The Skinny March 2020 by The Skinny

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March 2020 Issue 174

January 2020

Books

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Art January 2020

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The Skinny’s festival bangers... Todd Terje — Inspector Norse Charli XCX, Lizzo — Blame It On Your Love Solange — Losing You Dolly Parton — Jolene Corona — Rhythm of the Night LCD Soundsystem — All My Friends Sister Sledge — We Are Family The Chemical Brothers — Hey Boy, Hey Girl Disclosure, Sam Smith — Latch Hellfish — Bangface Time Calvin Harris, Kelis — Bounce a-ha — Take on Me

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

Issue 174, March 2020 © Radge Media Ltd. Get in touch: E: [email protected] 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. Get in touch to find out more. March 2020 — Chat

E: [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the explicit permission of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the printer or the publisher. Printed by DC Thomson & Co. Ltd, Dundee ABC verified Jan – Dec 2019: 28,197

printed on 100% recycled paper

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Championing creativity in Scotland

Meet the team We asked – what are your best or worst festival memories? Editorial

Rosamund West Editor-in-Chief "Watching the sun set over Lake Malawi at Lake of Stars, feeling extremely discombobulated and unnecessarily paranoid about crocodiles."

Tallah Brash Music Editor "Almost getting blown away in my tent at Wickerman (RIP) in 2009 was terrifying and easily the worst."

Jamie Dunn Film Editor, Online Journalist "Being kicked in the balls during a screening of John Waters’ Polyester at EIFF. My crime? I shooshed the person."

Nadia Younes Clubs Editor, Events Editor "Frank Ocean at Lovebox in 2017. I was steaming, he was very late (and very far away) but it was beautiful <3."

Peter Simpson Digital Editor, Food & Drink Editor "Gleefully running around an out-of-bounds adventure playground; being blinded by hayfever and consequently having to go to bed early."

Adam Benmakhlouf Art Editor "Arguing with an entire angry white mob in suburban East Renfrewshire who became aggressively angry at Lauryn Hill for being late."

Production

Katie Goh Intersections Editor, Acting Books Editor "Best: Watching Sylvester McCoy sing Supermassive Black Hole at karaoke. Worst: Vomiting into my bag after watching Sylvester McCoy sing Supermassive Black Hole at karaoke."

Polly Glynn Comedy Editor "Heading back to my flat at 6am during the Fringe and walking past a car covered in hay. I thought I'd dreamt it until I found photos."

Eliza Gearty Theatre Editor "Best: giddily galloping to make the main stage as Patti Smith belted out Horses. Worst: crying into a haybale about my ex as he watched a band ten feet away."

Caroline Ring Intern "Singing karaoke to Billie Eilish at Music Midtown because her mic practically wasn’t on."

Tom McCarthy Creative Projects Manager "Shanks & Bigfoot at Party In The Park, 1999. A few of us tried to start a stage invasion during Sweet Like Chocolate and security chucked us out."

George Sully Sales and Brand Strategist "TNGHT, Field Day 2013 – my favourite electronic duo headlining one of the main tents, and they played their debut EP, blowing my tiny mind."

Laurie Presswood General Manager "Tried to get a shuttle bus home, accidentally got on a private hire coach to East Kilbride with a random guy who was all up in my personal space and wouldn't take a hint."

Sales & Business

Sandy Park Commercial Director "Love Family Park, Germany. Using water bottle wrappers as wristbands to sneak into 'VIP', meeting Richie Hawtin and co post-set and drinking free Champagne."

Rachael Hood Art Director, Production Manager "Accidentally went to Copenhagen the weekend of Distortion and had the TIME OF MY LIFE."

Fiona Hunter Designer "Sneaking in booze inside suncream bottles, then taking a swig only to find the lids hadn't been washed out."

THE SKINNY

Editorial Words: Rosamund West

festivals arriving in Glasgow this month. Glasgow International Comedy Festival fills the city with some much-needed laughter, while Glasgow Short Film Festival has another stellar line-up including a celebration of a decade of Scottish shorts courtesy of your favourite local cultural magazine (YES THAT IS US DON’T SAY THE LIST I WILL COME FOR YOU). Film also meets Levan Akin, the director of And Then We Danced, to hear more about this love story between two male dancers set in Georgia. Art talks to a pair of artists exhibiting in Scotland this month – Sulaïman Majali is on show in Collective and shares some background on the cultural erasure their work kicks back against. Inuit artist Shuvinai Ashoona will be displaying her drawings in CCA, virtuosic renderings of memories and fantastical scenes which she discusses in the context of living as part of her community in Cape Dorset. Books meets Graeme Armstrong, whose debut The Young Team, inspired by his own experiences in an Airdrie gang, is an instant Scottish classic. Theatre talks to Denise Mina whose gender-swapped adaptation of Mrs Puntila and her man Matti comes to the Lyceum stage this month. Gaelic company Theatre Gu Leòr are presenting an exciting collaboration with the band WHYTE. MAIM (meaning panic), a production examining the erasure of language and land, will tour Scotland this month. Intersections reveals the creative expression happening around the university strikes fighting for the future of higher education, and meets some of the people who make Govanhill a diverse area which actively resists the forces of gentrification. We close the magazine with The Skinny on… Caitlin Moran, marking the premiere of the film version of her book, How to Build a Girl, by sharing wild tales of Welsh sourdough, spotty bums and vomiting up oysters. How the other half live.

March 2020 — Chat

urning our eyes optimistically towards what currently feels, from the perspective of an office a week deep into broken heating in a seemingly endless winter, like a fictitious summer – it’s time for The Skinny’s annual music festival special! This year we’ve taken the position that we want to celebrate the festivals who are working hard to make the world a better, more equal, more sustainable place. We want to focus on the people working to find a solution rather than fixating on the problem. So we open with the Keychange pledge – obviously gender balance on festival bills is desirable for all involved. We want to hear women play music and tell their stories because obviously everyone in the population deserves to be able to relate to shared experience and art and the fact that anyone is still debating this is quite frankly ridiculous. Keychange is good, major international festivals have managed it (hiya Primavera), find out more on p20. In a world which is struggling to address its relationship to consumption it is natural that festivals – large gatherings of people in temporary spaces – are a flashpoint for waste. We take a closer look at France’s We Love Green, who have worked hard to build a model which offsets their carbon footprint in every facet of the organisational process. We’ve also got a short guide to some simple things you as a punter can do to reduce your festival footprint, from using public transport to taking your tent home rather than leaving it in a field. Easy! Our festivals calendar gives you a rundown of the many many line-ups we’re excited about in Scotland and beyond. We take a look at some of the multi-arts programmes that make festivals challenging, constantly evolving places for discovery, and celebrate soundsystem culture at home and around the world. Moving beyond music, we look forward to a pair of

Cover Artist Josie Sommer Josie Sommer is an illustrator based in London, originally from the north east of England. She creates playful, figurative images which are influenced by music, films, art and books. Her work comprises paintings, zines, books, ceramics, activity sheets and editorial work. cargocollective.com/ josiesommerillustration Find her on Instagram at @josiesommer

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Love Bites

Love Bites: On Solo Cinema Trips This month’s columnist makes the case for his love of sitting alone in the cinema Words: Sam Bradley

March 2020 — Chat

ou go here. I’ll go over there. A couple of months ago, walking home beneath torrid weather after a torrid day, I indulged myself. I wandered, soaking, into the cinema and bought myself a beer, something called a Brooklyn hotdog and a ticket for Joker. I can’t remember the plot but I can remember that hotdog. Mystery sauces criss-crossed mystery meat. Two memory foam buns and a scatter of crispy onion bits. And I remember how much better I felt, better than at any point that week, when the lights came up. Solo cinema trips are a habit I’ve been trying to export. We went to see Withnail & I, my friend and I, set up opposing camps in the grand screen of the Cameo with pints and packets of Maltesers. There were no seats next to each other and so I made a proposal: we can watch this together, apart. They went over there, and I went over here. I’m not sure they were convinced, so I’d like to make the case now. You can immerse yourself in a film, even if it doesn’t deserve it. You can drink in the dark, in the quiet, in the warmth. And you can get hotdog sauce and crispy onion bits down your front and nobody will be able to judge you. And you’ll feel better than you have done all week.

