvah sounds like an interesting and heartwarming new piece of theatre about ‘coming out’, in more ways than one (Studio Theatre, Edinburgh, 9 Nov).

Words: Eliza Gearty

Glasgow Theatre Highlights A Play, A Pie, and A Pint at the Òran Mór has a stellar programme this month, and the great news (for anyone that doesn’t already know) is that lunch and a drink is included with your hour of top-quality drama. At just £15 (£12.50 on Wednesdays), it’s an absolute bargain, particularly when the line-up includes works from well-renowned dramatists like David Harrower, who won the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play for the stunning Blackbird, and has been writing internationally acclaimed work since.

Directed by Rosa Duncan, Harrower’s play Good With People, described as “a haunting two-hander tracing one town’s path of personal and political destruction,” sounds intriguing and runs from 4-9 November. Alan Bissett’s Do Not Press This Button then runs from 11-16 November, followed by Benny Young’s Cranhill Carmen (18-23 Nov), before things get festive with their Christmas Panto, Dixie Whittington: The Hamecoming (25 Nov-28 Dec).

In Easterhouse, be sure to check out

THEATRE

Nosedive at Platform (1-2 Nov). A show based on a truly fascinating concept, it uses contemporary circus and theatre to question and ‘subtly reorder’ the roles of children and adults, and features an intergenerational cast.

Back in the city centre, for a taste of the more traditional, a great gothic night out this winter could be Rona Munro’s new adaption of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein at the Theatre Royal (25-30 Nov).

Dundee Theatre Highlights At Dundee Rep, two nights of their Great Big Dance Show (6-7 Nov) will feature performances by community groups and dancers from all around the world. Later in the month the Rep will host the World Premiere of “an awfy braw new musical” version of Oor Wullie (23 Nov-5 Jan), capping off a year where Edinburgh was quite literally covered in Wullies. Jings!

Crivvens! Help ma boab! theskinny.co.uk/theatre

THE SKINNY

ICYMI Chunks-maestro and pitch-dark stand-up Richard Brown watches Ellen DeGeneres’ latest stand-up special, Relatable Illustration: Emer Kiely

I

worry about Ellen. Everyone needs a release.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Relatable opens with Ellen DeGeneres (you know, the woman who took that annoying Oscars selfie with people who probably knew what Harvey Weinstein was up to) walking onstage to a standing ovation that, though edited for time, still lasts over a minute.

Imagine comedy being so easy you don’t have to try. I once watched a comic walk onstage to compère a show and say, “Hello Glasgow, are we well?” to a silent death stare, yet Ellen is receiving a standing ovation for existing? How can a comic be any good when they don’t have to work for it?

Well I don’t know how, but Ellen is brilliant. Some jokes are fairly obvious (“My friend said I’m no longer relatable, I complained to my butler”) but she wrings out each idea for every ounce of comedy it has to offer.

And her act outs are so good and go on waaay too long, which I love, and have plenty of little lines that are subtle, sarcastic and dryly delivered.

She tells the story of the trauma that caused her to write her first stand-up routine and how, after writing it, she said to herself that she would perform it on Johnny Carson’s show and be the first female comic to be called over to the couch. I can’t stop thinking about that. Imagine comedians having to perform their first ever sets on national TV. That would be fucking glorious viewing!

It’s round about this point that Ellen dislocates her jaw, python-like, and lets out a demonic scream that’s a cue for the audience to turn into a baying mob. In a scene not dissimilar from the one in Temple of Doom, they sacrifice one of their own in the name of Oprah and I’ll be honest, I tuned out when I started thinking about comics having to perform their very first set on TV. Can you imagine it!? All these idiots and their egos getting up with their misjudged jokes about how they know what you’re thinking!?

November 2019

Ellen explores the consequences of saying ‘be kind to each other’ at the end of her chat show, but her kindness is a weakness here as it seems to be holding her back. I want to know, if she didn’t have to be seen to be kind all the time, exactly who would Ellen hurt and how would she hurt them? And then she says she’s 60 and you go ‘NO FUCKING WAY?! IS THAT WHAT BEING KIND DOES TO YOUR SKIN!?’, and you spend a few minutes entertaining the idea of trying to be a kind person, but then you remember James Corden exists and the anger consumes you. I don’t have it in me to be that kind, I’m too busy thinking how I would love to watch comics humiliate themselves by broadcasting their first ever sets nationally.

“ Imagine comedians having to perform their first ever sets on national TV. That would be fucking glorious viewing!”

Anyway, Ellen’s great. I can see why everyone loves her. But I do kind of hope she goes all Björk in Bangkok on a journalist. Everyone needs a release. Clearly hers is being mates with a war criminal.

Ellen DeGeneres: Relatable is available now on Netflix You can see Richard Brown in Chunks, State Bar, Glasgow, 25 Nov, Free/PWYW; Richard Brown: Horror Show, State Bar, Glasgow, 15 Mar 2020, £5

COMEDY

Review

53

54

Listings

THE SKINNY

Glasgow Music Tue 29 Oct LINGUA NADA

Fri 01 Nov

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

TWISTED WHEEL (OSKAR BRAVES + THE BANTER THIEFS)

CHRYSTA BELL

Indie-styled Manc trio led by yer man Jonny Brown on vocals and guitar duties.

Leipzig-based three-piece crafting experimental pop that’s difficult to describe.

STEREO, FROM 19:30, £20

Talented singer who started her career in Texas as the lead vocalist for 8 1/2 Souvenirs, and went on to collaborate with David Lynch.

JACK RICHARDSON

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

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

TINY RUINS (SOLO)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £12

Tiny Ruins’ songwriter Hollie Fullbrook plays a solo show.

Wed 30 Oct LOYLE CARNER

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £25.25

The rapper from South London stops off with more stirring, confessional hip-hop.

JOY CROOKES

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £11

Half Bengali, half Irish singer fusing soul, trip-hop and R’n’B. WOMENSAID

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £5

Dark electronic group releasing work on Optimo Music.

THE SALEM FOUR

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Those four boys from down yonder play some yarns and yonders from some dark places.

ISHMAEL ENSEMBLE

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £10

Expect all kinds of jazz, stirring ambient invocations, club-ready percussive workouts, spiralling grooves and hazy psychedelic electronica.

Thu 31 Oct JOHN SMITH

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15

John Smith has a uniquely intimate take on love, loss or even murder (?!), combined with his innovative guitar work.

LARKINS

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £11

Classic indie rock’n’roll from Manchester.

THECITYISOURS (THE UNCHARTED + LASTELLE) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC

London-based melodic metalcore five-piece.

OPETH

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £33.75

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £11

THE LOW HANGING FRUITS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6

Four-piece covers band, playing songs by the likes of The Stooges, The Smiths and Sonic Youth, as well as a few original tracks.

EGYPTIAN BLUE (MEMES + BOOK KLUB)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £7

Grinding riffs, a tight rhythm section and intense post-punk grooves make up the crux of Egyptian Blue’s sound.

CURDLE (TONGUE TRAP + MISERICORD + HEALTHY)

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £5 - £7

Double A Side Records present Curdle’s album launch, with Healthy DJing an exclusively Goth music afterparty.

THE RIFLES

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £19.50

Four-piece indie rock band all the way from Chingford.

BLUE MILK

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

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

HALLOWEEN AT DRYGATE

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 20:00, FREE

DJ Falk ‘n’ Roll returns to Drygate playing his usual selection of punk vinyl tunes plus Halloween specialities.

CANTILLATE (LIVE) (GK MACHINE + KROKAKAI) THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £5

Local label from the outer realm, Invisible Inc, invite Amsterdam’s Cantillate to Glasgow for a live show.

POLO (THE WOUND REVIEW + VICTORIA’S FLIGHT)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

Trio comprising singer Kat Mchugh, synth player Luke Lount and drummer Dan Edgell, offering pop with hints of R’n’B and ethereal soundscapes.

ORGANIC GROOVES

PIE & BREW, FROM 18:00, FREE

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

The Swedish progressive metal kings return to the UK.

OSCAR JEROME (MATHILDA HOMER + PELICAN TUSK)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £20.35

Trained in classical guitar and jazz at London’s Trinity Laban music school, Oscar Jerome is a multi-talented artist.

NEGATIVLAND

Negativland perform radically new audio-visual versions of many fan favourites that have never before been heard live.

DOUBLE A SIDE RECORDS HALLOWEEN

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 19:00, TBC

Halloween label showcase, featuring artists on Double A Side Records.

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £9

HANDPICKED CASSETTE TAPES: GOLDEN ERA

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, TBC

A night of 90s hip-hop classics.

Sat 02 Nov

CRU SERVERS (METEOR RODEO + OTHERWORLD) THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £6

Cru Servers’ music sounds like if early life took its first steps out of the primordial gloop, dragged itself ashore, decided to make dance music and discovered they had a knack for it.

BLIND LEMON GATORS

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 18:00, FREE

The latest blues project from singer Greig Taylor and features Iain Donald on acoustic slide guitar and stomp box.

SWIMMING TAPES (MARGOT + TONGUE TRAP)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £9

Swimming Tapes are a Londonbased indie five-piece releasing nostalgic, dreamy guitar music.

MIC CLARK ACOUSTIC BUTTERFLY

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

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

THE GREAT WARMUP (FREE LOVE + COPING MECHANISM + KUBITARU + NEKKURO HANA + AMARA)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 20:00, £10

A late night warm-up party for the Great Western Festival, with Free Love leading the charge playing a DJ set.

FLYING BY MIRRORS (HUMAN RENEGADE)

ROOM 2, FROM 19:00, £7

Making waves throughout Scotland, Glasgow’s Flying By Mirrors are sure to bring a dynamically lively set leaving you hooked from the outset.

Sun 03 Nov

LAST NIGHT FROM GLASGOW ALL DAYER

ORAN MOR, FROM 14:00, £8

Last Night From Glasgow presents a late autumnal showcase of some of Scotland’s finest bands.

WET WET WET

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £38.50

The LA noisemakers return to Glasgow.

SHE DREW THE GUN

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £12.50

She Drew The Gun make impassioned, hypnotic and darkly ornate psych-pop built around the lyrically evocative songwriting of singer/guitarist Louisa Roach.

POOR NAMELESS BOY

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9

The Ayrshire indie-rock four man hits Sleazys.

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5

Los Angeles born’n’raised singer-songwriter and selftaught pianist (aka Jillian Banks) touring with her new album, III, in tow.

KANADIA (SPYYN + THE REASON)

Oxford alt-rockers playing a headline set in Glasgow.

MUSE-IC

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

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

THE BLEEDERS (FIENDZ YT + MOSCOW MULE)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £5

BANKS

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £25.31

TIDE LINES

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:30, £20.25

Four-piece band who launched in the summer of 2016 with the release of their debut single Far Side of the World.

THE HEAVY

Folk-styled singer from the wilds of Jackson.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £18.50

Thu 07 Nov

Guitar-heavy neo soul and rock complete with crunchy guitar, funky horns and Curtis Mayfieldlike vocals.

PALACE

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £14.06

Stuart Neil of The Hoojamamas and Harry & The Hendersons brings his solo act to The Wolf.

ADA LEA (STEF CHURA + BOBBY KAKOURIS)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

Montreal, Quebec-based musician Alexandra Levy records and performs as Ada Lea.

Tue 05 Nov GORDON HASKELL

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £16.50

Gordon Haskell has often been described as a brilliant mix of Bill Withers and James Taylor with the feel of J.J Cale.

GYPSY CIRCUS (DIRTY BOOTS + HOWLIN’ ALPACAS)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Edinburgh-based quartet Gypsy Circus combine vintage Blues roots with modern raw indie/ rock inspired hooks.

WELSHLY ARMS & GLORIOUS SONS

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £18.15

Co-headline tour from Welshly Arms and Glorious Sons, from America and Canada respectively.

10,000 RUSSOS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC

10,000 Russos hail from Porto, Portugal. Expect elements of rock’n’roll, changed up to create something totally new.

FEVER 333

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £18.56

Californian rock trio.

DAPPY

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £16.88

MICHAEL MONROE

The glam punk front man for Hanoi Rocks goes it alone.

CHRIS BUCKLEY

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Chris Buckley of The Moanin’ Bones brings his duo act to The Wolf playing you all the best of rock’n’roll and blues.

EMPATH (SULKA + PEACHSOAP)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

New age noise-punk from Philadelphia.

HARPOON

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Bristol DIY stalwarts Tina Hitchens and Aron Ward.

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £11

Brilliant folky slacker rock from Oxfordshire, Willie J Healey has toured with Slaves and recently released on Maccabees guitarist Felix White’s label, Yala!

Florida post-hardcore fiends.

SLEEPING WITH SIRENS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £20

THE RESIDENTS: WOMEN SAID (THE RATISTAS + DOM JOLLY + FALARAKI)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

The Flying Duck presents The Residents, a month long weekly residency from some of Glasgow’s up and coming bands who will curate each week to bring you something from their world of music and art.

Edinburgh-based electronic duo named after a plant.

Mon 04 Nov ONE TRUE PAIRING

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £13.20

Tom Fleming, former Wild Beasts songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist is back with a new project.

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £5

BILLY BRAGG: ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £27.50

Three unique shows over three nights from Billy Bragg.

Glasgow’s most hectic punk troupes launch their latest single, Vampire.

November 2019

LUNAR C (MINAS WITH DJ HERITAGE + PHYSIKS & GASP)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £11.50

The San Fran rockers swing by The Garage.

STUART NEIL

The Howlin’ Wolf’s open stage blues jam.

MARANTA (POCKET KNIFE + KLEOPATRA)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8.80

Alternative three-piece from Glasgow.

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

WILLIE J HEALEY (BE GOOD)

THE KILLING FLOOR (CHARLOTTE MARSHALL)

THE CICEROS (THE ACID CLUB)

The English MC/rapper (know to his mammy as Jake Brook).

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £20.81

POND

ERIN RAE (ZOE BESTEL + FENELLA)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

London-based three piece comprising school friends Leo Wyndham, Matt Hodges and Rupert Turner.

Wed 06 Nov

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 21:00, FREE

Local talent and a locally produced rum come together for a night of live music.

A chilled double set of old time, roots, country and blues.

Regina-based Joel Henderson (so not nameless after all) demonstrates a keen perception of the human condition in his music.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £10

STATIC SUNS (NO PREFERENCE + DEAR ASTEROID)

Originally from Uruguay and now residing in New York, the Captured Tracks signee, formerly of indie troupe The Beets, is known for his intoxicating solo work.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £22.50

BIG BUSINESS

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 20:00, FREE

BANDITTI CLUB RUM PRESENTS

IMOGEN HEAP (GUY SIGSWORTH) SWG3, FROM 19:00, £36.56

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £15

Art-pop quartet from the faroff lands of Paisley.

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £11

RIGID SOUL HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

The N-Dubz chap entertains the yoof, in one of his signature bobble hats. Obviously.

Scotland’s most popular power trio perform three hours of rockin’ blues for The Wolf.

HALLOWEEN (THREE CARD TRICK)

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

THE EASY WINNERS HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Scotland’s soft-rock favourites, famous for their connections with Hugh Grant’s particularly floppy-haired era, take to the road once again.

Australia’s POND were conceived by two members of Tame Impala’s touring group, guitarist Nick Allbrook and drummer Jay Watson, along with Joseph Orion and Jamie Terry.

THE VEGAN LEATHER (THE VIGNETTES + TALKER)

JUAN WAUTERS NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £7.50

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

Y&T

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 18:30, £20

MICK HARVEY & J.P. SHILO (STEVE SHELLEY + GLENN LEWIS)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £22

The former Bad Seed and current PJ Harvey collaborator joins forces with his close collaborator J.P. Shilo on this double bill.

MY BLOODY DJ SET (EL RANCHO DJS)

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, FREE

Original Creation Records gems by the likes of Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits and more all night.

BILLY BRAGG: ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £27.50

Three unique shows over three nights from Billy Bragg.

CHRISTINA AGUILERA

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £56.75 - £113.50

The former Disney star turned bad gyal, who brought us absolute pop filth with her hit single Dirrty.

THREE CARD TRICK

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Scotland’s most popular power trio perform three hours of rockin’ blues for The Wolf.

MUSE-IC

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

A three-piece blues/rock band from Glasgow, who have a lot of energy and will have the room on their feet.

NIMBUS SEXTET (ADVENTURES IN PARADISE DJ SET)

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 20:00, £5

Contemporary jazz six-piece, blending jazz, hip-hop and world music elements.

LAKYOTO

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Four-piece electronic pop band from Edinburgh, formerly known as SHVLLOWS. ORGANIC GROOVES

PIE & BREW, FROM 18:00, FREE

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

MELT YOURSELF DOWN (AKU!)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £11.50

Afrobeat jazz futurists Melt Yourself Down head to Glasgow.

LORIN

ROOM 2, FROM 19:00, £8

The Glaswegian singer returns to her hometown after three years spent in London.

Sat 09 Nov MAT KEARNEY

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £16.50

American singer-songwriter based in Nashville, whose music has an acoustic base fused with hip-hop.

HOLLOW ILLUSION (THE ELEPHANT MEN + THE BIKINI BOTTOMS)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Norwegian Metal hailing from Stange, Norway.

IDRIS ACKAMOOR & THE PYRAMIDS

PLATFORM, FROM 19:00, £7.50 - £10

Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids continue their intergalactic musical odyssey with an astronautical visit this autumn.

FROM SORROW TO SERENITY

The award-winning musician and globally renowned tech innovator Imogen Heap heads to Glasgow. Whatcha say?

COCAINE PISS

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9

You can’t just call your band Cocaine Piss right? Well, these guys did and they make music as chaotic and ascerbic as the name suggests.

LOVELYTHEBAND

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £13.50

Indie pop trio from LA, consisting of vocalist Mitchy Collins, guitarist Jordan Greenwald and drummer Sam Price.

GUTTERSNIPE (MARK MORGAN + GAUTE GRANLI + PETE UM + TARANTULA) THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 18:00, TBC

Blitzkrieg noise rock and electronics from West Yorkshire, featuring guitar squeal blended and grinding mini-drum chaos.

BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 20:00, £15 - £16

Throughout a 50 year recording career, Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s music has defied categorisation and genre, its only consistency being the extraordinary fusion of vision, technology, spirituality and place.

THE KILLING FLOOR (CHARLOTTE MARSHALL)

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 21:00, FREE

The Howlin’ Wolf’s open stage blues jam.

LATE: CYKADA (NIMBUS SEXTET)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £8

Cykada is an energetic bomb of unique style, where analogue worlds crash with electronics and Eastern influences cross with Western.

Mon 11 Nov EZRA FURMAN

QUEEN MARGARET UNION, FROM 19:00, £17.50

American indie pop singersongwriter gaining increasing mileage on national radio.

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

Technical metal and threads of groove from Glasgow.

Fri 08 Nov

The Japanese total rock’n’roll experience bring the mayhem to Broadcast.

Ska-pop will never die with Reel Big Fish around.

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 19:00, £9

The Lottery Winners are an indie-pop four-piece from an exact point equidistant between the musical meccas of Manchester and Liverpool.

HANG MASSIVE

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £20

Unique musical project which shot to fame (and a global tour) after their first online video and music release went viral.

LIZZO

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £32.50

Lizzo channels boundless selfconfidence through a downright earth-quaking voice, colourful persona and undeniable star power.

PETER CAT

MONO, FROM 22:00, FREE

Pulp-esque lyrical, ornamental pop music outfit from Glasgow.

HALF MOON RUN

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £16

Talented young trio from Ottawa, Ontario and Comox, British Columbia, working their magic across elements of indie, pop and folk.

A.A BONDY

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £11.55

A.A. Bondy’s first album in eight years was almost struck by disaster, finished just a day before a wildfire burned his house down (he’s fine, btw).

THE PRIMEVALS (THE REVERSE COWGIRLS + DJ NEIL MCINNES)

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 19:30, TBC

A day of music, fun and love for refugees at home and abroad.

BILLY BRAGG: ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £27.50

Three unique shows over three nights from Billy Bragg.

CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £27.05 - £32.55

Indie rock’n’roll quintet full of guitars and songs about love an’ that.

CATHOUSE, FROM 19:00, £11

GUITAR WOLF

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £13.75

LOLA IN SLACKS

Chanteuse Louise Reid brings a Piaf-like authority to the group’s noir atmospherics. A dramatic world of dark, shimmering beauty that’s intriguing and totally intoxicating.

WINTER SPRINGS

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:30, £7.80

A harmony-rich folk pop collective of singer-songwriters who formed back in 2012.

JED POTTS

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 18:00, FREE

Jed Potts of JP and the Hillman Hunters has been supplying only the deepest of grooves and the rudest of shuffle and blues for quite some time now.

STRANGE BLUE DREAMS (NOAH)

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 20:00, £5

Strange Blue Dreams full live band plus support and Loosen Up DJs from 10pm.

PROJECT SMOK (SAVANNAH DONOHOE)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5 - £8

The Scottish trio bring their infectious brand of neo-trad to Sneaky Pete’s, as their first public performance in the capital.

THE SELL OUT

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

The Sell Out play The Who’s incredible music without trying to be them, but instead give their legendary body of work a new perspective and a different energy.

Sun 10 Nov SOFT MACHINE

MONO, FROM 19:30, £22 - £24

Progressive jazz fusion to atmospheric psychedelia to free improvised jazz-rock to ambient loop music.

REEL BIG FISH (SPUNGE + LIGHTYEAR)

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £20.81

THE LOTTERY WINNERS

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9.50

PABLO JONES

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

An experimental set of contemporary blues using looped guitar to breathe modern life into classics.

STEVE HAUSCHILDT (HEATHER LEIGH)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

The ex-Emeralds electronic muso continues his experimentation with synthesizers, computers and digital processing.

Tue 12 Nov

FREYA RIDINGS (JASMINE THOMPSON)

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £21.60

Hailed as the voice of 2019, and one of 2018’s biggest success stories thanks to platinumselling hit Lost Without You. AS IT IS (SURVIVE SAID THE PROPHET)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £18.70

Pop-punk/emo lot with such uplifting song titles as Never Happy and The Great Depression.

ELEMENTAL (KIT DOWNES + AIDAN O’ROURKE)

SWG3, FROM 19:30, £0 - £16.50

Elemental centres around a new piece for harmonium, piano, fiddle and string orchestra by Aidan O’Rourke and Kit Downes.

PERIPHERY

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £18.50

Washington DC metallers return to the UK, their influence on the metal landscape looming large.

COILGUNS (YAUTJA + GENDO IKARI + TEMPERED) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £11

One of the proud flag holders of the 2.0 DIY scene since 2011 when they accidentally formed with the purpose of playing fast and simple music.

BLACK LIPS

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £18.50 - £22.50

Atlanta’s finest are back to party, and they’ve added some honky tonk to their garage rock’n’roll sound.

MARIANAS TRENCH

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £16.88

Award-winning Canadian rockers named after the deepest part of the world’s oceans.

GUS MUNRO

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Gus Munro is one of the hidden gems of Scotland’s thriving music scene, combining his love of Scottish traditional music and his passion for the blues.

MEGA BOG (HEIR OF THE CURSED + FAIR FOLLIES)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

Mega Bog is the fluid musical moniker of songwriter Erin Elizabeth Birgy, a Pacific Northwestern rodeo child.

Wed 13 Nov METRONOMY

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £26.44

The Joseph Mount-led electropop pleasurists return, this time trailing latest album Metronomy Forever.

THE WOODENTOPS

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £14.30

British rock outfit of mid-80s fame, back on the road.

THE AMAZONS

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £19.25

Born and raised Reading locals, Matt, Joe, Elliot and Chris take the aggression of grunge and punk and attempt to splice it with melody and harmony.

WILLIAM MICHAEL MORGAN

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £18

With a love of country music deeper than The Big River itself, this Mississippi native is the very definition of an old soul.

THE RESIDENTS: WOMEN SAID (I SOLAR + DIRTY BROOKS)

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £4

The Flying Duck presents The Residents, a month long weekly residency from some of Glasgow’s up and coming bands who will curate each week to bring you something from their world of music and art.

MAVERICK SABRE

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £19.69

London born, Irish-raised, soulful hip-hop singer-songwriter discovered by Plan B. FRANC CINELLI

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Franc Cinelli was raised on a diet of blues, folk, country and wholesome rock’n’roll music.

Thu 14 Nov

VENUS (FAUNA + TONGUE TRAP)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £7

Shieldmaidens of feminism and activism, Venus deliver a dose of shimmering glam through a heavy sheen of grrrl rock.

THE SOAPGIRLS

CATHOUSE, FROM 19:00, £8

The controversial French-born sister duo return with their blend of rock and pop.

FEEDER (SILVERCOAST)

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £27.50

The Newport pop-rock ensemble return with more catchy guitarfuelled choruses.

EL RANCHO SHOWCASE (LYLO + SWEATY PALMS + SAVAGE MANSION) THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £7

El Rancho celebrates the launch of its booking agency with a night jam packed with some of the very best bands in Glasgow.

A MAXWELL (KILGOUR + GINGER)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:30, £6 - £8

Solo project by Aonghas Maxwell, based in Glasgow.

Listings

55

OLIVE GROVE RECORDS 9TH BIRTHDAY CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 19:30, £9 - £10

Glasgow DIY label Olive Grove Records celebrate their ninth birthday with an intimate gig showcasing the amazing wealth of talent on their roster.

THREE CARD TRICK

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Scotland’s most popular power trio perform three hours of rockin’ blues for The Wolf.

JOSHUA BURNSIDE

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

Northern Irish Music Prize winner, for his debut album EPHRATA. MUSE-IC

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

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

XYLOURIS WHITE

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £12.50

Xylouris White is firmly rooted in the past and future, playing Cretan music of original and traditional composition.

RESONATE AFTERPARTY

ROOM 2, FROM 19:00, TBC

Following a day of workshops, panels and drop-in sessions, Room 2 host the afterparty for music industry conference Resonate.

Fri 15 Nov THE PEARLFISHERS

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £17.50

Scottish band who have been going for well over 20 years.

NOT3S (KOJO FUNDS + LD 67 + MS BANKS + KENNY ALLSTAR + BIG ZUU + RANSOM FA + K4CIE)

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £34.50

Afro bashment from a rising London star.

THE SUPERNATURALS (AARON WRIGHT)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £16.50

The Supernaturals are a Scottish quintet featuring vocalist James McColl and keyboardist Ken McAlpine.

ASTRID

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC

Sat 16 Nov

MARTIN STEPHENSON & THE DAINTEES

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £18.50

Sunderland folk/rock/pop band who specialise in rootsy, rockabilly sound.

A CERTAIN RATIO

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £25.95

Veteran former Factory Records signees among the forebears of post-punk.

THE RAINCOATS (HAIRBAND)

MONO, FROM 20:00, £18

Seminal post-punk band, ‘Godmothers of grunge’ and an inspiration to a generation of riot grrrls.

MANNEQUIN PUSSY (SHUCK + COP GRAVEYARD)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £10

Dynamic punk four-piece who specialise in lyrically concise bangers.

LIGHTNING BOLT

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £18.15

Rhode Island duo, comprising of Brian Chippendale and Brian Gibson, who made their name on the New York DIY scene in the 00s.

MICKEY 9S

CATHOUSE, FROM 19:00, £10

Glaswegian foursome offering up a manic fusion of bass, beats, onstage bodypopping and ski masks (yes, really).

GOLDLINK

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £24.20

Young rap prodigy with support from The FADER, Noisey and XXL ringing in his ears.

SNARKY PUPPY

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £28.25

With a rotating schedule of some 25 players, the US-of A collective share their unique musical enthusiasm for jazz-funk and world music.

LANKUM

Local art school garage rockers launch their debut EP.

DECLAN WELSH & THE DECADENT WEST

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £10

Glasgow-based band who deal with words and tunes, often at the same time.

THE SEA ATLAS

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 20:00, £6.50

Atmospheric folk rock from the Isle of Lewis drawing influence from the Hebridean winter surroundings.

CLOTH (CHORUS GIRL + LEMON DRINK)

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 20:00, £8 - £8.50

Delicious harmonica, raw powerful vocals, supercharged guitar and a rock-solid rhythm section.

A night of live music from three of Scotland’s finest singersongwriters.

OLIVIA ENNEMOSER QUINTET

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

Singer of Austrian-Scottish parentage with an authentic Billie Holliday jazz feel and an Amy Winehouse edge.

ELUSIVE TREE ENSEMBLE

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £5 - £8

Six-piece ensemble traversing a ‘variety of moods, energy levels, grooves and arrangement ideas’.

CONOR HEAFY & THE LOVELY BOYS (PELICAN TUSK + TAXIDERMY CAB) THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 23:00, £5

Previously described as jangly and woozy, Conor Heafey writes in an eclectic yet coherent style drawing from psych rock, jazz and dream pop.

THE LINKS (THE SELKIES + WHITEY + ELLIS HURLEY)

ROOM 2, FROM 19:00, £7

Cloth deliver angular alt-rock cut through with deep electronic grooves.

Four-piece from Dunfermline via Edinburgh playing everyone’s favourite ‘guitar pop’ (as opposed to just pop).

A biblical set of tall tale blues.

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Sun 17 Nov

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 20:00, £10

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £16

JON THE REVELATOR BLACK PROPHET

Ghanaian reggae music composer and a member of the Rastafari movement, Black Prophet performs live.

ORGANIC GROOVES

PIE & BREW, FROM 18:00, FREE

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

PM MUSIC SHOWCASE

ROOM 2, FROM 19:00, £8

Live music at Room 2.

SHURA

Pop producer and singer/songwriter, aka Aleksandra Denton when she’s off stage.

HAWKWIND

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £29.45

Seminal space rockers headed up by original overlord (and former busker) Dave Brock.

JADE BIRD

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £14.06

London-based singer-songwriter, who emphasizes melodic craft and emotional subtlety.

SCARLXRD

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £14

Mask-wearing, trap-metal artist.

It’s pronounced Scarlord, obvs.

56

Listings

ELDER ISLAND

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £14.63

Bristol trio using a mixture of jiving mpc beats, alongside a myriad of effected keys, guitar, bass and cello.

KIM RICHEY (CARLA J. EASTON)

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 19:30, £12 - £15

Two-time Grammy-nominated Kim Richey is a storyteller; a weaver of emotions and a tugger of heartstrings.

THE KILLING FLOOR (CHARLOTTE MARSHALL)

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 21:00, FREE

The Howlin’ Wolf’s open stage blues jam.

INWARDS (SUPER INUIT + PEFKIN)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

Inwards is the alias of Kristian Shelley, a multi-instrumentalist and music programmer from Worcestershire.

OPHELIA LIES (LE SCIMMIE SULLA LUNA + VAST BLUE VEIL + PLAYONTAPE)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £5

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

Mon 18 Nov YONAKA

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £15.50

Brighton quartet championing dark pop and heavy riffs.

PIXX

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £11

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £8 - £10

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9

YUNG KP

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £25

Young Nottingham-born folkmeets-indie singer-songwriter, who everybody once thought was going to be the next big thing.

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 18:00, FREE

CHASIN’ THE TRAIN

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £5

JAKE BUGG (ONR.)

Young songwriter from south London with a captivating stage presence. Also known as Hannah Rodgers.

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £16

SHELAGH MCKAY JONES (SCOTT ASHWORTH + GRAEME CAMPBELL)

Garage-punk act Avalanche Party have been frequently tipped as the most exciting live band in the UK right now.

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £20.35

Live band unit featuring none other than former Fall member Brix Smith-Start.

Irish four-piece traditional folk group formerly known as Lynched.

Born on the Isle of Lewis, Astrid returns to Glasgow.

AVALANCHE PARTY

BRIX AND THE EXTRICATED (THE MEDIA WHORES)

LIVIA RITA: KISSING FUTURES

Be transported to a synthesiser drenched world through Livia Rita’s Fuga Futura, performed with the Avantgardeners Collective.

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £25.85

John Darnielle, the face behind the Goats, brings his unique nasal quality and lyrical dexterity, moving from acoustic-rock to barbershop folk.

JAMIE REILLY

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Vocalist and blues guitarist Jamie Reilly’s sound derives from early blues and roots music, delivering a modern twist on blues and improvisational playing.

TWELFTH DAY

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £12.50

Collaborative musical project of fiddle player Catriona Price and harpist Esther Swift.

THE HOOTEN HALLERS

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £9

The Hooten Hallers are a highenergy blues rock band known for hard-travelling and wild live shows, with a seemingly endless tour schedule.

Tue 19 Nov SHUNYA (IN:TIDES)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

The musical moniker of Irishborn multi-instrumentalist and producer Alan Keary.

BADFLOWER

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £13.20

With musical influences from The Beatles and Death Cab for Cutie to Queens of the Stone Age and Jack White, Badflower explores nearly every facet of rock’n’roll.

MAHALIA

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £19.69

Soulful UK singer-songwriter, who previously supported Jorja Smith on her UK tour.

HIMALAYAS

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8

Indie/garage rock band from Cardiff creating a cinematic sound and style that is guaranteed to leave audiences in awe.

PUMAROSA

TONGUE TRAP

THE GIRL WHO CRIED WOLF

ELIZA & THE BEAR

KEYWEST

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £12.38

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £5

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 22:30, £7

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £11

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £16.50

The mesmeric London five-piece return to Glasgow.

THE HORSENECKS

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:30, TBC

The Horsenecks play hardhitting and heartfelt old time and classic bluegrass music.

Glasgow via Edinburgh band making scuzzy, grungy riffs.

THREE CARD TRICK

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Scotland’s most popular power trio perform three hours of rockin’ blues for The Wolf.

OLD BOHEMIA

BURLESQUE ROX (LADY V + THE ROX)

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 19:30, TBC

Old Bohemia play with a blues groove and a rough and tumble of Americana.

MAGPIE BLUE

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7.50

Magpie Blue uses her distinctive voice to illustrate her intriguing yet relatable lyrics, depicting heartbreak and the brutally honest inner thoughts of an anxious mind.

SO LOW PRESENTS: PHEW

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £8

Phew has a mind-blowing musical pedigree going back until the late 70s when she was a founder of Osaka punk group Aunt Sally.

Burlesque show with live house band.

THE WOOD BURNING SAVAGES (BIG FACE + EX WIVES) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

Fast-paced punk rock band from Derry.

THE POACHERS

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

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

OMAR APOLLO

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 21:30, £12.50

Wed 20 Nov

Soulful and psychedelic singersongwriter originally from Mexico and now living in LA.

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £11

Fri 22 Nov

NAAZ (DYLAN)

Kurdish singer-songwriter based in the Netherlands and making intriguing ‘quirkpop’.

THE GOLDEN DREGS (GIFT HORSE + KING RIB ) MONO, FROM 20:00, £5

London-based multiinstrumentalist and Americana crooner.

BLUE ROSE CODE

QUEEN MARGARET UNION, FROM 19:30, £17.50

Edinburgh’s own jazzy folk talent Ross Wilson, joined by his squad of talented multi-instrumentalists.

THE RESIDENTS: WOMEN SAID

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £4

The Flying Duck presents The Residents, a month long weekly residency from some of Glasgow’s up and coming bands who will curate each week to bring you something from their world of music and art.

MAMA ROUX

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

Mama Roux is Wolf legend Charlotte Marshall’s full band, playing bluesy R’n’B groove.

ANIMAL SOCIETY

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

Animal Society is a group of renegade musicians from the darkest corners of Glasgow’s jazz scene, led by Joe Williamson.

NICOLA EVANS

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

EZRA COLLECTIVE

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £16

Experimental jazz quintet from London, who draw influence from Afrobeat, Latin, hip-hop, grime and more.

DR FEELGOOD (LIGHTS OUT BY NINE)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £18.70

The longstanding, no-holdsbarred Essex rock’n’rollers continue to do what they do best – tour.

FAT WHITE FAMILY

QUEEN MARGARET UNION, FROM 19:00, £20.35

Increasingly notorious grot-pop troupe from London fond of the occasional on-stage strip.

TOKIO MYERS

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £19.13

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £15.40

Brighton-based indie rock’n’rollers made up of anthemic yelper Laura-Mary Carter and drummer Steve Ansell, out and touring their latest LP. ELECTRIC SIX

QUEEN MARGARET UNION, FROM 19:00, £19.80

The musical journey of Joel Wästberg, documenting a wealth of unique and idiosyncratic influences.

REX ORANGE COUNTY

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £23

Hampshire-born youngster with pals in high places (Tyler, the Creator, Frank Ocean etc).

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, £5 - £10

THE LUMINEERS

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £36.90 - £39.75

The Lumineers return with a jazzy tinge to their folk-rock timbre.

BRIDGE STREET OILERS

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

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

THE QUIREBOYS

Detroit underdogs with enough joyful hooks, mischievous wordplay and unexpected pathos to worm their way into your heart.

Spike and co are back for another acoustic show.

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £15

Live performance and DJs spinning all things Brazil and Latin.