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Heads Up

With the March issue being our festival special, it’s only fitting that this month’s events guide is jampacked with festivals taking place across Scotland Compiled by Nadia Younes

Heads Up

Various venues, Dundee, until 14 Mar The 20th edition of Dundee Women’s Festival celebrates Women Making Waves, in honour of Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters. Alongside a series of talks, workshops and classes – including line dancing and Middle Eastern cooking classes (!) – Make-That-A-Take Records present three nights of live music throughout the festival at Conroy’s Basement.

Photo: Tom Nolan

Credit: Hayley Wells

Dundee Women's Festival

Collective, Edinburgh, until 29 Mar The latest artist to participate in Collective’s Satellites programme is Glasgow-based artist Sulaïman Majali, who was recently shortlisted for this year’s Margaret Tait Award. Their latest work takes its title from racist graffiti sprayed on a mosque in Cumbernauld in 2016 and will see the Hillside transformed into a set, where the audience is placed on stage.

Sulaïman Majali, saracen go home, 2019

Credit: Kate Costigan

Photo: Layla Saad

Confronting White Supremacy

Sulaïman Majali: saracen go home

Lighthouse Bookshop, Edinburgh, 4 Mar, 6pm Following the release of her first book, Me and White Supremacy, Layla F Saad will be in conversation with Fringe of Colour founder Jess Brough to discuss its concept. Initially beginning as an Instagram challenge, which quickly went viral, the book was offered for free digitally, and was downloaded by nearly 90,000 people in six months.

Portobello, Edinburgh, 8 Mar, 6.15am If there were ever a cause to get us up at the crack of dawn to go and run into the freezing sea it’s International Women’s Day. Following last year’s dip at Wardie Beach, this year it’s Portobello’s shores that will be swarmed by women celebrating each other and their successes – sounds pretty idyllic, even in the cold.

Layla Saad

International Women's Day

Various venues, Glasgow, 12-29 Mar

This year’s festival sees international comedy legends Steve Martin and Martin Short bring their joint tour, The Funniest Show in Town at the Moment, to the Hydro. Other highlights include two shows from Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Newcomer Nominee Sophie Duker – Venus and a new work-in-progress show, Hag – and Jamali Maddix’s new show, Strip Club Einstein.

Photo: Stevie Powers/Recompose

Photo: Mahaneela

Glasgow International Comedy Festival

March 2020 — Chat

International Women’s Day Sunrise Swim

Wee Dub Festival

Sophie Duker

Photo: George Heaton

Faux Shop V&A, Dundee, until 24 May

Wee Dub Festival Various venues, Edinburgh, 13-15 Mar For 10 years running, Wee Dub has brought some of the biggest names in reggae, dub and soundsystem culture to the capital, and this year is no exception. For the first time in the festival’s history it will also branch out to Leith, with a session at The Old Dr Bells Baths, where you’ll find Mighty Oak Soundsystem, Crucial Roots Soundsystem and more to be announced.

DUSA The Union, Dundee, 7 Mar, 2pm Photo: Aga Kryspin

Photo: Michael McGurk

Free Women's Only DJ Workshops w/ Polka Dot Disco Club

Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles jpegmafia

IberoDocs

jpegmafia

Venues across Edinburgh and Glasgow, until 15 Mar

SWG3, Glasgow, 4 Mar, 7pm Faux Shop

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Polka Dot Disco Club

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Civic House, Glasgow, 14 Mar, 7pm

Krash Bandicute

Nimmo Photo: Wasi Daniju

Freedom of Movement

Glasgow Short Film Festival Glasgow Film Theatre and CCA, Glasgow, 18-22 Mar seeds

Stereo, Glasgow, 25 Mar, 7pm

seeds Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 20-21 Mar, 8pm Judith Jacob and Penny Layden star as two mothers trying to protect their sons from an increasingly dangerous world. Written by Mel Pennant and directed by Anastasia Osei-Kuffour, the play aims to raise awareness of the increase in knife crime and hate crime, and was recently shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award, the leading award for Black British playwrights.

SWG3, Glasgow, 28 Mar, 12pm

Dr. Rubinstein

Jay Som

Photo: Tanner Abel

Hippodrome Silent Film Festival

Annual electronic music conference Soma Skool returns, once again followed by Maximum Pressure’s Spring Edition, with some of the biggest names in the industry participating in a series of talks, workshops and demonstrations. We’ll be at this year’s conference, hosting a panel on the underground music scene in Glasgow with Nightwave, TAAHLIAH, Nova Scotia the Truth and Clouds’ Liam Robertson.

Goldfrapp Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 27 Mar, 7pm

Sasha Velour Table Manners with Jessie Ware

Sasha Velour: Smoke and Mirrors

Photo: Daniel Roberts

Various venues, Bo'ness, 18-22 Mar

Table Manners with Jessie Ware

Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, 13 Mar, 7.30pm & Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 14 Mar, 8pm

Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, 25 Mar, 7pm Dumb Jewels

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Goldfrapp

March 2020 — Chat

LA-based musician Melina Mae Duterte released her third album as Jay Som, the excellent Anak Ko, last year, which features the likes of Vagabon’s Laetitia Tamko, Chastity Belt’s Annie Truscott and Justus Proffit. Duterte returned the favour for both Truscott and Proffit, having recently produced Chastity Belt’s self-titled fourth album and releasing a collaborative EP with Proffit.

Since parting ways with their record label Sony three years ago, London-based band Nimmo have scaled back from a fivepiece to a duo, made up of founding members Sarah Nimmo and Reva Gauntlett. Regaining complete creative control, the duo self-released their longawaited debut album, The Power, last year, heavily indebted to London and its queer community.

Soma Skool

Photo: Lindsey Byrnes

Jay Som

Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, 16 Mar, 7pm

Photo: Sandra Kalytska

Just over a week after Glasgow Film Festival concludes, Glasgow Short Film Festival continues feeding your insatiable appetite for film. Among some 180 screenings, we’ll be presenting a look back on the Best Scottish Shorts of the Decade, featuring some of our favourite Scottish films from the last ten years, on 21 March at the CCA.

Nimmo

Heads Up

Following in the footsteps of FUSE, SHOOT YOUR SHOT and Subcity, the latest collective to step into Civic House’s After School Club is Glasgow-based record label Redstone Press. Earlier in the day, Helsinki-born DJ Krash Bandicute will host a beginners CDJ workshop before performing in the evening. There will also be a vegan dinner served ahead of the music.