BANSHEE (WEEKEND RECOVERY + DIRTY ORANGE + START STATIC)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

FONTAINES D.C.

Rousing Dublin post-punks receiving all the hype right now.

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £6

Banshee combine pulsing modern electronics with roaring guitars, pop arrangements and a powerful female vocal fuelled with high energy performances.

AIRBOURNE (TYLER BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN + CELLAR DOOR MOON CROW)

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £27.50

Long-haired Aussie hard rockers known for crafting underdogchampioning anthems with reckless abandon.

THE GREAT WESTERN FESTIVAL

VARIOUS VENUES, FROM 12:30, £15 - £28

A festival of musical exploration and discovery, with 50 bands playing across 10 venues in one day.

BLANCO WHITE (MALENA ZAVALA)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £13.20

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, £21

REBECCA VASMANT & GUESTS

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 20:00, TBC

THE QUILTER

The Quilter is the brainchild of Glasgow native Stuart Dougan, formerly of indie favourites French Wives and Smash Williams.

ORGANIC GROOVES

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

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

Five piece euphoric indie pop/ rock lot hailing from London and featuring neither Eliza, nor indeed a bear.

WHOLLY CATS

A new live music club dedicated to presenting the very best in folk, trad and roots-based.

LAURIE BLACK: SPACE CADETTE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Wed 30 Oct

Winner of Best Emerging Artist at Adelaide Fringe 2018 and Weekly Best Music, expect original songs and quirky covers.

PLEASURE HEADS

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £7

Falkirk indie band, who take their name from The Birthday Party’s song Sometimes Pleasure Heads Must Burn.

REX ORANGE COUNTY

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £16.88

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £31.20 - £32.35

Falkirk indie band, who take their name from The Birthday Party’s song Sometimes Pleasure Heads Must Burn.

BUCK & EVANS

CATHOUSE, FROM 19:30, £13

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £23

HALESTORM

Solo project from The Spook School’s drummer Niall McCamley.

CAEZAR

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

Mon 25 Nov SAM FENDER

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £21.10

Singer/songwriter from North Shields and one of BBC’s Sound of 2018.

THE SUBSTITUTES

Oliver Tree has been making waves with his unique highenergy sound and eccentric persona (basically the new Jimothy Lacoste).

BLANCK MASS

Electronic artist from the UK and one half of Fuck Buttons. Blanck Mass is a heavy, shimmering and orchestral work defined by manipulated field recordings, warm analogue synth, heavy sub and deep drone.

WOLFGANG FLÜR

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 19:30, £18.50 - £19.50

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £16.88

LIGHTNING DUST

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £13.20

The duo of Amber Webber and Josh Wells, who both left their previous band Black Mountain to pursue this creative partnership.

BJÖRK: CORNUCOPIA

RENEGADE

CHALI 2NA & KRAFTY KUTS

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, £12.50 - £16

Part of the legendary Jurassic 5, Chali 2Na and his rich baritone vocals are backed by the typical cut and paste style of Krafty Kuts.

KIRK STRACHAN

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

Kirk Strachan is a singer-songwriter based in Glasgow.

BOHEMIAN MONK MACHINE

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £5 - £8

Fife-based funk troupe play another monster set.

Sun 24 Nov MAC DEMARCO

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £27.60

Slacker rock multi-instrumentalist and artist hailing from Canada.

BILK

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

BILK paint pictures of British youth culture with an energetic, brash and raw, unapologetic nature.

Fri 01 Nov

GLASS SHIPS (ORTARIO + LIVING REFLEX + THE THROWAWAYS)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £5

Edinburgh-based band providing a refreshing style of alt-rock with punchy, melodic riffs contrasting with ethereal sweeping lead-lines.

DAWN RAY’D (KADDISH + KAKIHARA)

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:00, £7

Liverpudlian anarchist black metallers.

JED POTTS AND THE HILLMAN HUNTERS

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £5 - £6

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £12.50

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £6 - £10

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 18:00, FREE

Soul/jazz/funk outfit from The Midlands led by Neil Sheasby and Neil Jones.

JACK RICHARDSON

The legendary Icelandic musician brings her visually stunning theatrical show, Cornucopia, to Glasgow.

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:00, £33.50 - £42.55

Local acoustic blues trio playing a set of toe tappers from roots to soul to Americana.

STONE FOUNDATION

Supplying the deepest of grooves and the rudest of shuffles, this blues trio make for a charismatic performance.

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

One of Manchester’s most famous electronic acts, comprising Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons.

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £13 - £15

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £56.75 - £96.50

A member of Kraftwerk during the group’s golden era, Wolfgang Flür was the band’s electronic percussionist from 1973 to 1987.

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS

Thu 31 Oct

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:00, £15

OLIVER TREE

The Substitutes are a Glasgowbased tribute to The Who.

Birds of Chicago have been riding a swell of good mojo in the Americana world since their inception in late 2012.

THE GOTOBEDS

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £18

Joe Donnelly and JJ Gilmour, formerly of The Silencers, touring with their new band Caezar.

BIRDS OF CHICAGO

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £15

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 21:00, FREE

Pittsburgh four-piece who have previously collaborated with Protomartyr.

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £6

ORPHEUS HALLOWEEN

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 20:00, £5

The Orpheus Collective throw a once-in-a-lifetime spookfest, with live sets from Turmeric Acid, Berlin Anatomy, THE FEAR and Joe Coghill.

Kory Clarke is back with a new album and some of the greatest songs ever written.

THE KILLING FLOOR (CHARLOTTE MARSHALL)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £13.75

SQUIGGLES (LANE GO GO + U.S HIGHBALL)

Classic metal four-piece band based in Brooklyn, NY.

WARRIOR SOUL (PSYCHOBABYLON)

The Howlin’ Wolf’s open stage blues jam.

Tennessee-hailing rockers – oft shortened to Panther Burns – led by hirsute frontman Tav Falco.

TANITH

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £8 - £10

Hard rockin’ American quartet led by feisty vocalist and guitarist Lizzy Hale.

The Cardiff trio head to Glasgow with more in the way of rock and soul.

TAV FALCO’S PANTHER BURNS

ROOTSBASE (ASSYNT)

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £9 - £11

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, FREE

Hampshire-born youngster with pals in high places (Tyler, the Creator, Frank Ocean etc).

PLEASURE HEADS

Multi-platinum Irish band, hitting the UK on another tour.

Glasgow cowboy jazz, boogie rock’n’roll trio.

Inspired by a range of different musical genres, Blanco White weaves together Anglo-American folk with an Andean and Flamenco sound.

THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 19:00, £16.50

SIR WAS

Dame Area’s live sets are wild percussive journeys into another dimension.

BLOOD RED SHOES

Sat 23 Nov

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £12.10

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 20:30, £12

Thu 21 Nov

ROOM 2, FROM 19:00, £10

Glasgow-based singer-songwriter John Rush plays his ‘folk tinged pop songs’.

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:30, TBC

DAME AREA (DJ AMY + SOFAY + MR TC)

Avant-chamber ensemble formed by polymath percussionist and all-round force of nature Thor Harris.

JOHN RUSH

Tokio Myers is a multi-instrumental artist and composer fusing classical piano with electronic sounds and beats, creating an immersive and compelling show.

Singer-songwriter based in Glasgow.

THOR HARRIS & FRIENDS

The Girl Who Cried Wolf is the vibrant live project of singersongwriter Lauren Gilmour and drummer Audrey Tait.

HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE

THE NIGHT WITH... THE HERMES EXPERIMENT

The Hermes Experiment present a programme of music, including Josephine Stephenson, Robin Haigh, Meredith Monk and more.

THE CHORDS UK

South East London Brit rockers formed in 1978 when singer/ guitarist Billy Hassett and his bassist cousin, Martin Mason, advertised for musicians in the NME. THE CATHODE RAY

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £7.50

SIOBHAN MILLER: THREE ALBUMS, THREE NIGHTS

Songwriting collaboration between singer and multiinstrumentalist Jeremy Thomas and former Josef K frontman Paul Haig.

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £15 - £39.50

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

Award-winning singer-songwriter Siobhan Miller presents each of her three acclaimed solo albums in their entirety over three nights.

THE KITCHEN STOOLS

The Kitchen Stools celebrate the launched of their album.

LARKINS (SPYYN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £11

Classic indie rock’n’roll from Manchester.

SHE DREW THE GUN

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £12.50 - £15

Tue 29 Oct

PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, FREE

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

CARTER SAMPSON

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £13

Carter Sampson is an Okie-born singer/songwriter with a big country voice and songs to match.

ISHMAEL ENSEMBLE (SLOW GEAR)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

Expect all kinds of jazz, stirring ambient invocations, club-ready percussive workouts, spiralling grooves and hazy psychedelic electronica.

She Drew The Gun make impassioned, hypnotic and darkly ornate psych-pop built around the lyrically evocative songwriting of singer/guitarist Louisa Roach.

Sat 02 Nov

JOHNNY DEATHSHADOW

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £6 - £8

The German gothic industrial metal band make their Bannermans debut.

SEX GANG CHILDREN (TWISTED NERVE)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 21:00, £20

Spawn of the London underground scene play songs from their 1985 album Blind! and other classics.

THE SKINNY

Edinburgh Music LÉONORE BOULANGER (HOWIE REEVE + FAITH ELIOTT + BURNT PAW) HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:15, £6 - £7

Experimental French trio, creating a delightful sound combo of french chanson, folk, experimental progressive and fusion.

COUNTERFLOWS: BEATRICE DILLON (PAT THOMAS + RIAN TREANOR AND PAUL ABBOTT + [FRASER, ORMSTON]) THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £10

The first event in a new series from Counterflows at The Queen’s Hall, headlined by experimental producer Beatrice Dillon.

LAKYOTO

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 19:00, £6

Four-piece electronic pop band from Edinburgh, formerly known as SHVLLOWS. CHAKALAKA FUNK

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £5 - £6

On the first Saturday of the month, DJ Simon Hodge, and live acts handpicked from the cream of the funk and soul scene, celebrate all things soul, funk, latin, Afro and boogie.

BAD NAME

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 21:00, £10

Bad Name offer the 100% live rock promise. No backing tracks, no wigs, no egos; just an energetic rollercoaster of Bon Jovi hits.

YE VAGABONDS TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £12

Irish duo made up of brothers Brían and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn.

Tue 05 Nov

PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED

BANNERMANS, FROM 17:00, FREE

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

GLAMOUR AND THE BAYBES

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Six-piece funk with ripping horns and massive vocals that grab you by the soul and drop you on the dance floor.

Wed 06 Nov KOMATSU

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £8 - £10

Eindhoven stoner rock who have toured with Karma to Burn, Queens of the Stone Age and more.

THE 101ST AIRBORNE

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Fat grooves, jazzy excursions, soulful vocals and bags of pocket from guitarist Aki Remally’s soul-funk four-piece band.

RIVAL SONS

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £24.75 - £27.50

Long Beach-hailin’ Californian band of heavyweight rock’n’rollers.

DAPPY

A CELEBRATION OF DIVERSITY PT.3 WEE RED BAR, FROM 20:00, £3

An evening of art, music, networking and a fashion show celebrating unique designs and inspiring minds.

EOEMETATOUR

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £15 - £55

East of Eli frontman Nathan West’s music extracts and excavates identifiable emotion from the union of Americana song craft, electronic unpredictability, and rock ballast.

Sat 09 Nov

THE VIBRATORS (THE SHAN + JIM THREAT & THE VULTURES)

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £10 - £12

London-based punk-rock trio formed way back in’t day (as in 1976), still touring and recording.

THE 101ST AIRBORNE

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £5 - £6

Fat grooves, jazzy excursions, soulful vocals and bags of pocket from guitarist Aki Remally’s soul-funk four-piece band.

WET WET WET

USHER HALL, FROM 19:30, £33

Scotland’s soft-rock favourites, famous for their connections with Hugh Grant’s particularly floppy-haired era, take to the road once again.

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £16.50

WOZNIAK (BOOK GROUP + SEAS, STARRY)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

PROJECT SMOK

THE RIFLES

The Scottish trio bring their infectious brand of neo-trad to Sneaky Pete’s, as their first public performance in the capital.

The Edinburgh-formed noiseniks celebrate their latest release with the usual feedback-fuelled set.

FRESH PRODUCE: SNIDE RHYTHMS (PETER CAT + INDOOR FOXES)

Snide Rhythms come from the mind-your-language school of thought. They were born at night but not last night.

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £6

Four-piece indie rock band all the way from Chingford.

The N-Dubz chap entertains the yoof, in one of his signature bobble hats. Obviously.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6 - £9

GLASS CAVES

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £11

Sun 03 Nov

Glass Caves are “a word of mouth phenomenon” four-piece with lots of hair.

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

Thu 07 Nov

JOANOVARC

Edinburgh debut for the rising all female rock band.

SOFT RIOT (POLIS + DJ DREAM CARAVAN)

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 20:00, £5 - £6

Using an arsenal of synthesizers and effects, Soft Riot’s sound is an amalgamation of JJD’s personal experience with music.

THE SUNDAY SINNERS

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Neo-soul, trip-hop grooves and re-edited classics are delivered to your ears, feet and hips by this vocals-fronted band with a rhythm section to die for.

FULL FAT

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:00, £6

Full Fat are a blues soul trio who have made a name for themselves performing throughout Scotland and the North East.

KOCH MARSHALL TRIO

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:00, £18

Mascot Label Group/Players Club recording artists consisting of American guitarist Greg Koch, his son Dylan Koch on drums and Hammond B3 specialist Toby Lee Marshall.

SKYYBOII (AIITEE + CLING + B BEST)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

Skyy Boii teams up with Edinburgh heavyweights AiiTee and Cling, as well as Birmingham’s B Best, to bring you The Believe Party.

THE TOMMY SMITH YOUTH JAZZ ORCHESTRA ASSEMBLY ROXY, FROM 14:00, £5 - £14

A fantastic line-up of young musicians pay tribute to some legendary jazz names.

Mon 04 Nov ELECTRIC MARY

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £13 - £15

MusicOz Award finalist, Melbourne rockers Electric Mary bring their Guns N’ Roses reminiscent sounds to the UK.

November 2019

SWAMPFOG

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Swampfog are a seven-piece funk outfit from Edinburgh, spiritually via New Orleans.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £27.50 - £38.50

The NYC-hailing indie rock quartet tour the hell outta their latest release, Father of the Bride.

HANG MASSIVE

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £15 - £20

Unique musical project which shot to fame (and a global tour) after their first online video and music release went viral.

THURSDAY’S THE NEW FRIDAY

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

Thursday’s the New Friday bring you a selection of the best new bands in town.

FEET (THE VAN T’S + THE MEDICINE CABINET)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £10

The indie newcomers making a splash.

Fri 08 Nov WRONG JOVI

BANNERMANS, FROM 17:00, £10 - £12

Bon Jovi tribute.

SMALL FAKERS + WHO’S WHO

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 18:30, £18

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £6

FELIX AND THE SUNSETS

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

A night of loud, electrifying garage rock and passionate punk from Felix And The Sunsets.

MOVING PICTURES & SEEING RED

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £11 - £15

Classic Rush tribute play a great mix of hits and deep cuts.

JOHN POWER

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £16.50

The Cast and The La’s frontman takes his rock’n’roll solo project out on the road.

Sun 10 Nov

JED POTTS AND THE HILLMAN HUNTERS

BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE

Supplying the deepest of grooves and the rudest of shuffles, this blues trio make for a charismatic performance.

BAMBOO (SUPER INUIT + LADY NEPTUNE)

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 20:00, £6 - £8

The ambitious synth-popmeets-folk project of Brighton’s Nick Carlisle and London DIY scene linchpin Rachel Horwood.

MAKING TRACKS

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:30, £17

An evening of diverse music from around the globe.

THE SUNDAY SINNERS

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Neo-soul, trip-hop grooves and re-edited classics are delivered to your ears, feet and hips by this vocals-fronted band with a rhythm section to die for.

SLOTH METROPOLIS (DR. VZX MOIST + VISCERAL NOISE DEPARTMENT + PAL)

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5 - £6

WHAT WE DO… (EDINBURGH’S VOICE OF THE TOWN CHOIR) ASSEMBLY ROXY, FROM 20:00, £13

With powerful harmonies, exciting vocal arrangements and foot-stomping grooves, Edinburgh’s VOTT Choir are back for an even bigger, funkier show than ever before.

Mon 11 Nov

LUKE APPLETON (DOX DOCHERTY)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

The bassist of Iced Earth and Absolva brings his solo acoustic tour to Edinburgh.

THE TILLERS

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £12

Cincinnati four-piece The Tillers have been thumping their own distinctive style of string banddriven folk music for a decade.

COCAINE PISS (NOT ROBOTS?)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

You can’t just call your band Cocaine Piss right? Well, these guys did and they make music as chaotic and ascerbic as the name suggests.

Tue 12 Nov

PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED

BANNERMANS, FROM 17:00, FREE

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

GLAMOUR AND THE BAYBES

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Six-piece funk with ripping horns and massive vocals that grab you by the soul and drop you on the dance floor.

YAK

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £13.75

A nervy, magnetic and photogenic English noise rock/garage punk trio from London.

Wed 13 Nov AMEN RA

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £10 - £12

Lordi’s guitarist performs in full costume and plays some of Lordi’s best songs.

THE 101ST AIRBORNE

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Fat grooves, jazzy excursions, soulful vocals and bags of pocket from guitarist Aki Remally’s soul-funk four-piece band.

JAMMIN’ AT VOODOO

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Monthly Live Jam Session with some of Scotland’s leading musicians playing lounge grooves from many genres.

XYLOURIS WHITE

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £14

Xylouris White is firmly rooted in the past and future, playing Cretan music of original and traditional composition.

ELEMENTAL (KIT DOWNES + AIDAN O’ROURKE)

ASSEMBLY ROXY, FROM 19:30, £0 £16.50

Elemental centres around a new piece for harmonium, piano, fiddle and string orchestra by Aidan O’Rourke and Kit Downes.

SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE: ELEMENTAL (AIDAN O’ ROURKE + KIT DOWNES) ASSEMBLY ROXY, FROM 19:30, £5 £16.50

Elemental centres around a new piece by Aidan O’Rourke and Kit Downes and a clutch of contemporary works that speak to us of all things elemental.

BOSTON MANOR (MODERN ERROR)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £14 - £19

Post hardcore and pop punk band from Blackpool.

Thu 14 Nov THE PEARLFISHERS

Double dose of tribute acts, taking on Small Faces and The Who, respectively.

Story-driven indie-folky-jazzy excellence hailing from our own fine shores.

Scottish band who have been going for well over 20 years.

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

SHAMBOLICS

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

FUTURE HEROES

Aki Remally (guitar) and Jonny White (sax) front this funk five-piece band hitting you with deep funk rhythms, crazy jams and insane musicianship.

NICOLE AND THE BACK-UP CREW

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £5 - £6

Lively and soulful blues party paying homage to the most important women in blues history, featuring stunning singer Nicole Smit.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £11

Hailed by label owner and mentor Alan McGee as “one of the great Scottish bands”, Shambolics are a fervently ambitious outfit from Scotland ready to take on the world.

THE CAVES, FROM 19:00, £17.50

SWAMPFOG

Swampfog are a seven-piece funk outfit from Edinburgh, spiritually via New Orleans.

JERSEY BUDD AND SILVERBALL

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £12

Jersey Budd may just be the best musician you’ve never heard of.

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

SEA ATLAS (ASTRID)

KARINE POLWART

ANGEL BAT DAWID

DAS CONTRAS

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6.50

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £24.75 - £27.50

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £15

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £5 - £6

The Sea Atlas, aka Calum Buchanan, brings his thoughtful, atmospheric style of indie rock to Sneaky Pete’s all the way from his home in the Outer Hebrides.

Fri 15 Nov

MACTALLICA (MEGADETH UK)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £12 - £15

Metallica tribute act.

FUTURE HEROES

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Aki Remally (guitar) and Jonny White (sax) front this funk five-piece band hitting you with deep funk rhythms, crazy jams and insane musicianship.

THE BANJO LOUNGE 4

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £5 - £6

The Banjo Lounge 4 do funky bluegrass mash-ups of everything, keeping the party going and the vibe high on a Saturday night.

ARGH KID

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, FREE

ARGH Kid is an English alternative hip-hop band from Manchester, led by the MC/Poet David Scott, with an eclectic approach to hip-hop.

SOULACOASTER

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £7

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

JUSTIFIED SINNERS

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, FREE

Edinburgh alternative rockers playing a mix of covers and original material.

JACK SAVORETTI

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £30.25 - £33

The Italian-English solo acoustic singer plays a set accompanied by his trusty guitar.

ANNIE CHRISTIAN (THE LINE + GIFT HORSE)

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £10

Charity gig with all proceeds going to Parkinson’s UK. THE KT BUSH BAND

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £15 - £45

Featuring original members of Kate Bush’s 1977 KT Bush Band, this is far more than a Kate Bush tribute act.

BATTALION OF FLIES (TAKE TODAY + SAUZA KINGS) LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £7

Alt-rock cult heroes Battalion Of Flies make a long awaited return to the stage to celebrate the 15th anniversaryof their critically acclaimed debut album, Blue Lips, Cold Kiss.

BLOXX

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £8.80

Indie-pop band, who played to a huge, elated crowd at 2018’s The Great Escape festival.

Sat 16 Nov

CRASHED OUT (PANIC ATTAK + MAY CONTAIN NUTS + CUTTIN EDGE + BLACKLIST)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:00, £6 - £10

Street punk night featuring five great bands.

TANGERINECAT (HARBINGERS DRUM CREW + SIN/RED)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 19:00, £7 - £10

Ukrainian outfit, tAngerinecAt play raw, powerful, cinematic and deeply atmospheric electronica with punk attitude.

CEITIDH MAC (EVE SIMPSON)

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:30, £7

Ceitidh Mac blends the warming tones of the cello and soaring vocals to create a transformative sound that puts a progressive twist on the alt-folk genre.

HAWKWIND

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £27.50

Seminal space rockers headed up by original overlord (and former busker) Dave Brock.

SATURDAY NIGHTS AT THE JAZZ BAR

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £5 - £6

Live bands and DJs provide beats for the ears, hearts, feet and booty, showcasing the best in local and touring funk, soul, roots and more.

The Borders lass brings the loveliness with her provokingly poetic and bittersweet folk tunes, dipping into her impressive back catalogue of material.

ROSS ARTHUR

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £8

Young Edinburgh-based singer/ songwriter and guitarist known for his energetic and crowdpleasing live outings.

THE ABSOLUTE JAM

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £14

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

INDIGO VELVET

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £9

Tropical-pop quartet from Edinburgh.

MOON PARTY

LEITH THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £10

An immersive night of music, light and live performances, set within Pianodrome’s sculptural amphitheatre made entirely from recycled pianos.

Sun 17 Nov MIDNITE CITY

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

UK hair metal outfit fronted by Rob Wylde of Tigertailz.

THE SUNDAY SINNERS

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Neo-soul, trip-hop grooves and re-edited classics are delivered to your ears, feet and hips by this vocals-fronted band with a rhythm section to die for.

EMELI SANDE

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £38.50 - £71.50

The Scottish singer-songwriter returns to Edinburgh, riding high on her new album, Real Life.

TIN PIGEONS

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

The bouncing two-piece indie band from the East Midlands were acclaimed as “one of the best festival bands” by BBC Introducing after conquering every major festival stage in the country.

ALY BANE, ALE MÖLLER & BRUCE MOLSKY

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £20

Shetland fiddle maestro Aly Bain, Swedish multi-instrumentalist Ale Möller and American multiinstrumentalist Bruce Molsky explore their Celtic, Nordic and Appalachian cultures.

Mon 18 Nov ELUSIVE TREE ENSEMBLE

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £12

Six-piece ensemble traversing a ‘variety of moods, energy levels, grooves and arrangement ideas’.

CALEXICO AND IRON & WINE (LISA O’NEILL)

USHER HALL, FROM 19:30, £27.50 - £38.50

Calexico and Iron & Wine head back on the road in support of their second collaborative album, Years to Burn.

HIMALAYAS

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

Indie/garage rock band from Cardiff creating a cinematic sound and style that is guaranteed to leave audiences in awe.

Tue 19 Nov

PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, FREE

The potency, prowess, spirit and charisma of Angel Bat Dawid’s cosmic musical proselytising has taken her from relatively unknown improviser to borderline ubiquitous performer in Chicago’s avant-garde.

Wed 20 Nov

BLACKWATER CONSPIRACY

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £11 - £13

The Southern-style blues rockers return to Bannermans.

THE URBAN VOODOO MACHINE

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 19:00, £15

Shadowy ne’er do wells’ hailing from London, led by Norwegian born songwriter and frontman Paul-Ronney Angel.

LOUIS BERRY

THE CAVES, FROM 19:00, £6

A very lonely rebel with a very revolutionary mind.

THE 101ST AIRBORNE

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Fat grooves, jazzy excursions, soulful vocals and bags of pocket from guitarist Aki Remally’s soul-funk four-piece band.

LUCY SPRAGGAN

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £19.80

Little Lucy Spraggan, of X Factor fame, now a fully fledged touring musician making ‘flop’ - that’s folk meets hip-hop for the uninitiated.

MAGPIE BLUE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6

Magpie Blue uses her distinctive voice to illustrate her intriguing yet relatable lyrics, depicting heartbreak and the brutally honest inner thoughts of an anxious mind.

Thu 21 Nov CLT DRP

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £5

Brighton trio playing a blend of electro punk.

HYYTS

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 19:00, £8.80

Much-hyped new Glasgow duo, who simply “play pop music”.

MIKE PETERS

THE CAVES, FROM 19:00, £18

The frontman of Welsh band The Alarm continues his solo quest.

SWAMPFOG

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Swampfog are a seven-piece funk outfit from Edinburgh, spiritually via New Orleans.

NEW MODEL ARMY (BILLY LIAR)

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £24.75

The frontman of new wave popsters Adam and the Ants performs the hit album Friend or Foe in its entirety, as well as other hits.

ALEX REX (MIKE HERON)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £9

The solo project from Trembling Bells’ Alex Neilson and friends, singing songs of love, loss, loathing and sex.

IVORY CAVES

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

Ivory Caves are a five-piece indie/alternative rock band from Dunfermline comprising of infectious bass riffs, huge driven guitars and catchy melodies sang in three part harmony.

TYGERS OF PAN TANG (PECTORA)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £10 - £15

New wave British metal legends.

JAWS

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £13.20

The Birmingham rabble-rousers head to Edinburgh.

Sat 23 Nov

HELLBOUND HEARTS (PAPER BEATS ROCK)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £6

A cracking dark pop/rock outfit.

DMS (STEREOHAZE + THE NAKED FEEDBACK)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 19:00, £6

DMS play a hometown show to launch their new EP, Impostor Syndrome.

BAT FOR LASHES

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £27 - £29.50

Brighton singer/songwriter Natasha Khan takes her latest album, Lost Girls, on the road, upping the mystic ante as per.

MELISSA KELLY AND THE SMOKING CROWS

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £5 - £6

Melisa Kelly and the Smokin’ Crows have built a reputation as a powerful, soulful live act and are set to further cement their reputation as one of the best new soul acts to come out of Scotland.

THE FIRRENES

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £10

The Firrenes are a melodic rock band from Edinburgh who know how to put on a show.

JAKE ROBERTS (FIRST OFFENCE + THE ANTHOLOGY’S)

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £33.25

MIKE MCKENZIE

BBC Radio Scotland’s Singer/ Songwriter of the Year Mike McKenzie takes to the Sneaky Pete’s stage for his debut headline performance since winning the inaugural award this year.

DAVID THOMAS BROUGHTON + THOR & FRIENDS (FAITH ELIOTT)

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £13

A double headline show featuring David Thomas Broughton and Thor & Friends, with support from Faith Elliott.

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

ABBA GOLD

Celebrating all things ABBA. Pretty much, we’re there.

BRONSTON (A SUDDEN BURST OF COLOUR + FES + DEEP SEA CREATURE)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £10

Bronston showcase their rifforiented, synth-augmented, alternative rock style.

THE DISSECTION: ARAB STRAP’S PHILOPHOBIA

SUMMERHALL, FROM 20:00, £14

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £7.50 - £10

The Dissection is a series of music and conversation dedicated to exploring classic Scottish albums with the people who made them. Dissected this time is Arab Strap’s seminal 1998 album Philophobia.

HORSE: THE SAME SKY #30

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £7

Fri 22 Nov

CRESS (ANTI-SYSTEM + SOCIAL INSECURITY + SUBVISION + FRENETIX)

Horse revisits and relives memories from her first album, The Same Sky, for its 30 year anniversary.

ADAM ANT

Celebrating all things ABBA. Pretty much, we’re there.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £5

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

USHER HALL, FROM 19:30, £38.50 - £42.35

ABBA GOLD

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £33.25

Young solo artist from West Lothian.

A night of anarcho-punk.

Six-piece funk with ripping horns and massive vocals that grab you by the soul and drop you on the dance floor.

KROW

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

Edinburgh-based punk EDM group Krow play their unique and theatrical brand of music.

Post-punk five-piece from Bradford, named after the English revolutionary army of Oliver Cromwell.

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

GLAMOUR AND THE BAYBES

Das Contras are a band of musicians from The Kingdom of Fife, playing folk-funk-jazz-punk, soaring brass, face-melting guitar and raucous vocals.

BLACK TALON

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £18 - £22

Black Talon return with their technical thrash metal, a special show to celebrate the release of Existential.

O.S.T.R.

Singer-songwriter playing modern pop folk.

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 19:00, £25 - £30

One of Poland’s biggest rappers heads to Edinburgh, having achieved virtually everything on the hip-hop scene in his home country.

FUTURE HEROES

THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Aki Remally (guitar) and Jonny White (sax) front this funk five-piece band hitting you with deep funk rhythms, crazy jams and insane musicianship.

AMY LOU & THE MONDAY CLUB

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £7.70

Sun 24 Nov

THE QUIREBOYS (DIRTY AL)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £18 - £20

Spike and co are back for another acoustic show.

JAMIE LENMAN

THE CAVES, FROM 19:00, £15

The former singer, guitarist and songwriter for underground heroes Reuben returns, with his twiddly moustache all well and in place.

Listings

57

THE SUNDAY SINNERS THE JAZZ BAR, FROM 23:30, £3 - £4

Neo-soul, trip-hop grooves and re-edited classics are delivered to your ears, feet and hips by this vocals-fronted band with a rhythm section to die for.

CIARAN RYAN

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, FREE

Uptempo Irish trad style original tunes with elements of bluegrass, classical and rockabilly.

MARTIN & ELIZA CARTHY

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £11

Martin Carthy and his twice Mercury-nominated daughter Eliza join forces to perform songs from their first duo album ever.

COUSIN KULA (TEEK)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

Bristolian six-piece Cousin Kula create a mind-bending fusion sound, at once sun-drenched pop and kaleidoscopic psyche with air-tight prog licks and infectious Afrobeat-inspired rhythms.

TALISK

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £12

Barely four years since their formation, Talisk have already stacked up several major awards for their pyrotechnic yet artfully woven sound.

SIXTIES ON A SUNDAY (FAYNE AND THE CRUISERS)

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £7.50

A Sunday afternoon to drink, dance and sing along to simply the most authentic 60s band you will ever hear.

Mon 25 Nov FLORENCE BLACK

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £8 - £10

Welsh rock trio, back to kick out the jams.

TAV FALCO AND PANTHER BURNS

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £12.50

Sun 03 Nov SNOW PATROL

FAT SAM’S, FROM 18:00, £15

Gary Lightbody et al do their amiable indie-rock thing.

We once rather beautifully described them as a “bed-wet fest”. Enjoy.

INDIGO VELVET

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 19:00, £6

Tropical-pop quartet from Edinburgh.

THE MIGHTY BOSSMAGS (VEGETABLE COLLECTIVE + DOG EARED + AFF IT) CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 18:30, £5 - £6

The Mighty Bossmags are throttling headlong into oblivion in a kaleidoscope of punk fury, jazz timings, metallic intensity and reckless abandon.

FIONA KENNEDY

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 15:00, £15

Fiona Kennedy sings beautifully fresh twists on some classic songs from Scotland together with some surprising gems from Nashville.

Tue 05 Nov BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB

CAIRD HALL, FROM 19:00, £30.25

Expect the usual damaged affectations of indie from the north London-based four-piece, out on their UK tour.

Thu 07 Nov VISTAS

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 19:00, £9.90

Indie-rockers Vistas (formerly known as Friend of a Friend) head out on a Scottish headline tour.

Fri 08 Nov WET WET WET

CAIRD HALL, FROM 19:30, £33

Raised in rural Arkansas, Tav Falco embarked on his distinguished career in music, film, photography and writing upon arriving in Memphis in the mid-70s.

Scotland’s soft-rock favourites, famous for their connections with Hugh Grant’s particularly floppy-haired era, take to the road once again.

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £20 - £22

Tribute to Rage Against The Machine celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the band’s iconic album Battle of Los Angeles.

STEVE MASON

Once a founding member of The Beta Band, Steve Mason is now best known as an artist with a rare melodic gift and an urge to experiment.

Dundee Music Thu 31 Oct

HENDRIX, CLAPTON & CREAM PERFORMED BY VOODOO ROOM

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £18

The songs of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Cream performed by a live band.

Fri 01 Nov HYBRID THEORY

CHURCH, FROM 20:00, £10

The UK’s leading Linkin Park tribute band.

TIDE LINES

FAT SAM’S, FROM 19:30, £18

Four-piece band who launched in the summer of 2016 with the release of their debut single Far Side of the World.

ATOMIC

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 21:30, TBC

Five-piece band from Dundee playing their first gig at Clarks.

RADGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £5 - £10

THIS FEELING (THE CAPOLLOS + CAROUSEL + CONNOR CLARK AND THE MATADOR KINOS + THE MEDINAS) BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 19:30, £6 - £7

Branded as “the best club in the UK for future rock & roll stars”

by Noel Gallagher – it speaks for itself, right?

Sat 09 Nov THE ABSOLUTE JAM

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £8 - £10

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

Sun 10 Nov

ELEMENTAL (KIT DOWNES + AIDAN O’ROURKE)

CAIRD HALL, FROM 19:30, £0 - £14

Elemental centres around a new piece for harmonium, piano, fiddle and string orchestra by Aidan O’Rourke and Kit Downes.

TOM MCGUIRE & THE BRASSHOLES

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 19:00, £10

Eight-piece funk/soul powerhouse from Glasgow, making moves in the Scottish scene.

BOO HEWERDINE

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 15:00, £12

MAIN STREET BLUES

As lead singer of The Bible, through his solo work and his long-time collaboration with Eddi Reader, Boo Hewerdine has become something of a national treasure.

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 16:00, £5

Wed 13 Nov

Sat 02 Nov DISCHARGE

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £12.50

UK 82 hardcore punk legends.

One of Scotland’s top blues bands playing powerful electric blues material.

THE WAVE PICTURES

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 19:00, £13.50

Witty indie-pop trio headed by vocalist and guitarist Dave Tattersall.

Thu 14 Nov

ODD TSAR (MESSED UP YOUTH + CAMEO HABITAT + HIP PRIEST)

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:00, TBC

Dundee-based shoegaze/alternative band.

Fri 15 Nov 999

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £10

Punk legends 999 return to Dundee.

Sat 16 Nov

DEPECHE CHOAD (VOLCANO X + CASPER HEYZEUS + QUEEQUEG’S COFFIN)

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:30, £4

A band who pride themselves on energetic, fun performances with raw unadulterated passion.

Sun 17 Nov

KENDAMA (BLIND UNICORN + THE EXEMPT)

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:00, £5

Kendama combine addictive, hook-laden songwriting, large pop production and intense live performance.

Tue 19 Nov

DECLAN WELSH AND THE DECADENT WEST

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 19:30, £7

Glaswegian songwriter and wordsmith Declan Welsh journeys to the southside, backed by his band and a catalogue of clever, clever songwriting.

Thu 21 Nov THE PEARLFISHERS

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 19:00, £14

Scottish band who have been going for well over 20 years.

Sat 23 Nov MACMUSE

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £5 - £7

Scotland’s two great tributes to Muse and Rage Against the Machine join forces.

TURIN BRAKES

FAT SAM’S, FROM 19:00, £20

THE BLACK LODGE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Twin Peaks themed club night, where the bats are not what they seem...

JELLYBABY HALLOWEEN

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £8.25

The chart, disco and party night hosts a special Halloween edition.

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

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

ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

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

RUSH (DAN MONOX)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

The RUSH residents return bringing both cutting edge and classic techno, acid and breaks to take you to a world beyond.

Fri 01 Nov GLITTERBANG

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Disco divas and Euro-pop anthems for those ready to sweat.