Photo: Louie Banks

Photo: Samuli Vienola & Vimugraphy

After School Club

March 2020 — Chat

What's On

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THE SKINNY

What's On

What's On Music

Photo: Holly Whitaker Squid

Photo: El Hardwick

For the first Wednesday of the month, the 4 March is punching well above its weight with shows in Glasgow from Georgia (King Tut’s), Moses Boyd (Nice ‘n’ Sleazy) and JPEGMAFIA (SWG3). While, in Edinburgh, Jon Hopkins brings the first night of his Polarity Tour to the Usher Hall, which will see him play grand piano for parts of the show. Just a few days later Hopkins’ pal King Creosote brings his From Scotland With Love tour to the same venue (7 Mar) before taking it on the road around Scotland, ending his run at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (12 Mar). Like KC, Edinburgh venue Summerhall also has a busy month ahead with shows from noise tyrant Blanck Mass (12 Mar), houseplant obsessives Squid (22 Mar), and masters of folk, jazz and Indian classical fusion Yorkston/Thorne/Khan (22 Mar). Elsewhere in Edinburgh, Ladytron play La Belle Angele (7 Mar), Future Get Down bring the party to Sneaky Pete’s (14 Mar) and Callum Easter plays alongside recent Lost Map signing Clémentine March at Gilded Balloon Basement (19 Mar). After 4 March, in Glasgow the rest of the month is just as busy. On 6 March, MALKA – who also plays Galashiels’ MacArts on 12 March – launches her latest record I’m Not Your Soldier at Stereo, while a ten-minute walk away Tenement TV celebrate International Women’s Day, albeit a couple of days early, with two Edinburgh bands you’re likely to hear a lot from in 2020 – Medicine Cabinet and Swim School. On 10 March you’ll find BBC Sound of 2020 nominee Arlo Parks at King Tut’s, while a duo of BBC Sound of winners – Michael Kiwanuka and Celeste – play Barrowlands on 14 March. Now split between Glasgow and Berlin, Spinning Coin bring Hyacinth to Edinburgh (Sneaky Pete’s, 12 Mar), Dundee (Beat Generator Live!, 13 Mar) and Glasgow (CCA, 15 Mar). But if jazz-rock fusion is more your thing, Animal Society at The Hug & Pint (26 Mar) is the show for you. And be sure to end your month with a visit to The Glad Cafe on 29 March for Porridge Radio. Fresh from releasing their hopeful new record Every Bad (read about it on page 61), this show is a must. [Tallah Brash]

Porridge Radio

Zorro

Fire Will Come

Scottish cinemas are bursting at the seams in March. The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival (18-22 Mar) turns ten and brings a tasty line-up to its one of a kind venue: Bo’ness Hippodrome. Highlights include swashbuckling hunk Douglas Fairbanks as Zorro; Paul McGann providing a live narration to Marcel L’Herbier’s poetic L’Homme du Large; and Mark Kermode’s skiffle outfit the Dodge Brothers scoring FW Murnau’s symphonic City Girl. The festival kicks off in perfect Keystone cops fashion, meanwhile, with a massive custard pie fight. No sooner has Glasgow Film Festival come to a close, its hip little sister, Glasgow Short Film Festival (18-22 Mar), pops up. Once again, the programme is *chef’s kiss*. Extensive strand Barbed Wire Love: Artists and their North of Ireland Troubles looks like a must-attend, as does expanded cinema event Operation Jane Walk Live, a psychogeographic tour of post-apocalyptic New York via a shoot-emup video game. Also be sure to make The Skinny’s Best of the Decade programme (21 Mar), featuring some of our fave Scottish shorts of the last ten years. Filmhouse’s March programme is wild too. There’s the return of the Edinburgh Iranian Festival (6-12 Mar) and Filmosophy (beginning 25 Mar), the film season with a philosophical bent. We also love the look of Happiness is a State of Mind: Joy and Despair in Japanese Cinema (13-19 Mar), which features And Your Bird Can Sing, one of the finest films from last year to go unreleased in the UK. Add in some Uncanny Valley cult items (Killer Klowns from Outer Space, 6 Mar; Angel Heart, 20 Mar) and an Alejandro Jodorowsky season (10 Mar-2 Apr) and you’ve a very busy month for Edinburgher film nuts. — 11 —

March 2020 — Chat

Film

And Your Bird Can Sing

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GFT’s brochure is similarly stacked. Highlights include a visit from Spanish filmmaker Oliver Laxe with his gorgeous Fire Will Come (26 Mar); a Fellini retrospective (10 Mar-1 Apr); and a couple of ace Mother’s Day weekend screenings – one appropriate (Little Women, 22 Mar), the other less so (Carrie, 20 Mar). [Jamie Dunn]

March kicks off with a bang, as Eris Drew and Octo Octa bring their T4T LUV NRG (6 Mar) party back to Glasgow’s Berkeley Suite for Shoot Your Shot, where a full-blown euphoric rave awaits. Also making a return to Glasgow is Jayda G (20 Mar), coming to Bigfoot’s Tea Party at Sub Club to play all night long. It’s birthdays galore among Scotland’s clubnights this month. The biggest of them all comes from Let’s Go Back, who celebrate 20 years in the game, with the first of three parties to celebrate being a free party at La Cheetah Club (14 Mar). Slightly younger but just as wise are Overground, who celebrate their fourth birthday this month, and Lezure, who turn five. La Cheetah regulars Lezure have UKG connoisseur Dr Banana (7 Mar) stepping into the booth, while Overground invite Tectonic Recordings’ boss Pinch (13 Mar) to join them for the festivities at The Bongo Club. And with the old comes the new, as fresh-faced partystarters on the scene Episode kick off with a headline set from underground hero DjRUM (27 Mar) at The Berkeley Suite. If you’re looking for a spot to celebrate St Patrick’s Day on 17 March, you’ve got two equally enticing offers in Edinburgh. Boiler Room bring their Bass & Percs party up north to The Bongo Club, with the line-up yet to be announced. Over at The Mash House, Club_Nacht return with a fitting headliner in Belfast-born Sally C and local support across the two rooms. [Nadia Younes]

Jayda G

Photo: Tiu Makkonen

What's On

Photo: Yuuki Harada

Clubs

T4T LUV NRG

Art

seeds

Photo: Glasgow Museums

Photo: Wasi Daniju

March 2020 — Chat

Sgàire Wood

Transmission Gallery in Glasgow has opened their year of exhibitions with What’s Ahead What’s Known. Inspired by afro-sudaka activist, artist, and curandera Fannie Sosa’s A White Institution’s Guide to Welcoming Artists of Colour and their Audiences, five artists have responded with texts on their ‘ideal institutional working’. From 6 March, there is Ross Fleming’s exhibition in CCA’s Intermedia Space. Fleming brings together charged contexts surrounding gay male sex and STDs. A panel discussion takes place on Sunday 15 March. On 8 March, for International Women’s Day, creative platform Cabbage has assembled artists for an afternoon of performance and film ‘examining notions of dance and the body’. On 19 March, the DCA host one last night of events before the end of their group show that takes as its beginning point the work of sci-fi fantasy writer Ursula K Le Guin, with Sgàire Wood as the principal performer. Opening on 20 March, Cooper Gallery present a new show with the film works of artist-theorists Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, titled A is for Avant-Garde, Z is for Zero. Also on 20 March, Edinburgh’s Embassy Gallery host Systems Are Doing It for Themselves. From 10-5pm, invited artists, organisers, curators will consider the value of their work, their workflows and forms of management. Part of Glasgow Short Film Festival, on 21 and 22 March, at Civic House and CCA, there are screenings, a workshop, a performance and discussion extending from questions of the exclusion/inclusion of Black people within spaces, and the effect of this on their identity, as well as thinking of the fluidity (often not by choice) of Black communities through the concept of Black Geographies. [Adam Benmakhlouf]

Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow

Theatre

Photo: Edward Waring

In Edinburgh, the world premiere of We Are In Time hits the Traverse (3-4 Mar), a fusion-show of music and theatrical storytelling. They will host another world premiere, seeds (20-21 Mar), a show about mothers, sons and the personal aspect of the political from ground-breaking company, tiata fahodzi. On 15 March, Lyceum will be presenting two classic Chinese stories with a ‘modern, Scottish slant’, Playing With Tales: Spring Lantern Riddles and The Male Queen. Writer and singer Karine Polwart returns to Edinburgh with her acclaimed gig-theatre piece Wind Resistance, a bewitching mix of myth, music and magic (Lyceum, 25-28 Mar). Don’t miss MAIM, the collaboration between Gaelic theatre company Theatre Gu Leòr and evocative, electro-trad band WHYTE (Tron, 6-14 Mar). Chris McQueer has been making waves in the literary world for a while – check out his first ever play RUNNER, on for one night only (Tron, 25 Mar). Here’s something that isn’t for the faint-hearted: Night of the Living Dead, a seven-person, 95-minute, live recreation of the famous zombie movie, shot-forshot, in real time (Dundee Rep, 13-14 Mar). [Eliza Gearty]

Night of the Living Dead

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THE SKINNY

Food Photo: Hardie Grant Vegan Japaneasy

Blood & Wine

Poetry Calling all spoken word poets: Hidden Door are accepting proposals for their ten-day October festival. The poetry team are on the hunt for innovative and accessible spoken word performances and projects created by individuals or collectives. Deadline 9 March with a flat fee of £250 for accepted pitches. St Andrew’s poetry festival, StAnza, is running 4-8 March with another outstanding programme including many of the annual events poetry lovers look forward to (lunchtime poetry cafes, meet the artist events, translation discussions, and, of course, the Saturday night StAnza Slam). Alongside poets like Mimi Khalvati, Michael Longley and Jen Hadfield, there are dozens of other incredible artists taking to the stage, workshop tables and exhibition spaces. In Aberdeen, on 25 March in the Cellar, Re-Analogue will be hosting its final event after two years of live event action. The night will be an opportunity to celebrate the incredible performances they’ve showcased and will feature a classic Re-Analogue programme of poetical, musical and literary performances. On 26 March Anthony Anaxagorou and Helen Tookey will be reading at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, as part of the St Mungo’s Mirrorball programme. Hosted by Glasgow’s Poet Laureate, Jim Carruth, this is one of the most exciting events in Scotland’s March poetry calendar. Anaxagorou was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot prize in 2019, while Tookey was shortlisted for the Forward Prize in the same year. This is definitely not one to be missed. [Beth Cochrane] Comedy

Jen Hadfield

March 2020 — Chat

Photo: Mahaneela Sophie Duker

What's On

Photo: Bobbie Hanvey Michael Longley

Blood & Wine – the Game of Thrones-inspired cocktail bar from The Pop Up Geeks – is the kind of wildly successful idea that really deserves to be rinsed as much as possible, so it’s welcome to see that it’s making a return this month (albeit with a new, Witcher-inspired twist). The action decamps to the excellent Nightcap bar as Pop Up Geeks’ home at the Waverley Arches undergoes a refurb. From 13 Mar, 3 York Pl, Edinburgh Now we all like beer, but a whole festival of beer? A beer festival? Would that work? Only one way to find out, as the Royal High Beer Festival brings together three of Scotland’s finest breweries – Top Out, Tempest and Cross Borders – for an afternoon of sampling and quaffing. 14 Mar, 4.30pm, Royal High Clubhouse, East Barnton Ave, Edinburgh, £10 + booking fee, tickets via Eventbrite Beer *and* comedy? Another unlikely pairing, but the fantastic Grunting Growler are bringing the two together for a series of Hoppy Days beer tastings with added laughs at this year’s Glasgow Comedy Festival. Try five great beers and hear from a pair of stand-ups – this seems like a solid idea to us. 15, 22 and 29 Mar, 2pm, 51 Old Dumbarton Rd, £25, tickets via glasgowcomedyfestival.com Tim Anderson is, in this writer’s opinion, the greatest contestant ever to appear on Masterchef. Come at me on Twitter if you like, that’s your prerogative, but his ludicrously OTT takes on Japanese food were just the best. Anyway, Anderson launches his latest Japan-inspired cookbook – Vegan Japaneasy – this month, with his tour stopping off in Edinburgh for a chat through the book and demos of some of its recipes. 26 Mar, 8pm, Topping & Company, 2 Blenheim Pl, £10-22, tickets via toppingbooks.co.uk [Peter Simpson]

What do you mean there’s only one Comedy Festival in Scotland? And it’s not in Edinburgh loljkamirite? It’s the Glasgow International Comedy Festival from 12-29 March, now in its 18th year and bigger than ever. We’d suggest seeing pretty much everything at any of the ARG venues (Blue Arrow Club, Hug and Pint and The Vacant Space), where you can sample new WIPs from Sophie Duker (21 Mar), Sunil Patel (14 Mar) and Sean Morley (28 Mar) as well as excellent shows from the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe hitting the West coast like Tom Mayhew’s excellent takedown of the class system (I, Tom Mayhew, 28 Mar), and Emily Benita (Big Wendy, 27 Mar) who’s written this month’s excellent ICYMI on Still Game (page 69). Berk’s Nest and Gilded Balloon are doing takeovers at The Old Hairdressers too. Here you can catch Jordan Brookes’ Edinburgh Award-winning I’ve Got Nothing (13-14 Mar). He’s also dropping by Edinburgh’s Monkey Barrel in case you missed it in August (8 Mar) amongst other ace tour shows and WIPs. We’d also recommend some more local talent/mad shit appearing at Chunkstival (all at State Bar, conveniently just off Sauchiehall Street). Their roster boasts a silly mime show for all ages from Soup Group (29 Mar), Stuart McPherson (20 Mar), who wrote last month’s ICYMI on Peep Show, and Paul McDaniel (26 Mar). Our perfect day at GICF looks a lot like Saturday 28 March, just leave some tickets for us for The Delightful Sausage, yeah? [Polly Glynn]

The Delightful Sausage

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March 2020 — Chat

THE SKINNY

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THE SKINNY

6 Editorial — 7 Love Bites — 8 Heads Up — 11 What’s On 16 Games — 57 Albums — 62 Film & TV — 65 Art — 67 Food & Drink 69 Comedy — 70 Books — 71 Listings — 78 The Skinny On… Caitlin Moran

Features 19 Our Music Festivals special celebrates the positive, with a focus on the Keychange campaign for gender balance, environmental sustainability, multi-arts programmes and international soundsystem culture 31 Mariah Garnett introduces Trouble, screening at Glasgow Short Film Festival

34 Graphic designer Raissa Pardini shares her music poster design

Contents

32 Rosie Jones and Tim Renkow discuss accessibility in comedy

38 We take a look at the outpouring of creative projects being produced as part of the UCU strikes

39 How Govanhill is fighting gentrification with community 40 Showcase: Daryl Terri Cooney 42 An introduction to Diverse Critics, a new programme partnership between The Skinny, Creative Scotland and Disability Arts Online

43 Director Levan Akin on Georgia-set And Then We Danced, a tender romance between two male dancers 45 Graeme Armstrong on The Young Team, gang violence and Trainspotting 46 Dan Snaith, aka Caribou, on new album Suddenly and finding joy in tragedy

50 Denise Mina on her genderswapped rewrite of Mrs Puntila and her man Matti 53 Sulaïman Majali guides us through some of the thinking driving their artistic practice 54 Inuit artist Shuvinai Ashoona on her virtuosic drawings

Image Credits: (Left to right, top to bottom) Mark McNulty; Trouble; JIKSAW; Matteo Girola; Jacky Sheridan; Rachel Tunstall; Daryl Terri Cooney; Hugo Glendinning; And Then We Danced; Robin Farquhar-Thomson; Thomas Neukum; Laurence Winram; Eoin Carey; Tom Nolan; Shuvinai Ashoona

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On the website... A guide to life in Dublin; a chat with Spinning Coin; a look at Glasgow taco spot Sacred Tum; The Great Unwatched, our new series on some of Netflix’s hidden gems

March 2020 — Chat

49 Climate change, culture and survival in Theatre Gu Leòr and WHYTE's new show MAIM

THE SKINNY

Competitions

Head to theskinny.co.uk/competitions to enter, and for full terms and conditions Photo: Dynamic Earth

Win tickets to Knockengorroch Festival 2020! From its open air green Bo Airigh stage to its covered Shieling world dance music tent, Knockengorroch packs a punch unlike any other festival. Scotland’s longest running greenfield festival returns 21-24 May, and we have a pair of weekend tickets to give away. For a chance to win, simply answer the following question...