MAXIMUM PRESSURE: HALLOWEEN

SWG3, FROM 21:00, £31.50 - £33.75

A massive line-up converges for the Halloween edition of Maximum Pressure, with headliners Helena Hauff, Karenn (live) and Paula Temple.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

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

FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Sun 24 Nov

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, FREE

STEVE MASON

FAT SAM’S, FROM 19:00, £22

Once a founding member of The Beta Band, Steve Mason is now best known as an artist with a rare melodic gift and an urge to experiment.

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

MADONNATHON

Get into the groove with Madonna hits all night.

MISSING PERSONS CLUB (CEM + MCMLXXXV)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £10

PORKPIE

Missing Persons Club invite two residents of legendary Berlin party Herrensauna.

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 15:00, £10

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £10

This eight-piece band recreate the classic songs of two tone and rocksteady ska.

Tue 29 Oct CRATER COVE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Funk, disco, boogie and house. #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

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

Wed 30 Oct

CLUB TROPICANA HALLOWE’EN SPECIAL

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

The spookiest 80s/90s hits.

CATHOUSE WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

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

GLITTERED! WEDNESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

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

EUTONY HALLOWEEN (VOIGHT KAMPFF)

Hard-hitting techno from start to finish.

Listings

Thu 31 Oct

Yes, though many of your fondly remembered millennium musicians are somewhat frozen in time, Turin Breaks continue to pave their path, over a decade under their belts. See ‘em live this month.

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

58

Glasgow Clubs

SENSU: MIDLAND

Midland (AKA Harry Agius) brings his knack for mixing techno and disco to Sub Club, following the release of his first new music in around three years.

Sat 02 Nov REALLY GREAT PEOPLE

I LOVE GARAGE THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

A charity club night focused on developing a more sustainable world and delivering quality music to dancefloors.

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, TBC

Flamboyant disco dream weavers.

HARSH TUG

OG Kush + hip-hop bangers with Notorious B.A.G. PINK NOISE

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, TBC

The Crew behind Club Mediterraneo invite you for a night of live electronic music and leftfield techno DJ sets.

LA CHEETAH 10TH BIRTHDAY (JOY ORBISON + BEN UFO)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £14 - £18

Two of the UK’s best selectors come to celebrate La Cheetah’s 10th birthday.

SUBCULTURE

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

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

RAS TENDA (CAROLINE MURPHY)

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £5

Ras Tenda spins reggae alongside Bass Warrior Soundsystem’s Caroline Murphy.

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £19.69

STREETrave continues its 30th birthday celebrations, bringing you one of the biggest STREETrave live acts of all time, Inner City.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

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

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

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

ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

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

OESTE (BSTW + DATABASS)

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, FREE

Glaswegian selectors and party starters, BSTW and Databass, join Oeste residents in the booth for their second party.

CLOUD 99 (TAIS-TOI + NEEVA + ALI ALLAN + DJ DAGR)

SHAKA LOVES YOU

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Hip-hop and live percussion flanked by wicked visuals.

GROOVEJET

SWG3, FROM 22:00, £9.25 - £11.25

A full on night of house, vocal anthems, special edits and disco edits.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

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

I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

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

JUICE (CHUCKY)

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Thu 14 Nov SCIENCE FICTION

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

The Queens of the Glasgow disco scene, FKA Drugstore Glamour.

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

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

ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

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

HIJACK

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5

Transatlantic house and garage vibes all night long.

Fri 15 Nov SINGLES NIGHT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Beans + Divine explore the hits on 7” vinyl.

KÖLSCH

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £14.06 - £21.94

The Kompakt regular and producer behind 2014 hit anthem Cassiopeia plays a headline set.

TENERGY

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £7

Cloud 99 presents four of the hottest unsigned DJs in Glasgow, who will be spinning their favourite techno tunes all night and maybe even some of their own.

Juice is all about music that makes you move. From charttoppers to gay anthems, Maltese queen Chucky will be hosting the night and squeezing out the best bangers.

The legendary club night that changed the game for drag nights in Scotland is returning for one night only to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, TBC

FOUNDRY

LETS GO BACK (ACID ULTRAS)

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

Industrial goth rock disco.

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

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Fri 08 Nov

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

HELLBENT

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

SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

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

JAZZANOVA (REBECCA VASMANT)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 22:00, £8 - £10

As well as being a passionate, challenging and often revolutionary DJ for the past 20 years, Alex Barck has also worked as a series selector and radio host.

Mon 04 Nov BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

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

Tue 05 Nov ONLY THE SUBJECT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

STREETRAVE 30TH BIRTHDAY (INNER CITY + JON MANCINI + IAIN ‘BONEY’ CLARK + MICHAEL KILKIE)

STAR SIGNZ

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Sat 09 Nov

Arcade invite the duo behind one of Scotland’s powerhouse labels, Craigie Knowes.

Acid house band Acid Ultras perform forthcoming material alongside resident DJs Bosco and Rob Mason.

NULL / VOID

FOLAMOUR

The French DJ takes you on a journey through disco, love and magic.

Thu 07 Nov

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5

Edinburgh-based curators of Afro-Latin club sounds return to Glasgow, hosting the after party for Melt Yourself Down’s gig.

ARCADE (CRAIGIE KNOWES) LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

After celebrating two years with Cophenhagen’s Repro, the Foundry residents take control for four hours of power.

Sun 03 Nov

New wave of underground Glasgow DJ talent.

SWG3, FROM 22:00, £16.88

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3

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

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Hip-hop, nu-metal, trap and techno patter.

SUNNY SIDE UP (ANDREA MONTALTO)

SAMEDIA SHEBEEN: MELT YOURSELF DOWN AFTERPARTY

#TAG TUESDAYS

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

Wed 06 Nov IT’S NOT A PHASE, MOM!

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Nu-metal, pop-punk, emo and early 00s tunes.

CATHOUSE WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

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

GLITTERED! WEDNESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

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

HOLD TIGHT

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, TBC

UK Garage, UK Funky, Bassline and Baile Funk.

ANNA & HOLLY’S DANCE PARTY

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Rock’n’roll, garage and soul.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

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

FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

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

JUICE

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, TBC

Juice is all about music that makes you move. From charttoppers to gay anthems, Maltese queen Chucky will be hosting the night and squeezing out the best bangers.

DISCLAIMER (CAN & BUTEO THE WARRIOR + AMPLELLMAN + SEAN MUYABA + RYAN WILSON)

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, £5

Disclaimer is back once again taking the Glasgow party scene back to its roots, championing inclusivity, a diverse music policy and having fun.

LEZURE (PLO MAN + WHEELMAN)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £7 - £9

Vancouver’s PLO Man joins Lezure for a night of leftfield club music.

RETURN TO MONO (SLAM + PERC & ANSOME) SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10 - £12

Monthly night from Soma Records, often with special guests.

HEALTHY (VLADIMIR IVKOVIC + TOLOUSE LOW TRAX + MR TC)

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £6

Two of the residents of Düsseldorf’s legendary Salon des Amateurs weirdo rave, Vladimir Ivkovic and Tolouse Low Trax join HEALTHY for their latest party.

SYMBIOSIS 15TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

AUDIO, FROM 23:00, FREE

Symbiosis celebrates 15 years of bringing the best future funking drum’n’bass to Glasgow.

SUBCULTURE

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

FROGBEATS: UNDERGROUND SOUND (TUNAGE)

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 23:00, £5

A night of underground dance music, featuring everything from ghetto funk and breaks to jungle and drum’n’bass and more.

Sun 10 Nov SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

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

Mon 11 Nov BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

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

Tue 12 Nov #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

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

ATTENTION//PLEASE (KEYDEN + MITCHELLMAN + OESTE)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

One of Glasgow’s finest dealers in Italo sleaze and big synth beats joins resident Keyden for a B2B showdown.

Wed 13 Nov RETRONIC

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Rock’n’roll, and 50s and 60s bangers.

CATHOUSE WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

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

GLITTERED! WEDNESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

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

FRESH BEAT

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

BASSMENT PRESENTS CUT LOOSE (BREEZY AS DJMP + BROKEN DISCO + GAV MCKUSKER) THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, TBC

Club night focusing on disco and its influence on modern electronic music.

PARTIAL (PEEBLES PUNISHER)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5

Local residents take control for a free Sunday session.

WE SHOULD HANG OUT MORE (BALTRA (LIVE) + BLACK LOOPS) SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £7

Colliding live electronics and DJing with two of 2019’s rising stars, WSHOM proudly present Baltra and Black Loops.

Sat 16 Nov

THE LANCE VANCE DANCE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Exotic dreamy disco.

OBSESSION

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £5.25 - £6.25

A night of deep cuts, quality remixes, the best new bangers and forgotten tracks for serious connoisseurs of disco, pop and electro.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

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

I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

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

SWIFTOGEDDON

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, £7.89

A night dedicated to worshipping at the altar of Taylor Swift. Nonstop Swifty all night: deep cuts, extended mixes, fan favourites and all the hits.

THE SKINNY

AFLOAT (CARL FINLOW)

CRAIGIE KNOWES

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

The electro master comes by with one of his acclaimed hardware live sets.

SUBCULTURE

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

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

MOJO WORKIN’ (FELONIOUS MUNK)

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £3

Monthly soul party playing Motown, ska, Northern Soul and more.

Sun 17 Nov

CHEERS FOR THIRD SUNDAY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

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

SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

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

Mon 18 Nov BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

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

Tue 19 Nov #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

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

Wed 20 Nov CATHOUSE WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

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

GLITTERED! WEDNESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

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

RUSH (JOHNNY5 + MI$$ CO$MIX)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

The RUSH residents return bringing both cutting edge and classic techno, acid and breaks to take you to a world beyond.

Thu 21 Nov PRAY 4 LOVE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

All love songs + all bangers.

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

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

Local powerhouse label delivering high quality electro, techno and more.

WE STILL BELIEVE: CHOOSE LOVE (THE BLACK MADONNA + LEZZER QUEST) SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10 - £18

The Black Madonna brings her We Still Believe: Choose Love tour to Glasgow, raisising funds and awareness for Help Refugees and Say It Loud Club.

Sat 23 Nov BREAKFAST CLUB

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

An 80s mega-mix party.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

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

I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

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

GROG

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, £3

Dress to digress with Lady Flowers, Alana Duvey and Dharma Geddon.

SUBCULTURE

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

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

Sun 24 Nov SLIDE IT IN

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Classic rock through the ages from DJ Nicola Walker.

SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

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

ELECTRIC SALSA X LA CHEETAH CLUB (MOR ELIAN)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

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

PALA (VEITCH + CASEY + STENGO)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5

Pala residents go toe to toe all night.

Fri 22 Nov DON’T BE GUTTED

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

All-out decadence in the name of euphoria.

GORGON CITY

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £19.69 - £21.94

Kyle Jules Gibbon and Matt Robson-Scott have enjoyed wide acclaim with their multi-layered, intelligent and genre-bending dance floor productions.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

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

FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

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

November 2019

SILK THURSDAYS

JGP: SPOOF-J

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

A night of acid house and techno from some of the best local talent Edinburgh has to offer.

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £1 - £5

Weekly Thursday chart, house, R’n’B and indie night with DJ Big Al.

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Thu 31 Oct

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

UNDERGROUND SOCIETY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Expect music from across the spectrum at Cab Vol’s weekly midweek party, every Thursday.

THE HIVE HALLOWEEN

THE HIVE, FROM 21:00, £3 - £5

Chills and thrills at the spooky horror Hive Halloween.

SILK THURSDAYS

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £1 - £5

Weekly Thursday chart, house, R’n’B and indie night with DJ Big Al.

FLY PRESENTS: MALL GRAB HALLOWEEN SPECIAL (NITE FLEIT + SKIN ON SKIN)

Belfast-born, London-based Rory Hamilton, aka Hammer, has been running club nights in Glasgow from the age of 20 and co-piloted the Feel My Bicep blog with the Bicep duo.

Fri 01 Nov

FLY CLUB (LARKMAN & FINNIGAN)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £8

With a powerhouse of residents, including Denis Sulta, Theo Kottis and Jasper James, FLY Club has been setting the standards for a serious party business for over four years at Cab Vol. ELECTRIKAL (HEDEX)

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10 - £14

Soundsystem partystarters, part of a music and art collective specialising in all things bass.

FLIP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

XOXO PRESENTS HALLO-QUEER

Special Halloween edition of the popular queer night.

PROPAGANDA

Tue 29 Oct

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

TRASH

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

MISS WORLD: RAW SILK

BROKEN DISCO X GROOVERS: HARVEY MCKAY

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £8

Glasgow’s Broken Disco and Edinburgh’s Groovers team up to bring west coast heavyweight Harvey Mckay to the capital.

PARQADISE PALS: BEATROOTS (ICED GEM + DOUG) PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Gemma and Doug’s diverse tastes are underscored by a shared love of Afro-Caribbean music, creating a heady mix of dancehall, Afro-house and dubbed-out percussion.

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

Sat 02 Nov

Wed 30 Oct

Set to release his 12th Canoe record, Nyra sets sail on a series of label showcases which will see him play all night long.

COOKIE

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

93s and 00s cheesy pop and modern chart anthems.

HEATERS: PALIDRONE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

Whether they’re promoting or playing, Palidrone know how to shake things up. Their resident roster returns to Sneaks to blow your brains out.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

KEEP IT STEEL: DAY OF THE DEAD

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

HECTORS: HALLOWEEN SHINDIG

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £12 - £15

WE DO DISCO X FLY: HALLOWEEN W/ HAMMER

Get yer dancing shoes as Miss World welcome power duo RAW SILK to their musical beauty pageant.

MIDNIGHT BASS

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £5

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

A night of rock and metal classics across two rooms, with games, a sugar skull corpse paint station, a stage show and decor with a Mexican twist.

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £0 - £7

REWIND

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

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

Since May 2012, Hectors has become Edinburgh’s soundest midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday to their home, the prestigious Cabaret Voltaire.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

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

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, FREE

POPULAR MUSIC

Mon 25 Nov

HECTORS

BUBBLEGUM

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

BARE MONDAYS

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £7

Funk, soul, beats and bumps from the Mumbo Jumbo gang and room two residents Lucky 7.

Mall Grab plays a special Halloween show in Edinburgh, with lots of heavy-hitters joining him.

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

MUMBO JUMBO + LUCKY 7

A special Halloween edition of Hector’s sees Gareth Sommerville and Handmade go B2B for three hours, with Doug Johnson of Club Nacht on support.

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 23:00, £15 - £22.40

Israeli-born, Berlin-based Mor Elian visits the club, playing electro, techno and more.

ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

Edinburgh Clubs

303 TRANSMISSION

CANOE X PLEASURE (NYRA)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £5

DES WAS A BOWIE FAN

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 23:00, £4 - £6

The London club night comes to Edinburgh – expect indie-pop, new wave, post-punk, 60s Pop and Northern Soul.

SAMEDIA SHEBEEN

As always Samedia play music spanning Afrobeat, Latin, kuduru, dancehall, samba, soca, cumbia and beyond.

RIVIERA PARADISO (ANDREA MONTALTO)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

HEATERS: KYLE WEC + ADAM ZARECKI SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

West End Communications honcho Kyle WEC and Algorythmn resident Adam Zarecki bring the euphoric sounds of Glasgow to Sneaky Pete’s.

DJ RUDER THAN RUDE

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 20:00, FREE

Smacking you round the lugs with funk and soul, and keeping it tougher than tough with some ska and reggae.

Thu 07 Nov UNDERGROUND SOCIETY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Expect music from across the spectrum at Cab Vol’s weekly midweek party, every Thursday.

COALITION

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

Mon 04 Nov MIXED UP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

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

HOMETOWN

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

The return of the fleeto to Sneaks, as Hometown YT hit the club with bags and bags of belters.

Tue 05 Nov HECTORS

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £0 - £7

Since May 2012, Hectors has become Edinburgh’s soundest midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday to their home, the prestigious Cabaret Voltaire.

MIDNIGHT BASS

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

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

TRASH

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

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

HEAVY FLOW 2.0

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5.50 - £7.50

Sanitree bring a selection of local talent to The Mash House with all profits going to the social enterprise tackling period poverty in India and beyond.

Wed 06 Nov COOKIE

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

93s and 00s cheesy pop and modern chart anthems.

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

Glamourous, glittery, flamboyant, feathery, ostentatious and rock ‘n’ roll, Heart of Glass plays only the best music from the 70s and beyond.

TEESH: DONALD DUST + THE NIGHTLARK

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £6

TEESH welcome rising Italo-punk Donald Dust and The Nightlark to the all you can eat mind buffet.

HOSPITALITY EDINBURGH 2019 (LONDON ELEKTRICITY + DANNY BYRD + LOGISTICS + BOU) LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £16

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

Student anthems and bangerz.

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £1 - £5

Weekly Thursday chart, house, R’n’B and indie night with DJ Big Al. POPULAR MUSIC

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

AGORA 004: PANGAEA

Agora bring integral Hessle Audio member Pangaea back to The Mash House.

THE MIRROR DANCE BIRTHDAY (ANN TWEAK + DJ INTERIM) PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

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

The Mirror Dance celebrates two years of ‘feel-good rhythms’ at Paradise Palms with ressie’s Ann Tweak and DJ Interim.

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Sun 10 Nov

CULTUR (MAG)

FLY CLUB (ECLAIR FIFI B2B BIG MIZ)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £4 - £6

SILK THURSDAYS

HI-SOCIETY

Sun 03 Nov Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/handle on a Sunday.

HEART OF GLASS

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Bringing the heat to the streets since 2018 but this time with tropical twist. Brand new hiphop, grime, rap and trap night from Mag.

SUNDAY CLUB

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

Hospitality returns to Edinburgh for what will be an essential fixture in the drum’n’bass calendar.

One of the best selectors in the country playing all night on his own, bringing Mediterranean vibes and whistles to the Palms stage. One not to be missed! Solo Catania!

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

BUBBLEGUM

Fri 08 Nov

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £10 - £15

With a powerhouse of residents, including Denis Sulta, Theo Kottis and Jasper James, FLY Club has been setting the standards for a serious party business for over four years at Cab Vol. STORYTIME PRESENTS AXEL BOWMAN

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £14

One half of Talaboman and one third of the Studio Barnhus crew makes his Edinburgh debut.

FLIP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

ON LOOP: DAN SHAKE AND MOXIE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £10

Moxie’s renowned party On Loop returns to Sneaks with the one and only Dan Shake in tow.

ALL NIGHT PASSION

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

A journey through disco, love and magic, inspired by the classic sounds of pioneers from America, Germany and Italy.