Gaia

Win Tickets to Dynamic Earth: After Dark!

What is the name of Knockengorroch’s green stage?

Dynamic Earth launch this year’s Edinburgh Science Festival with Dynamic Earth: After Dark on Sat 4 April. Be amazed by the incredible forces of earth, air, fire and water, as live science demos show the true power of our planet. For a chance to win two tickets for Dynamic Earth: After Dark, answer the following question...

a) Bo Airigh b) Go Airigh c) No Airigh Competition closes midnight Sun 29 Mar

Win tickets for Terminal V: New Horizon! Nightvision's Terminal V returns to Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Centre on 11 April, featuring Richie Hawtin, Charlotte De Witte (returning after making her Scottish debut at the first Terminal V) as well as Helena Hauff, KiNK and more. We have four VIP tickets to give away; for a chance of winning, simply answer the following question... Which DJ, who made their Scottish debut at the first Terminal V, returns this year? a) Charlotte De Witte b) Amelie Lens c) Dimitri Vegas Competition closes midnight Sun 29 Mar terminalv.co.uk Photo: James Gourlay

knockengorroch.org.uk Photo: Stevie Powers

Roughly what percentage of Earth is covered by water? a) 30% b) 50% c) 70% Competition closes midnight Sun 29 Mar dynamicearth.co.uk

Knockengorroch

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March 2020 — Chat

26 27 29

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Compiled by George Sully

Terminal V

Across 3. Possibly the worst thing to be thrown at you in a festival crowd, visually indistinguishable from a normal pint (4,2,1,3) 9. Bifter (5) 10. E x-Smiths bloke, joined Brandon Flowers onstage at Glasto 2019 (6,4) 11. The hopefully unsurprising location of Skye Live festival (4) 12. The area with all the music at a camping festival (5) 13. S lang for a big multipack of beer (4) 15. A djective to describe a wedding (a wedding's almost a festival, right?) (7) 17. A common festival chant: "Here we, here we, ______" (4,2,7,2) 23. Get (7) 25. That moment when the eccies properly kick in maaaan (4) 26. Hopefully your tent won't have any of these if it rains (5) 28. Good festivals encourage giving these back in exchange for dosh, to minimise littering (4) 29. H opefully your tent WILL have this if it's cold - but it probably won't (10) 31. N early every festival has a stall offering this type of temporary tattoo (5) 32. A Welsh festival format for literature, music and performance (10)

Down 1. Danish city hosting one of the largest music festivals in Europe (8) 2. One time (4) 4. Common web initialism: "But that's just what I think" (3) 5. Rather than getting horribly burned, most hope for this at a festival if there's good weather (6) 6. N ewly single R'n'B singer, and singer of So Sick (2,2) 7. Some stalls at festivals offer this for your phone - at a price (8) 8. Temporary festival shit basket, whose quality only worsens (8) 10. Hapless rapper involved in the Fyre Festival debacle (2,4) 14. The nice version of a wasp (3) 16. You've definitely been missold this specific type of insurance and you should take the call next time (3) 17. To top a festival lineup (8) 18. Some DJs take them, some do not (8) 19. Nintendo games console whose name sounds a bit like urine (3) 20. A dark rum brand named after a mythical beast (6) 21. Ace your festival game by perfecting this small tactical sleep (3) 22. Staying in glamourous festival accommodation (8) 24. Ecstatic (6) 27. Run away (4) 28. The true stars who really make festivals happen, rocking that high-vis look (4) 30. The best kind of work autoresponder, especially for annual leave (initials) (3) Turn to page 77 for the solutions

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March 2020

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March 2020

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THE SKINNY

FESTIVAL

FOCUS Illustration: Josie Sommer

s spring slowly comes into view through blurry raindrops masquerading as snowflakes, and just as our inboxes start to bloat uncomfortably with festival line-ups, in this year’s festival guide we celebrate positivity, opting not to acknowledge those stuck in the past and refusing to change. We focus on gender balance with campaigns like Keychange and take a look at the amazing work Paris’ We Love Green festival are doing with their aim to become fully circular in terms of sustainability. We immerse ourselves in multidisciplinary festivals that platform art and education as much as music, and get stuck into the history and importance of soundsystem culture as Croatia’s Outlook Festival goes back to its roots. We’ve also pulled together a helpful calendar of the other great music festivals going on in Scotland and beyond that we think are more than worth your precious time and hard-earned cash. We discuss accessibility in comedy ahead of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival, share some of the Glasgow Short Film Festival programme and in our Design Focus, we speak to Glasgow-based illustrator and typographer Raissa Pardini, whose work includes tour and gig posters for the likes of IDLES, Squid, The Orielles and Snapped Ankles.

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THE SKINNY

Music

Exact Change As festival season swings into view, we take a closer look at Keychange and celebrate some of the festivals who have signed up to its 50:50 gender balance pledge Interview: Ashley Stein

Tallinn Music Week

Tallinn, Estonia, 25-29 Mar Camilla Sparksss, YASMYN, Frankie Animal tmw.ee c/o pop

Cologne, Germany, 22-26 Apr Eunique, AVEC, Dream Wife c-o-pop.de

March 2020 — Festivals

Africa Oyé

Sefton Park, 20-21 Jun, Liverpool, England Les Amazones D’Afrique, Santrofi, Valerie Ekoume africaoye.com Ruisrock

Island of Ruissalo, Turku, Finland, 3-5 Jul Tove Lo, Camila Cabello, Zara Larsson ruisrock.fi Way Out West

Slottsskogen, Gothenburg, Sweden, 13-15 Aug Robyn, FKA twigs, The Black Madonna wayoutwest.se

n 2019 Primavera Sound became the first major festival to proudly host a truly gender balanced line-up with its slogan The New Normal. For a moment it seemed a new precedent had been set. The myths about low ticket sales and a ‘lack of female artists’ had been vehemently disproved – surely it was just a matter of time before others followed suit. Then, as the first festival line-ups of 2020 were revealed, we all slipped slowly back into discontentment. There they were, the same hoard of male bands who had occupied that space since the beginning. Above the disappointment, however, rides a wave of positivity. While many of the major music festivals have chosen to ignore progress, more than 120 UK music organisations – many of them festivals – have promised to achieve a gender balance by signing up to the Keychange 50:50 pledge. Led by Reeperbahn Festival (Hamburg, Germany, 16-20 Sep), the PRS Foundation and Musikcentrum Öst, Keychange is a pioneering international project which invests in female talent through championing emerging artists. They are also encouraging all music-based organisations to sign their gender balance pledge, effectively making a public promise to achieve a 50:50 line-up or roster by 2022. “The Keychange gender pledge is now open to all music organisations so that everyone, at all levels of the music industry, can take responsibility and make change,” says Keychange Project Manager, Maxie Gedge. One Scottish festival that has signed the pledge is Glasgow’s own Flying Moon Music and Arts Festival (2020 dates TBC). The festival’s Director, Nicole Stapinski, tells us: “Flying Moon Music and Arts Festival is all about art, access and action. At its heart it exists to support Scotland’s women in frontlining the festivals they deserve.” Gedge feels inspired by Scotland’s participation in the project, as, alongside Flying Moon festivals, such as Wide Days (Edinburgh, 23-25 Apr), Celtic Connections (Glasgow, 14-31 Jan 2021), XpoNorth (Inverness, 24-25 Jun) and Hebridean Celtic Festival (15-18 Jul) have all signed up. She says: “We are so encouraged by the action being taken by organisations in Scotland, including our 15 signatories and proactive PRS Foundation partners and friends such as the Scottish Government and the Scottish Music Industry Association.” But it’s not just UK festivals who have signed up to the Keychange pledge. Many international countries have their fair — 20 —