HOMETOWN PRESENTS: TOMMY HOLOHAN

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6 - £12

Hometown presents Irish techno heavyweight Tommy Holohan.

JACUZZI GENERAL PRESENTS…

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Monthly installment from a self-ordained General who’s decided to dedicate his life to hydrotherapy and electronic delight.

SUNDAY CLUB

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

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

COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

Mon 11 Nov MIXED UP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

POPULAR MUSIC

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

Fri 15 Nov FLY CLUB (LA LA)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £8

With a powerhouse of residents, including Denis Sulta, Theo Kottis and Jasper James, FLY Club has been setting the standards for a serious party business for over four years at Cab Vol. HEADSET: RIZ LA TEEF

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

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

TRASH

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

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

Wed 13 Nov

FRESH TAKE: MARK BLAIR

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £9

This DJ and producer from Belfast is one of the most exciting underground house prospects, with a string of viral, dancefloor focused releases.

COOKIE

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

93s and 00s cheesy pop and modern chart anthems.

HEATERS: OTHER LANDS

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

Tue 19 Nov

PROPAGANDA

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

TELFORT’S GOOD PLACE: DAMIANO VON ERCKERT

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Telfort returns to his good place, this time with good pal, and Recklinghausen born AVA, Damiano von Erckert.

SWIFTOGEDDON

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £7

A night dedicated to worshipping at the altar of Taylor Swift. Nonstop Swifty all night: deep cuts, extended mixes, fan favourites and all the hits.

PARADISE PALS: MISS WORLD (EMILY + JULIA)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

All female DJ collective based in Edinburgh with a residency at Sneaky Pete’s and a regular EH-FM show.

PLEASURE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, TBC

SOULSVILLE

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £7

Residents Cameron Mason and Calum Evans spin the finest cuts of deep funk, Latin rhythms and rare groove into the early hours.

TORTURE GARDEN

THE CAVES, FROM 21:00, £21

Infamous fetish club spread over three dungeon-themed playrooms. Dress code: all the PVC you can slither into.

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

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

WAVELENGTH

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

Disco, house and techno focused club night.

CITRUS SATURDAY

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

Expect the usual Citrus blend of indie mixed with some soul classics and maybe a few 80s hits.

CLUB MEDITERRANEO: FANCIULLO

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Member of Black Sugo and Moro Festival’s Mirko “Funchia” Fanciullo is the next guest to step aboard Andrea Montalto’s pleasure cruise.

DECADE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Thu 14 Nov

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6

DR NO’S SKA CLUB

Expect music from across the spectrum at Cab Vol’s weekly midweek party, every Thursday.

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 23:00, TBC

Baz and Dave spin out some belters under a strictly vinylonly policy.

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, TBC

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Student anthems and bangerz.

PRONTO PRESENT: JIMMY ROUGE

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

Edinburgh’s funnest alt party.

UNDERGROUND SOCIETY

MIXED UP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Pronto Records welcome Amsterdam based Jimmy Rouge for his Scottish debut.

Sat 09 Nov Regular Saturday night at Cab Vol, with residents and occasional special guests.

Mon 18 Nov

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

Edinburgh stalwart Other Lands brings his hypnotic sound and style to the midweek haven for the first time.

PLEASURE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

FLIP

Regular Saturday night at Cab Vol, with residents and occasional special guests.

MIDNIGHT BASS

COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Tue 12 Nov CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £0 - £7

SUNDAY CLUB

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

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

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

Sat 16 Nov

Since May 2012, Hectors has become Edinburgh’s soundest midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday to their home, the prestigious Cabaret Voltaire.

Sun 17 Nov

South London’s all vinyl and dubplate specialist Riz La Teef brings a big bag of UKG & Funky north of the border.

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

HECTORS

Between running things at Leith’s Greenhouse Cafe, his vocational sets on Red Light Radio and EH-FM, and general musical exploration, Spoof-J helps supply your Palms soundtrack.

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £5

MIGHTY OAK SOUNDSYSTEM X CRUCIAL ROOTS SOUNDSYSTEM

A double soundsystem special from Glasgow’s Crucial Roots and Scottish Borders-hailing Might Oak.

HECTORS

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £0 - £7

Since May 2012, Hectors has become Edinburgh’s soundest midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday to their home, the prestigious Cabaret Voltaire.

MIDNIGHT BASS

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

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

TRASH

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

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

Wed 20 Nov COOKIE

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

93s and 00s cheesy pop and modern chart anthems.

HEATERS: ANASTASIA KRISTENSEN

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Forever formidable, Anastasia Kristensen returns to the intimate setting of Sneaky Pete’s, with Heaters resident C-Shaman on support.

GUCCI GANG

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £10

After sold out events all around the country, the UK’s biggest trap/hip-hop night comes to Edinburgh.

Thu 21 Nov

UNDERGROUND SOCIETY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Expect music from across the spectrum at Cab Vol’s weekly midweek party, every Thursday.

HOMETOWN PRESENT: THURSDAY DUB CLUB

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

New midweek monthly from the Hometown Promotion Soundsystem, celebrating reggae, rubadub, dancehall and roots.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Student anthems and bangerz.

SILK THURSDAYS

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £1 - £5

Weekly Thursday chart, house, R’n’B and indie night with DJ Big Al. POPULAR MUSIC

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

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

WE DO DISCO W/ BELLAIRE (BELLAIRE)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £12

We Do Disco welcome Parisian house and jazz heavyweight Bellaire.

OVERGROUND: A BRIEF HISTORY OF JUNGLE (WRISK B2B SKILLIS)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £5

Wrisk and Skillis go back to back all night long, tracing jungle back to its genesis.

Listings

59

Fri 22 Nov

FLY X AVA (DJ BORING + DEEJAY BLOOM + L+F)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £10 - £15

FLY Club team up with Ireland’s AVA Festival to bring DJ Boring to Edinburgh.

OVERGROUND: ACID RAVE

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

If there’s one thing Overground know, it’s acid. Starting out with spaced-out ambient electro, and then going via jackin’ acid house into acid techno stompers, you’ll hear more genres and styles than you can shake a Roland’s bassline machine at.

FLIP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

EH-FM PRESENTS: THE BLESSINGS AND CLAFRICA

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

LuckyMe Records co-founder and label manager, The Blessings makes a rare club appearance, backed up by rising star Clafrica.

DISCO MAKOSSA (CHRIS ASTROJAZZ)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

African disco, boogie and house with a little bit of Tanzanian techno.

Sat 23 Nov PLEASURE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Regular Saturday night at Cab Vol, with residents and occasional special guests.

MESSENGER SOUND SYSTEM

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Conscious roots and dub reggae rockin’ from the usual beefy Messenger soundsystem.

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

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

DJ YODA

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £11 - £13.20

The sampler extraordinaire returns to Edinburgh.

DEFINITION: 12TH BIRTHDAY

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

Mark Balneaves and Martin Lightbody play some of the finest underground techno around in celebration of their 12th birthday.

DEPTFORD NORTHERN SOUL CLUB

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Deptford Northern Soul Club offer something different, throwing gimmick free parties which aim to bring together the next generation of Northern Soul lovers.

SOUL ROOM RECORDS

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £7

Five hours of the best in disco and house .usic with Soul Room’s Darren S, Caveman and House Dimensions.

Sun 24 Nov SUNDAY CLUB

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

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

COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

Mon 25 Nov MIXED UP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

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

Theatre FRANKENSTEIN

Glasgow Theatre

BUZZCUT DOUBLE THRILLS: TRAVIS ALABANZA – BURGERZ

13 NOV, 6:00PM, £9 - £20

After someone threw a burger at them and shouted a transphobic slur, performance artist Travis Alabanza became obsessed with burgers, and this show is the climax of their obsession.

Two Sonica favourites come together for the first time, as visual artist Heather Lander and musician and composer Alex Smoke present Primordial Waters.

ARCHITECTURE SOCIAL CLUB & MAX COOPER: AETHER

31 OCT, 7:00PM, £10 - £20

Premiere of a new live-art work by an iconoclastic performance artist, excavating the depths of the unconscious psyche.

Design collective Architecture Social Club, in collaboration with musician, producer and scientist Max Cooper, open Sonica with a one-off immersive audiovisual work, Aether.

Oran Mor

Tron Theatre

JIAN YI: MAGIC THEATRE

21 NOV, 7:30PM, £5 - £9

A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT: MARCO PANTANI – THE PIRATE

1-2 NOV, 1:00PM, £12.50 - £15

The story of Italian cyclist Marco Pantani’s rise and full, from winning both the Giro D’Italia and the Tour De France in 1998 to his death in 2004.

A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT: GOOD WITH PEOPLE

4-9 NOV, 1:00PM, £12.50 - £15

A haunting two-hander tracing one town’s path of personal and political destruction.

A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT: DO NOT PRESS THIS BUTTON

O EVANGELHO SEGUNDO JESUS, RAINHA DO CEU

30 OCT, 7:45PM, £11 - £15

In this powerful reimagining of Jo Clifford’s acclaimed play, Jesus is embodied in the present as a travesti woman from the fringes of Sao Paulo.

Marie and Ben, fellow commuters, fall into friendly conversation on a train, but things turn comical and then dark when Ben realises that Marie is playing a psychological game with him.

A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT: CRANHILL CARMEN

18-23 NOV, 1:00PM, £12.50 - £15

The story of Carmen McGurn, a tobacco factory worker, who meets two men late at night on her way home from a bender.

Platform NOSEDIVE

1-2 NOV, TIMES VARY, £4 - £8.50

Nosedive uses contemporary theatre and circus to look at how cooperation, trust, security and vulnerability shift at varying stages of life, especially as we get older.

The King’s Theatre

MOTOWN THE MUSICAL

1-16 NOV, TIMES VARY, £13 - £75

Motown The Musical tells the thrilling tale of the man who broke barriers, fought against the odds to create something more than a record label.

CAROLE: THE MUSIC OF CAROLE KING

17 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

The story of the career of one of the most successful and admired songwriters in the history of popular music.

DIVERSITY: BORN READY

22-23 NOV, TIMES VARY, £33.65 - £85.15

Diversity celebrate their 10 year anniversary with a new tour.

Theatre Royal THE MOUSETRAP

1-2 NOV, TIMES VARY, £13 - £50.50

Agatha Christie murder mystery, famous for being the longestrunning show of any kind in the history of British theatre.

RICHARD ALSTON DANCE COMPANY

Terry Johnson’s Prism returns to the stage with Robert Lindsay reprising his role as the double Oscar-winning cinematic master Jack Cardiff.

Royal Lyceum Theatre BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES

1-9 NOV, TIMES VARY, £10 - £33

A generously funny, heartwarming and insightful new play set in Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos, Accra and London, inspired in part by the story of a Leeds barber.

Summerhall

SUMMERHALL SCRATCH NIGHT

7 NOV, 7:30PM, £7

Summerhall Scratch brings together a group of exciting artists who’ve been working on ideas that they are now ready to share with an audience for the first time.

The Edinburgh Playhouse THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW

1-2 NOV, TIMES VARY, £13 - £96

The latest incarnation of the favourited rock’n’roll musical heads our way.

PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT

5-9 NOV, TIMES VARY, £13 - £100

various venues

A thoroughly O.T.T. musical adventure in which two drag queens and a trans person get a cabaret gig in the middle of the desert. Matinees available.

10-28 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

12-16 NOV, TIMES VARY, £13 - £77.50

LIONS OF LISBON

Willy Maley and Ian Auld’s hit play The Lions of Lisbon is revived as a rehearsed reading with live music.

11-16 NOV, 1:00PM, £12.50 - £15

This outstanding company are celebrating 25 years of wonderful creativity with a terrific programme.

Listings

Rona Munro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Gothic masterpiece places the writer herself amongst the action.

CCA: Centre for Tramway HEATHER LANDER & ALEX SMOKE: Contemporary PRIMORDIAL WATERS 31 OCT-1 NOV, 9:00PM, £5.50 - £9.90 Art

19 NOV, 7:30PM, £13 - £41.90

60

25-30 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

PRISM 1-2 NOV, TIMES VARY, £21.50 - £35

9 TO 5 THE MUSICAL

Musical tale of the blonde queen of country-tinged pop, based on the film of the same name.

A CELEBRATION OF PAUL SIMON’S GRACELAND

4 NOV, 7:30PM, £29.50 - £76.50

Dundee Theatre

Comedy

Caird Hall

The Stand Glasgow

RUSSIAN STATE BALLET: THE NUTCRACKER

24-24 NOV, TIMES VARY, £21 - £28.50

Russian State Ballet’s reimagining of Tchaikovsky’s dance classic, beginning as night falls on Christmas Eve.

Dundee Rep GREAT BIG DANCE SHOW

6 NOV, 8:00PM, £9 - £11

Two unforgettable nights of show-stopping performances by community groups and dancers from around the city and beyond.

MCGONAGALL’S CHRONICLES

8 NOV, 7:30PM, £10 - £15

Directed by Dundee Rep favourite Joe Douglas, with music

by Frightened Rabbit guitarist Simon Liddell, McGonagall’s Chronicles comes fresh from Glasgow’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint.

OOR WULLIE

23 NOV-5 JAN 20, 7:00PM, £12 - £27

Join Wullie, Fat Boab, Soapy Soutar, Wee Eck and the rest of the Sunday Post gang in a musical adventure celebrating their 80th anniversary as Scotland’s most beloved comic strip.

Matinees available.

Whitehall Theatre SUNSET BOULEVARD

20-23 NOV, TIMES VARY, £12 - £18

Broughty Opera brings Andrew Lloyd Webber’s multi-awardwinning musical to Dundee for the first time.

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE

17 NOV, 8:30PM, £5 - £6

Our popular Sunday show has resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond at the helm.

RED RAW

4-26 NOV, 8:30PM, £3

Legendary new material night with up to 10 acts. Every Monday in Edinburgh and Tuesday in Glasgow.

THE THURSDAY SHOW

7-28 NOV, TIMES VARY, £5 - £10

Start the weekend early with five comedians.

THE SATURDAY SHOW

2-30 NOV, 9:00PM, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians.

THE FRIDAY SHOW

1-29 NOV, TIMES VARY, £6 - £12

The big weekend show with five comedians.

BRIGHT CLUB

11 NOV, 8:30PM, £5

Bright Club’s unique blend of comedy and academia has made waves across the country, with a storming sell-out show at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and support from the likes of Robin Ince, Josie Long, Susan Morrison and Bruce Morton.

COMEDIAN RAP BATTLES

6 NOV, 8:30PM, £4 - £6

The country’s best comedians battle it out.

BBC COMEDY PRESENTS

13 NOV, 8:30PM, £4

Join BBC Comedy and The Stand for a night of brand new comedy.

MONDAY NIGHT IMPROV

Josh Turner will be joined by the South African Cultural Gospel Choir to play Paul Simon’s Graceland in full.

Glasgow Comedy Blackfriars Basement

30 0CT, 8:30PM, £10

Assembly Roxy

Traverse Theatre

8 NOV, 7:30PM, £5

1-2 NOV, TIMES VARY, £5 - £20

5 NOV-3 DEC, 8:00PM, FREE

23-24 NOV, 5:00PM, £10 - £12

Edinburgh Theatre HOME

Three new plays devised and performed by people with lived experience, questioning what Home means to each of us and how Home can be safe and secure for everyone.

BLEACH

6 NOV, 8:00PM, £8 - £10

Armed with nothing but the discarded items she is found in, we follow one woman’s rageful reckoning with romance.

TWA

22 NOV, 7:30PM, £8 - £10

A powerful blend of storytelling, animation and live performance drawing, which re-tells the myth of Philomela, the Athenian princess whose tongue was cut out.

SALT

7 NOV, 8:00PM, £8 - £10

Fiona Oliver-Larkin examines domestic violence through a young girl’s play with everyday objects.

THE UNION AND THE CROWN

6 NOV, 7:30PM, £8 - £10

A comedic blend of songs, sketches and storytelling that journeys through Scotland’s vast historical timeline to find out how we got here and where we’re going.

Festival Theatre SCOTTISH OPERA: TOSCA

14-23 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Scottish Opera take on Anthony Besch’s treasured production of Tosca, which transports Puccini’s drama to Fascist Italy in the early 1940s.

King’s Theatre Edinburgh THE EXORCIST

5-9 NOV, TIMES VARY, £20 - £35

New theatrical adaptation of the two-time Oscar-winning movie, featuring the voice of Ian Mckellen as the Demon.

THE MONSTROUS HEART

The Monstrous Heart is thrilling, chilling, witty and surreal, examining afresh the eternal question of whether we ever really change how we’re made.

FIBRES

29-30 OCT, 8:00PM, £5 - £17

A story of love, laughter and the untold legacy of Glasgow’s shipyards written by award-winning playwright Frances Poet.

HOPE AND JOY

1-2 NOV, TIMES VARY, £5 - £17

A deeply original play that explores love and loss in a changing environment, using bold visuals and strong physical elements.

STILL NO IDEA

5-8 NOV, 7:30PM, £5 - £17

Still No Idea is Lisa and Rachael’s quest: a mischievous look at two friends searching for drama, action and a story to tell.

SCRATCH THAT!

6 NOV, 7:30PM, £3

Imaginate present an evening of early-stage performance ideas for young audiences, in partnership with the Traverse.

ALEX & ELIZA

13-14 NOV, 8:00PM, £5 - £15

The story of a girl from childhood to old age, who lived through the 1947 partition between India and Pakistan.

EMERGENCE 2019

15-16 NOV, 8:00PM, £5 - £7

A celebration of bold new worksin-progress from the country’s leading youth theatre directors.

ATLANTIS BANAL: BENEATH THE SURFACE

21-23 NOV, TIMES VARY, £8 - £30

This brand new show for families is set in an intimate ‘pop-up’ art gallery, featuring a flying fish, fashion on a tin can and a mermaid who isn’t afraid to make an exhibition of herself.

GLASGOW HAROLD NIGHT

One hilarious show, completely improvised by two teams, based off an audience suggestion.

Improv comedy at its finest.

IMPROV FUCKTOWN

12 NOV-10 DEC, 8:00PM, FREE

Some of the best improvisers in the country are leaving home comforts behind to perform in a variety of fun and exciting longform improv formats.

Glee Club

FRIDAY NIGHT COMEDY

1-29 NOV, 7:00PM, £8 - £20

The perfect way to end the working week, with four superb stand-up comedians.

SATURDAY NIGHT COMEDY

2-30 NOV, 7:00PM, £8 - £23.95

An evening of award-winning comedy, with four superb standup comedians that will keep you laughing until Monday.

The Flying Duck

THE CLAP: GUY FAWKES SPECIAL

3 NOV, 6:30PM, FREE

The Clap perform at The Flying Duck on the first Sunday of each month.

ON THE FLY IMPROV

17 NOV, 6:00PM, £5

Join some of Scotland’s best improvisers in a new monthly comedy night, as three different teams make it all up On The Fly!

The King’s Theatre

ROB BECKETT: WALLOP

19 NOV, 8:00PM, £27.15

That guy with the big teeth and the annoying laugh who’s always on the telly; yeah, he’s back touring.

4 NOV, 8:30PM, £3

Comedian improv battle.

GIGGLE FOR GLEN: BENEFIT IN AID OF THE BUTTERFLY TRUST AND QUEEN ELIZABETH HOSPITAL

Join a line up of top comics for a charitable comedy showcase.

TONY LAW IDENTIFIES

Does identity always equal tribalism or is it glue that binds people together? Many questions, answered in many voices.

JONNY AND THE BAPTISTS: LOVE EDINBURGH AND HATE BAPTISTS

19-20 NOV, 8:30PM, £14

Multi-award-nominated musical-activist-comedians Jonny & The Baptists are sick of being political and divisive. This show is about how everything is definitely fine.

ROBIN INCE’S CHAOS OF DELIGHT

24-25 NOV, 8:30PM, £13 - £15

Due to public demand, Robin Ince has added an extra thirteen dates to his hugely popular Chaos of Delights tour.

FREE TICKETS FOR BBC RECORDING

10 NOV, 5:00PM, FREE

Scotland’s top funny man Mark Nelson leads a panel of comedians and personalities attempting to decipher the good from the bad, with a few unexpected twists along the way.

Theatre Royal FRANK SKINNER: SHOWBIZ

12-20 NOV, 8:00PM, PRICES VARY

An unmissable opportunity to see comic legend Frank Skinner perform brand new stand-up.

HANNAH GADSBY: DOUGLAS

21 NOV, 7:30PM, £27.40

After finding her voice with Nanette, Hannah Gadsby plans to use that voice with Douglas.

Tramway

ARDAL O’HANLON: THE SHOWING OFF MUST GO ON

13-15 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

The star of Death in Paradise, Father Ted and My Hero continues to tour his acclaimed stand-up shows worldwide.

Edinburgh Comedy Brig Below

GIGGLEJAM COMEDY CLUB

7 NOV, 7:30PM, £6 - £9

Brand new comedy club hosted

by Conor Hunter in the heart of Leith on the first Thursday of the month at Brig Below.

Festival Theatre HANNAH GADSBY: DOUGLAS

30 OCT, 7:30PM, £25 - £26.50

After finding her voice with Nanette, Hannah Gadsby plans to use that voice with Douglas.

FRANK SKINNER: SHOWBIZ

12-20 NOV, 8:00PM, PRICES VARY

An unmissable opportunity to see comic legend Frank Skinner perform brand new stand-up.

King’s Theatre Edinburgh

JAMES ACASTER: COLD LASAGNE HATE MYSELF 1999

3 NOV, 7:30PM, £21

Named after a drunken meal and the best year of his life, god only knows what hilarious antics James Acaster will deliver in this new show.

Monkey Barrel Comedy Club THE EDINBURGH REVUE

5-19 NOV, 7:00PM, £0 - £2

The University of Edinburgh’s Comedy Society, who put on sketch and stand-up comedy shows every two weeks.

SPONTANEOUS SHERLOCK

7-21 NOV, 8:00PM, £5

An entirely improvised Sherlock Holmes comedy play from Scotland’s hottest improv troupe.

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG FRIDAY SHOW

1-29 NOV, 7:00PM, £10 - £12

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SATURDAY SHOW

2-30 NOV, 7:00PM, £14

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.

TOP BANANA

6-27 NOV, 7:00PM, £0 - £3

The Basement Theatre

LARRY DEAN: WORK IN PROGRESS

21 NOV, 8:00PM, £5

Fresh from an Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination, Larry Dean tries out some brand new jokes.

THE COMEDY SHOW

8-30 NOV, 8:00PM, £10 - £12

Bringing you top notch line ups from the best in the world of comedy for a side-splitting evening every Friday and Saturday at 8pm.

THE COMEDY SHOW: NEW SH*T

14 NOV, 8:00PM, £2.50

The Comedy Show’s wee sister, where old pros and new talent try out fresh material for free.

BELTER COMEDY

7 NOV, 8:00PM, £6

Bringing you the best and brightest of the comedy scene, showcasing brand new gags alongside tried and tested material.

FRED MACAULAY IN CONVERSATION

10 NOV, 5:00PM, £8 - £10

Fred MacAulay, one of Scotland’s best-loved stand-ups, is back with his monthly live chat show.

Joining Fred will be stars from the worlds of sport, entertainment, business and politics.

SCOTT GIBSON AND PALS TRY NEW JOKES

13 NOV, 8:00PM, £10

Comedian Scott Gibson and pals road test new material, halfbaked ideas, and ramble on about a story or two.

THE COMEDY SHOW: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

1-2 NOV, 8:00PM, £10 - £12

An extra spooky (but equally funny) Comedy Show with four of the best comedians. Get yer best costume on and come along for a laugh!

The Edinburgh Playhouse JACK WHITEHALL: STOOD UP

18 NOV, 8:00PM, £38.90 - £180.40

Moving on from his scandalous days of consuming substances off a BlackBerry, Jack Whitehall returns for his third arena tour.

TIM MINCHIN: BACK

19-23 NOV, 7:30PM, £34 - £141

The award-winning comedian, actor and composer returns to the stage for his first UK tour dates since 2011.

ROMESH RANGANATHAN: THE CYNIC’S MIXTAPE

Catch the stars of tomorrow today in Monkey Barrel’s new act night every Wednesday.

21-22 NOV, 8:00PM, £27.15

26 NOV, 7:00PM, £0 - £3

Monkey Barrel welcome the weird, the wacky and the downright hilarious to the stage.

The Queen’s Hall

14-28 NOV, 8:00PM, £5

13-15 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

PROJECT X

SPONTANEOUS POTTER

A brand new Harry Potter play from some of Edinburgh’s most top notch improv wizards.

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SUNDAY SHOW

3-24 NOV, 7:00PM, £5

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.

THE WEE SHOW

2-30 NOV, 4:30PM, £5

Saturday afternoon comedy show at Monkey Barrel.

PETER PANCAKES

11 NOV, 7:30PM, FREE

Phil O’Shea brings a handpicked selection of riotous lols to Monkey Barrel on the second Monday of the month.

WRITERS BLOC

18 NOV, 7:00PM, £0 - £3

See ten comics heading to the 2020 Fringe construct sets, bits, monologues and everything in between.

COMEDIAN SHOWDOWN

25 NOV, 7:00PM, £0 - £3

Two teams of comedians compete against each other through several rounds of humiliation, hilarity and hardship.

DATING CRAPP

2-30 NOV, 11:00PM, £5

Some of Scotland’s best improvisers join forces to perform based off of two audience members dating profiles.

Romesh Ranganathan is back with his most brutally honest show yet.

ARDAL O’HANLON: THE SHOWING OFF MUST GO ON

The star of Death in Paradise, Father Ted and My Hero continues to tour his acclaimed stand-up shows worldwide.

AN EVENING WITH LENNY HENRY: WHO AM I AGAIN?

1 NOV, 6:30PM, £32.50

One of Britain’s best-known and celebrated comedians, Lenny Henry takes the audience on a journey through his life and career.

The Stand Edinburgh RED RAW

4-26 NOV, 8:30PM, £3

Legendary new material night with up to 10 acts. Every Monday in Edinburgh and Tuesday in Glasgow.

THE THURSDAY SHOW

7-28 NOV, TIMES VARY, £5 - £10

Start the weekend early with five comedians.

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN

3-10 NOV, 8:30PM, £5 - £6

Chilled Sunday night comedy to see out the weekend.

THE SATURDAY SHOW

2-30 NOV, 9:00PM, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians.

THE SKINNY

1-29 NOV, TIMES VARY, £6 - £12

Whitespace

BRIGHT CLUB

31 OCT, 7:30PM, £5 - £7

THE FRIDAY SHOW

The big weekend show with five comedians.

11 NOV, 8:30PM, £5

Bright Club’s unique blend of comedy and academia has made waves across the country, with a storming sell-out show at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and support from the likes of Robin Ince, Josie Long, Susan Morrison and Bruce Morton.

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

3-24 NOV, 1:30PM, PRICES VARY

Improvised comedy at its very best every Sunday.

BONA FIDE

12 NOV, 8:30PM, £5 - £6

New comedy show with a different theme every month, hosted

by Jay Lafferty.

BENEFIT IN AID OF EPILEPSY SCOTLAND

13 NOV, 8:30PM, £5

Comedy benefit with proceeds going to Epilepsy Scotland, who campaign for improved healthcare, better information provision and an end to stigma.

JOJO SUTHERLAND AND SUSAN MORRISON: FANNY’S AHOY!

24 NOV, 5:30PM, £4 - £5

Set sail with the award-winning grand dames of Scottish comedy.

THE END OF THE WORLD SHOW

20 NOV, 8:30PM, £5 - £7

Armageddon is not so much nigh as teabagging the world in the face. So now that we’ve bought the tickets to Hell in a handcart and this really is the end of civilisation, surely we can still find the time to trivialise it?

TONY LAW IDENTIFIES

23-24 NOV, 5:00PM, £10 - £12

Does identity always equal tribalism or is it glue that binds people together? Many questions, answered in many voices.

SHAMBLES

6 NOV, 8:30PM, £4 - £5

A collective of Edinburgh’s top comics join forces to provide an evening’s worth of entertainment, with the emphasis on the alternative, every month.

THE STAND ACADEMY COMEDY COURSE

16 NOV, 10:00AM, £125

The legendary Stand Comedy Club welcomes you to our brandnew Stand Academy, where seasoned professional working comedians will be your tutors for our tough but fun bootcamp comedy course.

THE STAND ACADEMY COMEDY COURSE SHOWCASE

17 NOV, 4:30PM, £3

The Stand Academy folks take to the stage.

THE CABARET OF DANGEROUS IDEAS

7 NOV, 5:30PM, £5

Join The Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas and challenge your preconceptions on hot button issues.

BENEFIT IN AID OF TEENS+

30 OCT, 8:30PM, £7

Comedy show in aid of Teens+, a unique education service for young people with learning disabilities.

JAMIE MACDONALD: WORK IN PROGRESS

5 NOV, 8:30PM, £5

Jamie MacDonald is the UK’s hottest blind comedian, and the first ever blind comedian to appear on a TV comedy panel show.

JONNY AND THE BAPTISTS: LOVE EDINBURGH AND HATE BAPTISTS

19-20 NOV, 8:30PM, £14

Multi-award-nominated musical-activist-comedians Jonny & The Baptists are sick of being political and divisive. This show is about how everything is definitely fine.

ROBIN INCE’S CHAOS OF DELIGHT

24-25 NOV, 8:30PM, £13 - £15

Due to public demand, Robin Ince has added an extra thirteen dates to his hugely popular Chaos of Delights tour.

November 2019

FUZZ BAT PRESENTS A HALLOWEEN/BREXIT THEMED COMEDY GIG

On the day Brexit is due to be delivered, and the day of Halloween, Fuzz Bat present a comedy gig.

Dundee Comedy The Gardyne Theatre

GARY MEIKLE: THE IBROW GUY

3 NOV, 7:30PM, £16.75

The Scottish Comedy Award winner guides you through eyebrow etiquette, logic, laws and how it’s changed his life as he’ll now forevermore be known as the eyebrow guy.

Glasgow Art CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art BASMA ALSHARIF: A PHILISTINE

1 NOV-15 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

A new exhibition centring around Basma alSharif’s novella of the same name, which reveals the story of a central character on a train journey moving backwards in time through history.

THE SEA OF PAPERWORK EXHIBITION

12-17 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Co-curated by Maryhill Integration Network and Artist Iman Tajik, this exhibition presents the original artwork created by young people for The Sea of Paperwork book.

Compass Gallery

SOPHO CHKHIKVADZE: GAZING

1 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Sopho Chkhikvadze is a powerful and imaginative artist, twice nominated for the BP Portrait Award. Her work has an individual mastery, beauty and vision which evokes an emotional response.

David Dale Gallery and Studios

ROBERTAS NARKUS: PROSPECT REVENGE

9 NOV-14 DEC, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Prospect Revenge continues Robertas Narkus’ wide-ranging work exploring conversion, states of ambivalence, absurdity, use and uselessness.

Glasgow Print Studio INTAGLIO: IN COLOUR

1-17 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition of prints by national and international artists who use colour to explore the beautifully expressive and varied mark-making techniques of intaglio printmaking.

FEATURED ARTIST: ALISTAIR GOW

8 NOV-1 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

New works in print by the Glasgow-based artist Alistair Gow.

Art THE ARBITRARY RITUAL 15 NOV-20 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Arbitrary Ritual showcases work inspired by collaborations Claire Paterson undertook while on the 2016-17 Steven Campbell New York Scholarship, which was funded by Creative Scotland, The Saltire Society and The Steven Campbell Trust.

GoMA

FIONA TAN: DISORIENT

1 NOV-26 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

A two-screen video installation combining a fictional scene, documentary footage and spoken word to explore complex historical identities, cultural perceptions and truths about the world we live in.

HAL FISCHER, GAY SEMIOTICS AND OTHER WORKS

15 NOV-30 MAY 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

This exhibition displays three works by American artist Hal Fischer: Gay Semiotics, exploring the visual language that was unique to gay culture of San Francisco in the later 1970s, Boy-friends and 18th Near Castro St.

Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery

BARKCLOTH: REVEALING PACIFIC CRAFT

1-29 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

This exhibition highlights The Hunterian’s world-class collection of Pacific barkcloth (tapa) and showcases the findings of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project, Situating Pacific Barkcloth in Time and Place.

A GIFT TO GLASGOW FROM NEW YORK: THE PHILLIP A. BRUNO COLLECTION

1 NOV-12 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

A selection of paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints by American artists and international figures such as the Mexican painter José Luis Cuevas and the Japanese sculptor Masayuki Nagare.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum THE LINDA MCCARTNEY RETROSPECTIVE

1 NOV-12 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

A major retrospective of photography by Linda McCartney will be shown in the UK for the first time, curated by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney. It features iconic names and moments in music from the 1960s along with more intimate and emotional later work.

Street Level Photoworks

STREET LEVEL OPEN 2019

1-24 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

This year’s Street Level Open mark the organisation’s 30th year of championing photography, featuring the work of over 60 artists.

The Glasgow Art Club THE ARTIST’S STUDIO

1-15 NOV, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Glasgow School of Art

An installation of Thomas Jacobi’s ink rubbings taken from the floor of the late Thomas Hutcheson’s studio in Glasgow.

29-31 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Lighthouse

ULTRASONIC GLASGOW

The exhibition documents the early Glasgow pioneers of ultrasound, particularly the pivotal role of design in the development process through the work of the then graduating designer Dugald Cameron in his first paid commission.

UNBUILT MACKINTOSH

1 NOV-31 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

Unbuilt Mackintosh showcases stunning architectural models based on the unbuilt designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

BIND

GRAVITATIONAL FEEL

1 NOV-1 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

22-24 NOV, 1:00PM – 10:30PM, FREE

This exhibition brings together a collection of handmade book structures and forms, demonstrating the diversity and innovation present in contemporary bookbinding.

FURNITURE MUSIC

1 NOV-6 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

Yuri Suzuki presents his solo exhibition that explores definitions of sound design in contemporary culture.

AQUAPHONEIA

1 NOV-6 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

Examining and deconstructing sound technology and the transmission of information, Navid Navab’s Aquaphoneia is something like a record player reverse-engineered by a people who can speak underwater.

THE ART OF SCOTTISH GLASS: 40 YEARS OF THE SCOTTISH GLASS SOCIETY

1 NOV-22 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition charting the work of the Scottish Glass Society and the history of Scottish glass over the last 40 years, showcasing key artists, artworks and techniques.

BEALACH AN IAR-THUATH (NORTHWEST PASSAGE) 1-10 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

A partial selection of rare works from the late 70s and mid-80s by three photographers provide a unique insight into Scotland’s Gaelic communities.

THE ART OF SCOTTISH GLASS: 40 YEARS OF THE SCOTTISH GLASS SOCIETY

22 NOV-9 FEB 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

This exhibition marks the 40th anniversary of the Scottish Glass Society, which was founded in 1979 and, ever since, it has promoted the appreciation, understanding and development of glassmaking in Scotland.

GLASGOW PRINT FAIR

2 NOV, 10:30AM, FREE

A one day event allowing people who are passionate about print to buy and browse print works from over 50 artists across the UK and beyond.

The Modern Institute @ Airds Lane ADAM MCEWEN: MEDDLE

1-2 NOV, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Adam McEwen focuses on the reproduction of utilitarian objects in unexpected materials – graphite, sponge, PVC and aluminium – and solicits the reconsideration and evaluation of contemporary culture’s material dependence.

A sculpture-performance by Fred Moten and Wu Tsang, who together cohabit the roles of poet and performance artist. The work continues their collaboration on the poetics of intimacy and is a research-experiment into how to sense entanglement.

ARIKA – EPISODE 10: A MEANS WITHOUT END

20-24 NOV, 1:00PM – 10:30PM, £0 - £8

Performances, discussions, screenings and study sessions about how the art of collectivist desires, the complex flow of contemporary maths and the counterintuitive realities of particle physics help us grow to be one another’s means without end.

Tron Theatre UNTITLED 2009

2 NOV, 2:30PM, £8.50

Ten years on from its original display in GoMA, Untitled 2009 is back and the words collected in its margins spoken aloud onstage by a collective of LGBTQ performers, as part of Queen Jesus’ 10th anniversary celebrations.

WASPS Artists’ Studios Briggait TIME AFTER [ ( ) ] AFTER TIME

1-28 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition by eleven artists who live and work throughout the UK, evoking the creative spirit of shared experience and marking the second anniversary of their collaborative performative reading at Chetham’s Library Reading Room, Manchester.

iota @ Unlimited Studios

ANNA LÖBNER: THE BEST IS YET TO COME

1-21 NOV, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Paintings, practice. Nearing our supposed exit from the EU, across media, borders, environment and the societal role of artists this work is apposite.

Löbner and artist husband Tommy Lydon are known for their initiatives in Glasgow, Dusseldorf and beyond.