Photo: Mark McNulty

Five more Keychange festivals to check out

Africa Oyé

share of participants, including the US. “We chose to partner with Keychange because we recognise that, as an industry, we are limiting our own ability to achieve our full potential by muting the voices of such a large part of our community,” Rehan Choudhry, founder of Las Vegas’ Emerge festival tells us. So, what does he think needs to change for this to be achieved? “Until we have equal representation on not only our line-ups, but at all levels of our organisations, we will continue to operate with one hand tied behind our backs and the industry will continue to suffer because of it.” Gedge agrees: “We have found that positive action is essential if we, as an industry, want to start breaking down the barriers that underrepresented genders face on their journey to festival stages.” And thankfully it does seem that a lot of smaller UK festivals, even those who have not signed the pledge, do appear to be making the effort to change. Glasgow’s relatively new Playground Festival (Rouken Glen Park, 31 Jul-2 Aug) have just announced CHVRCHES and Neneh Cherry as two of its headliners, while Green Man (Brecon Beacons, Wales, 20-23 Aug) has already announced an excitingly diverse line-up, which includes Nadine Shah, Otoboke Beaver and Prima Queen. Then of course there are the women led festivals like Hear Her who have committed to running with all female line-ups from the beginning. So, how can those who want to enact positive change go about it? Simple, explains Gedge. Just do it. “We encourage everyone to take that first step, and come forward to pledge their allegiance to equality at keychange.eu.”

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Cool Intentions Almost a decade from its inception, cutting-edge Parisian bash We Love Green remains the industry standard-bearer for sustainability Interview: Joe Goggins

“It seems like the economy is moving in a greener direction... and it’s becoming easier to put on this kind of festival” Najma Souroque, We Love Green

“Every choice we made had to be balanced with something else,” explains Najma Souroque, the festival’s Head of Sustainability. “But there are new solutions presenting themselves every year. It seems like the economy is moving in a greener direction with each year that goes by, and it’s becoming easier and easier to put on this kind of festival. When we started out, we were having to look to the UK to find a way to power the festival sustainably; that kind of thing just didn’t exist in Paris. It already feels like we’ve made a lot of progress.” We Love Green already looks to be an industry leader on sustainability and Souroque admits that they have had contact from festivals around the world to ask for advice on how better to carbon neutralise their own events. She’s quick to point out, though, that they’re just one of a whole movement of European festivals taking radical environmental action. “We’ve signed up to the Green Deal Circular, so we’re not the only festival aiming for circularity by 2025,” she explains. “There’s 20 of us around the world – old ones like Roskilde in Denmark and new ones like Amsterdam Open Air. The more of us that work together, the easier it will be to achieve across the industry.” Beyond the sterling environmental work and the festival’s Think Tank – an area for debate and discussion of sociological issues co-curated by newspaper Le Monde – there is, of course, the small matter of the music. “Marie was looking to start a festival that had the kind of line-up you don’t usually see in Paris,” says Souroque of the booker’s remit. “A lot of us are from the electronic scene, but we wanted to incorporate hip-hop and rock, too.” Among those signing up to the compulsory carbon-neutral artist’s charter at Bois de Vincennes this June are Lana Del Rey, Four Tet, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Young Thug. We Love Green takes place at Bois de Vincennes, Paris, 6-7 Jun welovegreen.fr

Five more sustainable festivals to check out Secret Solstice

Reykjavík, Iceland, 26-28 Jun Cypress Hill, TLC, Primal Scream secretsolstice.is Terraforma

Villa Arconati, Milan, Italy, 2628 Jun Beatrice Dillon, MC Yallah, Linn Da Quebrada terraformafestival.com Roskilde Festival

Poppelgårdsvej, Roskilde, Denmark, 27 Jun-4 Jul FKA twigs, Angel Olsen, Thom Yorke roskilde-festival.dk Boardmasters

Flow Festival

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March 2020 — Festivals

Photo: Kitty Lester

Newquay, Cornwall, England, 5-9 Aug The 1975, Skepta, Little Simz boardmasters.com

Suvilahti, Helsinki, Finland, 14-16 Aug Stormzy, Bikini Kill, Chromatics flowfestival.com

We Love Green

Music

hen Marie Sabot realised the need for the festival industry to make huge strides in the sustainability of its events, she did not settle for half measures. There wasn’t, in her view, any reason for large-scale music events and environmental campaign groups to have such an uneasy relationship. That take is something that’s written into the name of her We Love Green festival, which holds its ninth edition this June in central Paris. In the beginning, it was partly a practical move; to convince the city council to grant the organisers permission to hold the event at its original home in western Paris, Parc de Bagatelle – if they were going to take over one of the city’s most beautiful green spaces, they’d need to clean up after themselves. They’ve achieved that, and then some: the festival aims each year to offset its carbon footprint in every facet of the organisational process. There are the obvious ones: energy (100% sustainable power from French biofuel, hydrogen generators and solar panels), water (2.1 million litres of water saved via composting toilets last year, and nearly 300,000 plastic bottles saved by an eco-cup deposit scheme) and transport (80,000 trees planted for carbon offset, more than one per festivalgoer). Beyond that, though, We Love Green’s focus on sustainability is present in everything from set design, with hundreds of kilograms of recycled plastic going into the building of the stages, and food, with everything locally sourced and all plates and cutlery compostable. They are, at this rate, well on track for their aim of achieving 100% environmental circularity by 2025.

March 2020 — Festivals

Music

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Keep It Green While more and more festivals are becoming eco-conscious in their efforts to make big-scale events as green as possible, there’s still a lot to be done to make festivals effectively sustainable Words: Dylan Tuck Illustration: Josie Sommer

Travel It’s no secret that cars have a negative impact on your carbon footprint, so much so that car emissions are one of the largest forms of pollution when it comes to festivals. Unfortunately, it’s believed that travelling to festivals by car is still the most popular mode of transport, but collectively, we can do better than that. Most major festivals offer shuttle bus services from local towns or city centres direct to festival sites, meaning that if you can get a train to the nearest shuttle pick-up you’re on track for a far greener way of travel. Still, if you absolutely have to drive, we’d recommend carpooling to make sure every seat has a bum on, meaning fewer cars on the roads. Furthermore, if you plan to travel abroad for your festival fix then be sure to take an in-depth look at your travel options. If you have to fly, look out for the airlines working on offsetting their emissions. A quick Google will show how you can do this if your chosen airline won’t.

Disposables While many of the ‘big name’ festivals in the UK have already promised to completely cut singleuse plastics by 2021, there are measures that you can take to ensure you’re doing your bit until then. Tents – don’t even think about ditching it when you’re knee-deep in your hangover-comedown from hell once the good times have ended. Many believe that when you leave your tent on-site to be cleared up, it kindly gets donated to charity by festival workers when in reality, most tents just end up in landfill. So don’t be a dick – spend sustainably on a quality tent you can reuse, or at the very least, just take your pop-up tent home with you. As a general rule of thumb, just be sure to recycle whatever you use, wherever you can. Littering is a major issue at festivals, and you wouldn’t do it anywhere else, so there are no excuses for doing it here either.

“As a general rule of thumb, just be sure to recycle whatever you use, wherever you can”

Music

ith sustainability in mind, here’s what festivalgoers can do to help save the planet while still having a mighty good time.

Food & Drink Thankfully, most food vendors have moved away from harmful plastics in favour of recyclable or compostable materials instead, making your job a bit easier. Yet, disposables like plastic cups are still an issue that can be helped. Either bring your own reusable pint cup with you or just hold onto the first plastic cup you were handed when buying a pint. You don’t need a new cup each time you get more juice for your liver, just be sure to reuse it every time you fork out the cash money for your tepid, pre-poured flat beer or cider of choice. And on the note of drinks – make sure you bring a refillable water bottle along with you too as almost all festivals have water stations dotted across their site. As, y’know, less plastic, more sustainability; you get the drill.

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March 2020 — Festivals

Festival Fashion It might be a staple piece of festival fashion and the synonymous marker of a good ol’ drink-enthused time in a field somewhere, but standard glitter is a microplastic and – you guessed it – bloody lethal to our lovely planet. The good news is you can buy biodegradable festival glitter, and from a measly £2 upwards too, so you can look great and feel even better about being plastic-conscious. Another signature part of the festival experience is the guarantee for it to absolutely piss it down at some point, leaving your T-shirt and shorts combo utterly unprepared and soaked. There may be an urge to peg it to the nearest merch stand to splurge on a plastic poncho, but you really shouldn’t. Just make sure you’ve checked the weather before heading out and invest in a quality waterproof jacket to bring along.

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More Than Music

With so many new festivals appearing on the calendar every year, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out, but multidisciplinary festivals are showing that it doesn’t just have to be about music

Music

Interview: Nadia Younes

Beat Hotel

Fellah Hotel, Marrakech, Morocco, 19-22 Mar Charlotte Adigery, Habibi Funk, Kindness beat-hotel.com Bristol New Music

Bristol, England, 23-26 Apr Midori Takada, Beatrice Dillon, Mica Levi bristolnewmusic.org

March 2020 — Festivals

AVA Belfast

The Mac and Boucher Road Fields, Belfast, N.Ireland, 28-31 May Fatima Yamaha, Dr. Rubinstein, Leon Vynehall avafestival.com/festival Sónar

Fira Montjuïc and Fira Gran Via L’Hospitalet, Barcelona, Spain, 18-20 Jun Arca, TNGHT, Giant Swan sonar.es No Bounds

Sheffield, England, 16-18 Oct Line-up TBC noboundsfestival.co.uk

usic festivals are no longer just about the music, they’re also about the experience, and nowadays people want as much of an experience as they can get. The largest festival of its kind, Amsterdam Dance Event (21-25 Oct) – commonly abbreviated to ADE – is a five-day music and conference festival that takes place in October every year. The festival comprises over 1000 events taking place in around 200 locations across Amsterdam and attracts the biggest names in dance music, as well as the genre’s biggest fans. But it’s not just catching sets by their favourite DJs people are after, they’re also there to learn. Inspired by ADE, Soma Skool (28 Mar) is a day of discussions, demos, panels and more, taking place at Glasgow’s SWG3. The event’s Project Manager Rosie Shannon revived the event in 2018, having taken her own first steps into music production at Soma Skool’s Shoogle Studios production courses. “Being able to listen, be interested in and create electronic music is now a part of mainstream society, so the demand for help and guidance with it is in turn creating these amazing multidisciplinary festivals,” she says. Following in the footsteps of Soma Skool is the Scottish Electronic Music Conference (17-18 Jul), which launches with its first edition at Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange this summer. The two-day conference will invite over 100 music industry members to participate in a range of seminars, workshops and product showcases, as well as live DJ streams and after dark parties. And the same appetite for these types of multidisciplinary festivals also exists further south. Wigflex City Festival (8 May) launched with its inaugural edition last year, making use of previously unused venues across Nottingham, and returns with an even bigger line-up this year. The festival’s founder Lukas Wigflex has been throwing parties around the city for years and decided to incorporate the multi-arts elements that were integral to those parties into the festival, such as A/V shows and art installations. “Being able to create an income stream for these artists is really important to us,” he says. “We’re trying to create a fully sustainable way of working that — 24 —

Photo: Mark Richter

Five more multidisciplinary festivals to check out

ADE

benefits larger numbers of artists year after year.” Reviving disused and interesting venues, in the same way Wigflex does, is often a key element of multidisciplinary festivals, but brand-new festival Kingdom (24-26 Jul) aims to take things one step further. “For us, the opportunity of this multidisciplinary approach is to find new space, new territory within which new ideas can come to the surface,” says Hugh Scott Moncrieff, Kingdom’s Art Director and Resident Architect. “I think it’s an opportunity to realise the potential of events such as a music festival to be so much more than just a party in a field.” Kingdom is the latest venture from the team behind London’s GALA festival and will debut at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire this summer. The festival will see renowned architects collaborate with DJs and record labels on the design, sound and execution of the festival’s four stages. The first of these collaborations to be announced is between Turner Prizewinning architecture collective Assemble and Bradley Zero’s Rhythm Section label, with more announcements yet to come. “We want to use Kingdom as an opportunity to champion a more sustainable and more conscious form of hedonism,” says Moncrieff. “One that wraps music, art, design and culture into one big ball of fun.” With experience as key, multidisciplinary festivals like these appeal to more than just music fans. They allow festivalgoers the opportunity to explore the intersections between music and various other artforms, highlighting the different ways in which they all impact and, ultimately, benefit one another.

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March 2020

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THE SKINNY

Ones for the Diary

Compiled by Tallah Brash

Photo: Allan Lewis

Music

Festivals in Scotland Terminal V – New Horizon Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, 11 Apr Scotland’s biggest electronic music festival, Terminal V runs twice a year out at the Royal Highland Centre, right by Edinburgh Airport. Run by promoters Nightvision, this year’s Easter all-dayer is being dubbed the ‘New Horizon’ and features the likes of Avalon Emerson, Richie Hawtin, Honey Dijon, Helena Hauff, Octo Octa, KiNK and Shanti Celeste, with stages hosted by Bonobo and Green Velvet. terminalv.co.uk

The Great Eastern Various Venues, Edinburgh, 9 May Glasgow’s inaugural Great Western Festival was a roaring success and huge amounts of fun, so we’re pretty chuffed promoters 432 Presents are throwing a similarly excellent multi-venue affair at the other end of the M8. The line-up so far includes the insanely talented Bristol trio BEAK>, Glasgow power couple Free Love, cowboy post-punks Warmduscher, Icelandic experimental artist JFDR and Edinburgh up-and-comers Swim School. thegreateastern.org Photo: Kristian Lam-Clark/ReCompose

Kelburn Garden Party Kelburn Castle, near Largs, 3-6 Jul We love Kelburn Garden Party so much that in 2018 we started helping with its curation, and this year we’re taking over two days of programming – Saturday and Sunday – on the Pyramid Stage with Free Love, Edwin Organ, Squiggles, Slime City, Swim School and Moonsoup all already announced. Elsewhere, Kelburn will welcome Max Cooper for a live AV show, Kampire, Alabaster dePlume and DJ Paulette. kelburngardenparty.com

March 2020 — Festivals

Doune the Rabbit Hole Port of Menteith, Stirlingshire, 1719 Jul While there are lots of child and family friendly festivals taking place in Scotland, Doune is one of the best. With a huge area dedicated to kids and a whole host of shenanigans for you to get up to, your day running around being a giant kid with your kids can be capped off with a good ol’ dance to the likes of the legendary Martha Reeves and the Vandellas or those loveable scamps Belle & Sebastian. dounetherabbithole.co.uk