Edinburgh Art

GARDAR EIDE EINARSSON: HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE WEST

Arusha Gallery

1-2 NOV, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

8 NOV-1 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

Tokyo-based Gardar Eide Einarsson explores the themes and notions of obscurity, disguise and hiding-from-plain-view as a metaphor for how one negotiates one’s own visibility, ideas and agency.

Tramway NICK CAVE: UNTIL

1-24 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

American artist Nick Cave addresses issues of gun violence, gun control policy, race relations and gender politics in America, and its resonance across the world.

ZADIE XA: CHILD OF MAGOHALMI AND THE ECHOS OF CREATION, 2019 1 NOV-15 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

Korean-Canadian artist Zadie Xa creates a sub-aquatic marine environment, inviting audiences to enter into an immersive world by way of atmospheric lighting, surround-sound, large-scale video projections, sculptures and costumes.

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

OUR PERFECT SELVES

A collection of paintings and monoprints by Shelly Tregoning that explore the inventive nature of the constructed self, and the nuances of gestures that betray our real identity.

City Art Centre THE ITALIAN CONNECTION

1 NOV-24 MAY 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Italian Connection explores the enduring bond between Scotland and Italy, celebrating the ability of art to transcend geographical borders.

MARY CAMERON: LIFE IN PAINT

2 NOV-15 MAR 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition celebrating the life and career of pioneering Edinburgh-born artist Mary Cameron (1865-1921).

BENEATH THE SURFACE

16 NOV-1 MAR 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

Beneath the Surface features work by nine contemporary artists based in Scotland, each of them articulating a minimalist aesthetic through abstraction in their work.

CLASSICAL EDINBURGH

9 NOV-8 MAR 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

A celebration of Edinburgh’s neo-classical architecture, as seen through the eyes of two architectural photographers – Edwin Smith and Colin McLean – working half a cen­tury apart.

Collective Gallery

EMMA WOLUKAU-WANAMBWA: PROMISED LANDS

1-24 NOV, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

A film by artist and researcher Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, which examines differing worldviews in the wake of colonialism in east Africa.

L’ATELIER DE L’OBSERVATOIRE: THE COLLECTIVE MUSEUM

2 NOV-9 FEB 20, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

A new exhibition from L’Atelier de l’Observatoire, a Casablancabased contemporary art organisation who design, produce and disseminate projects which support Moroccan contemporary creativity, nationally and internationally.

Custom Lane DIABETES BY DESIGN

1-6 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

As part of November’s international diabetes month, designer Alex Durussel-Baker exhibits a series of graphic posters exploring the highs and lows of living with Type 1 Diabetes.

Dovecot Studios

JULIE COPE’S GRAND TOUR: THE STORY OF A LIFE BY GRAYSON PERRY

1-2 NOV, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, £0 - £9

An exhibition showcasing the complete set of tapestries designed by Grayson Perry for A House for Essex and exploring the creation of the house.

OUR LINEN STORIES

1 NOV-25 JAN 20, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE

This exhibition and events series celebrates contemporary design in flax fibre and linen, and Scotland’s extraordinary relationship with this quintessentially European textile.

Edinburgh College of Art ECLECTIC BOUNDARIES

1-18 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Eclectic Boundaries is a ten-week event created by Intermedia artist Ayshia Taskin and hosted within Edinburgh College of Art at studio C27.

Edinburgh Corn Exchange EDINBURGH ART FAIR

22-24 NOV, 11:00AM, £3 - £5

The 15th annual EAF returns with 50 Galleries, 500 artists and 5000 artworks from emerging and established artists from around the world. With prices from £50-£50,000, it’s sure to appeal to all tastes and budgets.

Edinburgh Printmakers MOUTH OF A SHARK

1 NOV-4 JAN 20, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Artists from Edinburgh Printmakers and Cork Printmakers share reflections and responses to British Somali poet Warsan Shire’s rallying call for refugees and their advocates, exploring humanity and questions of what unites and divides us.

TRANSPARENCY: ALBERTA WHITTLE & HARDEEP PANDHAL

1 NOV-4 JAN 20, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Transparency is a two-person exhibition from Glasgow-based artists Alberta Whittle and Hardeep Pandhal, spanning print, artist moving image, drawing and installation.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

LUCY WAYMAN: CLOVEHITCH

1 NOV-30 MAY 20, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Lucy Wayman’s work, created from marine rope, follows her interest in the industrial and historic uses of rope, connecting ideas of system, control and release.

Ingleby Gallery GARRY FABIAN MILLER: MIDWINTER BLAZE

1 NOV-20 DEC, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

The photographs included in this exhibition are characteristically virtuosic meditations on colour and form, but they also mark the end of an era as the artist battles with the extinction of the analogue materials in a digital age.

Open Eye Gallery

NEIL MACDONALD PAI RGI RSW: OF TIME AND PLACE

1-25 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Of Time and Place focuses on Neil Macdonald’s enjoyment of the landscape and human interaction with the land in the Northern Isles, Orkney in particular.

ANDREW SQUIRE: SHOWCASE

1-25 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Andrew Squire presents a selection of bold and colourful paintings in his first showcase with the Open Eye Gallery.

Royal Scottish Academy RSA RSA ANNUAL EXHIBITION 2019

2 NOV-11 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

The RSA Annual Exhibition is a focal point of the RSA programme and showcases work from RSA Academicians the length and breadth of Scotland.

ADRIAN WISZNIEWSKI RSA: LINE, COLOUR, CONTENT

THE REMAKING OF SCOTLAND | NATION, MIGRATION, GLOBALISATION 1760-1860 1 NOV-21 JUN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition exploring the lives and careers of the Scots behind the period of dramatic change between 1760 and 1860, when Scotland rapidly attained a central role in European cultural life and in Britain’s industrial and imperial expansion. It documents the material and artistic benefits of their achievements, while also confronting the darker shadows they cast.

THE MACKINNON COLLECTION

16 NOV-16 FEB 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

This exhibition celebrates an unparalleled collection of Scottish photography recently acquired and shared by the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland.

SCOTLAND’S PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM: THE MACKINNON COLLECTION

16 NOV-16 FEB 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

This exhibition celebrates an unparalleled collection of Scottish photography recently acquired and shared by the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland.

St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral

THE ART OF SCOTTISH GLASS: 40 YEARS OF THE SCOTTISH GLASS SOCIETY

2 NOV-1 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

1 NOV-22 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

Stills

This exhibition will include a new series of woodcuts and drawings that highlight Adrian Wiszniewski’s elegant draughtsmanship and virtuosic skill as a printmaker.

NOW: KATIE PATERSON, CIARA PHILLIPS AND OTHERS

1 NOV-31 MAY 20, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

In the first major showing of the artist’s work in a public institution in Scotland, the sixth and final exhibition in the NOW series will highlight the work of Scottish artist Katie Paterson.

PAULA REGO

23 NOV-19 APR 20, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, TBC

An ambitious retrospective of the Portuguese artist’s work that brings politics to the fore, spanning Rego’s career from the 1950s through to 2012.

PICTURE HOOKS 2019

1 NOV-31 MAY 20, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

The highly-acclaimed exhibition returns for the fourth time to showcase the work of awardwinning children’s illustrators alongside that of emerging illustrators.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery ART AND ANALYSIS: TWO NETHERLANDISH PAINTERS WORKING IN JACOBEAN SCOTLAND

1 NOV-26 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

A small exhibition focusing on two 17th century artists, Adrian Vanson and Adam de Colone, showcasing a group of paintings which have been examined by paintings conservator Dr Caroline Rae, along with the findings from her research.

IN FOCUS: THE EXECUTION OF CHARLES I

1 NOV-26 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition centred around a painting of the execution of Charles I – based on eye-witness accounts and contemporary engravings – by an unknown Dutch artist.

An exhibition charting the work of the Scottish Glass Society and the history of Scottish glass over the last 40 years, showcasing key artists, artworks and techniques.

STILLS HOSTS: EDINBURGH REVISITED

1-3 NOV, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Gordon Hunter and Don Ledingham combine their photographic and poetic talents for an exhibition of ‘picture-poems’ celebrating the city, with all the money raised going to Leuchie House.

Summerhall

OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND

1-3 NOV, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

A diverse and ambitious multimedia exhibition created by hundreds of artists with experience of mental health issues.

MARLON WOBST: FRIENDS

16 NOV-22 DEC, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

In FRIENDS, Marlon Wobst walks the fine line between fine art and craft with wool-felt tapestries that recall Joseph Beuys’ subversive felt sculptures of the 1960s and 70s.

Talbot Rice Gallery THE EXTENDED MIND

2 NOV-1 FEB 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Extended Mind is set across a diverse series of journeys to other real and imagined places, demonstrating that art plays a role in enriching our cognition.

MYRIAM LEFKOWITZ: WALK, HANDS, EYES

2 NOV-1 FEB 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

A project examining the relationship formed between a city and its inhabitants, in which a participant and a guide form an immersive relationship with their surroundings over the course of an hour’s silent walk through a city.

The Queen’s Gallery RUSSIA: ROYALTY & THE ROMANOVS

1-3 NOV, 9:30AM – 6:00PM, £7.20

An exhibition exploring the relationship between Britain and Russia and their royal families, through more than 170 works of art in the Royal Collection.

Listings

61

6-12 NOV, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

An exhibition in partnership with the Edinburgh College of Art and Tokyo University of the Arts.

AMONG THE POLAR ICE 1 NOV-8 MAR 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

Selected from Dundee’s nationally significant fine art and whaling collections, this exhibition showcases a small but growing collection of polar artworks which spans 200 years.

A WOMAN’S PERSPECTIVE

Dundee Art Cooper Gallery JASMINA CIBIC: THE PLEASURE OF EXPENSE

1 NOV-14 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

A major solo exhibition of new works by award-winning Slovenian artist Jasmina Cibic, featuring film, sculpture, photography, textile, performance and archives.

DCA: Dundee Contemporary Arts ALBERTA WHITTLE: HOW FLEXIBLE CAN WE MAKE THE MOUTH

1-24 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle’s first major solo exhibition in a UK institution draws together new and recent artworks to reflect on memory, trauma, weather and tensions between the land and sea.

The McManus AS WE SEE IT: TWENTIETH CENTURY SCOTTISH ART

1 NOV-22 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

Exploring the innovative and diverse approaches artists have taken in their creative practice.

Whether representing the real world, abstracting elements from it or depicting a realm from the imagination, each artwork is unique and individual.

9-30 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Annual winter works on paper display celebrating women artists, highlighting diverse stories and exploring women’s contribution to the visual culture of their time.

V&A Dundee

New in Glasgow It’s been a busy few months for new places to visit in Glasgow. We take a look at underground nightclubs, raw cakes and a heartening bunch of exciting non-profits Words: Tara Hepburn

MAEVE REDMOND

1 NOV-15 SEP 20, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A compelling piece of graphic design that unpacks the wider context around a 19th century trade catalogue by cast iron manufacturers Walter MacFarlane & Co.

Soul Food Sisters Soul Food Sisters is a thoroughly nourishing place in every sense of the word. Set up by a group of migrant women in Glasgow, this social enterprise serves up cafe comfort food with an international twist. The dishes of the day depend entirely on who’s in the kitchen.

Cuisine from the chef ’s homeland always takes centre stage, with menus from Lebanon, Eritrea and Algeria featuring recently. Cookery classes run on a monthly(ish) basis, bringing people together to cook along while learning kitchen secrets from one of the Sisters. 1 Ross St, soulfoodsisters.org

CIARA PHILLIPS

1 NOV-15 SEP 20, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A new commission, championing the often-unseen process of making by evoking a moment suspended in time where vital decisions about materials and their composition are made.

HELLO, ROBOT.

2 NOV-23 FEB 20, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £6 - £12

This groundbreaking exhibition investigates the science and fiction of robots and looks at how they are changing the world we live in.

STUDIO NICHOLAS DALEY

1 NOV-2 FEB 20, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A series of objects and a specially commissioned film work will show the inspiration behind Nicholas Daley’s work, from his Jamaican-Scottish heritage to the influence of music in his approach to fashion.

SaltSpace SaltSpace is a non-profit co-operative set up by and for graduates and students of Glasgow School of Art. Based across three addresses they acquired under Glasgow City Property’s Rawnchy ‘meanwhile spaces’ initiative, the artists behind SaltSpace successfully crowdfunded to Lunchtime Gallery transform the spots into a gallery, studio and Lunchtime Gallery is the newest face in a, quite community space. Membership is open to literal, long line of creative pursuits to set up anyone affiliated with GSA and unlocks a bunch on St Andrews Street in recent years. This of benefits, from use of the studios to having exciting non-profit gallery and project space work displayed and sold at a small commission shares the address with Good Press and rate. For punters this is a great place to talent Sunday’s risograph print service, who have spot and maybe even invest in a young artist. given them the time and space to showcase the 98 Saltmarket, facebook.com/SaltSpaceCoop work of vibrant young artists in Glasgow. Their programme of events for the rest of 2019 is Mode bustling with showcases from hand-selected Glasgow’s newest nightclub Mode is a mysteriGSA graduates and varying from immersive film ous underground spot on Queen Street from projects to painting and sculpture exhibitions. the team responsible for the nearby La 32 St Andrews St, lunchtimegallery.co.uk Cheetah Club. Currently popping up for one-off club nights and private events, there’s still lots Rawnchy to learn about the city centre’s latest late night If you’ve been wondering where in Glasgow spot. With their hearts firmly set on electronic people are snapping pictures of those pink and music, the space and soundsystem look purple lattes on Instagram, Rawnchy is the promising. Watch this space for how Mode place. And while you may come to their St establishes itself in the coming months. 43 George’s Cross cafe for that sweet social media Queen St, facebook.com/ModeGlasgowQueenSt content, you’ll stay for the even sweeter raw cakes. Rawnchy is the brainchild of effervescent cake-maker and businesswomen Poppy Murricane, who first experimented with the idea by cooking up – or rather, not cooking up – a raw cake for a gluten-free friend. Three years later, she has just taken out a lease on a second premises in Dennistoun, which will open its iconic baby pink doors in a few months time. 58 Maryhill Rd, rawnchy.co.uk The Gate The Gate is the latest cool pub to hit the Gallowgate strip. Duck in through their cheerful yellow door and you’ll find yourself in familiar territory, specifically the unmistakeable remains of an original tenement close.

The preserved features don’t stop there, with exposed brickwork, oak ceiling beams and even a living room fireplace. All good pubs should be homely, and this place really nails it. The drinks are great too, with a special mention going out to their heaving whisky selection. It’s this detail that recently brought footballer David Beckham into The Gate on a visit to the city. A pretty solid stamp of approval. 251 Gallowgate, facebook.com/thegateglasgow

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Rawnchy

THE SKINNY

Photo: Ivan Chirsanov

VENUS BOUND

Photo: Ivan Chirsanov

Whitespace

Darte Jewellery

Photo: Anna Dunlop

Photo: Caro Weiss

Cecilia Stamp, Corb earrings, lapis blue and beige

Interview: Stacey Hunter egular readers will be familiar with Cecilia Stamp’s modern and ambitious jewellery.

Her latest collection stays true to her graphic roots where considered simplicity and soft minimalism combine to make irresistible accessories.

Stamp continues to delight with her Corb Earrings, inspired by the Purism movement of 1918-24. Made using lightweight copper painted with eye-catching enamel, they combine simplified forms with block colour.

Stamp’s designs are characterised by her nuanced ability with colour where vivid lapis blue or gold-infused beiges sit happily with discreetly riveted oxidised silver discs.

Brutalist architecture and the industrial colours and shapes of harbours and ports inspire the work of Edinburgh designer Beth Lamont. While studying jewellery and

metalwork at Dundee’s DJCAD, a taster ceramics class led her to fall for the opportunities in scale and colour that she couldn’t find in metal. Using a parian porcelain slip casting process Lamont creates shapes from hand carved forms. Her confident pieces are a favourite with fellow designers and are stocked in high quality design shops such as Dovecot, V&A Dundee, Welcome Home and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

“I like to give people options, so I tend to make pieces in a variety of colours and always add an adjustable knot to allow the wearer to decide where they would like the necklace to sit, depending on their outfit that day.”

Roslyn Leitch is known for her highly original maximalist combinations of precious metal and patterned linoleum – a sustainable antibacterial material made from natural raw

Beth Lamont, Grey arc necklaces

NMARRA, giga earrings

Photo: Martin Allan Smtih

R

Jane Harrison

ingredients such as solidified linseed oil, pine resin, cork dust, wood flour and minerals. It has manufacturing roots close to her home in Markinch, Fife.

“Members of my family have worked in the local factories and offices which have supplied linoleum around the world for over 140 years. I fondly grew up with it as a floor covering in my home and I love what is known locally as the ‘queer like smell’ which often fills the air around the factories.”

A fellow graduate of DJCAD, her latest collection Sparks and Clouds features brooches with magnetic fastenings borne out of the frustration of inadvertent holes in her own T-shirts and sweatshirts.

Jane Harrison is a Glasgow-based design studio creating contemporary pieces in precious metal, enamel and gemstones. Her distinctive style allows fine jewellery to take on the unexpected irregular, rugged forms found in nature alongside smooth, refined outlines. She finds inspiration in “sentimental moments and memories.” These moments are abstracted and become narrative jewellery or in her own words “trinkets that the wearer can tell their own story with.”

Gemma Plimley first trained as a textile

Photo: Jane Elm

We take a look at Scotland’s flourishing independent jewellery design scene with a focus on five new makers based in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Fife

Photo: Gabriella Silveira

Jewel Citizenship

designer at the Glasgow School of Art and after eight years working in homeware started an evening class at the City of Glasgow College.

Soon after, her passion for jewellery became her main focus. Plimley launched Darte Jewellery in 2016 specialising in contemporary, everyday pieces which take style notes from the linear patterns and symmetry of Art Deco.

Her work is designed and crafted by hand using traditional silversmithing techniques.

Fellow GSA graduate Jen Stewart originally studied Product Design before taking classes in jewellery at City of Glasgow College.

She launched NMARRA with a debut collection of statement brass earrings in 2017 using small scale industrial processes to cut the exacting lines, combined with traditional jewellery techniques to finish each pair. This hybrid way of working allows Stewart to create new shapes in jewellery that take inspiration from ancient ruins, folk art and typography, producing bold, wearable pieces that resonate with the women she sees around her.

“I combine lightweight but sturdy brass, which is around 90% recycled, with gold plated stud posts and hooks, making it possible to have big bold statement earrings in warm golden tones, without weighing you down.”

Roslyn Leitch, Linoleum jagged stud earrings

November 2019

DESIGN

Last Word

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