Fly Open Air Hopetoun House, near South Queensferry, 16-17 May Peggy Gou, DJ Koze, Nastia flyflyfly.co.uk

Jupiter Rising

Knockengorroch

Knockengorroch World Ceilidh Carsphairn Hills, Kirkcudbrightshire, 21-24 May Afro Celt Sound System, Shooglenifty, Mungo’s Hi-Fi knockengorroch.org.uk

Fly Open Air

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Eden Festival Raehills, Nr. Moffat, Dumfries & Galloway, 11-14 Jun Little Dragon, Akala, Gilles Peterson edenfestival.co.uk Photo: Stevie Powers

Photo: James Gourlay

Stag & Dagger Various Venues, Edinburgh, 2 May; Glasgow, 3 May Ghostpoet, Just Mustard, Dream Wife facebook.com/StagAndDaggerGlasgow

Jupiter Rising Jupiter Artland, Wilkieston, nr. Edinburgh, 29-30 Aug If there’s a better way to say TTFN to a busy month in Edinburgh than leaving the city to immerse yourself in music, art and cultural diversity, then we don’t know it. Housed in the stunning grounds of Jupiter Artland, this year welcomes music from Auntie Flo, Free Love, Penelope Isles, Hen Ogledd and SHHE, while elsewhere there’re artist-led workshops, performance and moving image. Bliss. jupiterrising.art

Photo: Douglas Robertson

Photo: Allan Lewis Just Mustard

Doune the Rabbit Hole

Riverside

Photo: Aly Wight

Photo: Stevie Powers Kelburn Garden Party

Photo: Anna Wachsmuth

Photo: James Gourlay Terminal V

Swim School

Riverside Festival Riverside Museum, Glasgow, 23-24 May In Glasgow, if you like the idea of a rave on the banks of the Clyde then Riverside Festival have you covered with their gargantuan 2020 line-up. Taking place on the bank holiday weekend, Disclosure, Amelie Lens, Call Super and Afrodeutsche are among the DJ line-up, with live sets expected from Floating Points, Slam (Hybrid) and Fatima Yamaha, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. riversidefestivalglasgow.com

Eden Festival

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Outwith Scotland

Kelly Lee Owens

Photo: Ásgeir Helgi

Photo: Francesca Sara Cauli

Photo: Lucas Sinclair

Iceland Airwaves Reykjavík, Iceland, 4-7 Nov If you’ve dreamed of visiting the stunning landscapes of Iceland, going during Reykjavík’s Iceland Airwaves festival could be just the ticket. Day trips to the Blue Lagoon followed by live music in the evenings from the likes of Metronomy, Courtney Barnett, local girl gang Daughters of Reykjavík, and Glasgow gal Chlobocop, is our idea of heaven. NB: Airwaves was the first Keychange festival to achieve gender parity. Gaun yersel! icelandairwaves.is

Lovebox Gunnersby Park, London, 1214 Jun Robyn, FKA twigs, Tyler, the Creator loveboxfestival.com

NOS Alive Oeiras, Lisbon, Portugal, 8-11 Jul Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish nosalive.com

Lovebox

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Photo: Burak Cingi

Photo: Lara Maysa

NOS Alive

End of the Road Larmer Tree Gardens, Wiltshire, 3-6 Sep Pixies, Angel Olsen, Big Thief endoftheroadfestival.com

End of the Road

March 2020 — Festivals

Bluedot

Iceland Airwaves

Photo: Nuno Conceicao

Photo: Ben Houdijk

Best Kept Secret Beekse Bergen, Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands, 12-14 Jun The National, The Strokes, Weyes Blood bestkeptsecret.nl

Wide Awake Brockwell Park, London, 5 Jun With its slick branding, exceptional line-up and low cost ticket price, London’s Wide Awake festival has us sat bolt upright! An outrageous list of mega cool people are behind this one, including some of the original founders of Field Day and Dimensions festivals, and for its inaugural year Metronomy, black midi, Minimal Violence, Marie Davidson (DJ), Crack Cloud, Snapped Ankles, Squid and Girl Band are all set to play. wideawakelondon.co.uk

Bluedot Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, 23-26 Jul In its relatively short existence, Bluedot has had an unwaveringly strong run at top notch line-ups, and for their fifth outing, by continuing to combine music with science and art, they offer something unique in the music festival sphere. For 2020, they’ve a UK exclusive in Björk, who’ll perform a special orchestral show, with Róisín Murphy, Anna Meredith and Melt Yourself Down also set to appear, and so much more besides. discoverthebluedot.com

Beaches Brew Marina di Ravenna, Italy, 8-11 Jun What’s that? There’s a free entry festival taking place on the coast of Italy, right across the water from Croatia, just an hour from Bologna and only two hours from Venice? While it is hard to believe, we promise you it’s no word of a lie. And what’s more, for a free festival, their line-up is exceptional with Savages frontwoman Jehnny Beth, Les Amazones D’Afrique, Otoboke Beaver and Jessica Pratt all set to play this year. beachesbrew.com

Best Kept Secret

Metronomy

Music

Photo: Kim Hiorthøy

Tremor Sao Miguel Island, Azores, 31 Mar-4 Apr If you google ‘Sao Miguel Island’ we promise your jaw will quite literally drop to the floor. When you realise you can go there for a music festival to watch Anna Meredith, Kathryn Joseph, Vanishing Twin and Warmduscher, be prepared to say bye to your bottom jaw for quite some time. This can’t be real, you’ll think to yourself, but believe us, it is very very real. An experimental festival, with interactive shows on a beautiful island. Sign. Us. Up. tremor-pdl.com

Beaches Brew

Photo: Paula Bennett

Photo: Carlos Brummelo Tremor

Pitchfork Berlin Tempodrom, Berlin, Germany, 8-9 May If you’re anything like us you’ll have been drooling over Pitchfork’s recent line-up announcement for their Chicago festival, quickly doing the maths to see if it’s feasible or utterly ridiculous. If it’s the latter, you’ll be pleased to hear they’ve launched this Berlin version which, like their autumnal Paris leg, is much closer to home and includes Lianne La Havas, Kelly Lee Owens and Nadine Shah in its line-up. pitchforkmusicfestival.de

THE SKINNY

Dub Be Good To Me As festivals get ready to celebrate weighty bass music around the world, we sit down with the Scottish branch of sound system culture to find out more

Five more sound system festivals to check out International Dub Gathering

L’Aldea, Spain, 2-4 Apr Jah Shaka, Aba Shant-i, Iration Steppas ft. Dennis Rootikal internationaldubgathering.com NASS Festival

Shepton Mallet, Nr. Bristol, UK, 9-12 Jul Chase & Status, Kurupt FM, Stefflon Don nassfestival.com

Boomtown Fair

“Wherever you go in the world, you will find a sound system” Chris Knight But it took longer for sound systems to emerge en masse in Scotland. Wee Dub Festival throws its tenth edition in Edinburgh this month (13-15 Mar), marking a decade since its founder Gregory Lapinski sought to fill a void in the capital. “In Edinburgh you had Messenger Sound System and in Glasgow you had

Matterley Estate, Winchester, UK, 12-16 Aug Wu-Tang Clan, Damian ‘Jr Gong’ Marley, Andy C boomtownfair.co.uk

Mungo's Hi Fi Soundsystem

Mungo’s Hi Fi, and that’s kind of all there was,” says Knight. “But further afield, Outlook was taking off, dubstep was massive, and that meant a whole new generation was discovering dub and reggae music. It was off the back of that Wee Dub started.” It’s a big year for Outlook too. Having thrown its final 15,000 strong party at Croatia’s Fort Punta Christo in 2019, this summer it’s punting a back-to-basics approach, rebranding as Outlook Origins (30 Jul-3 Aug) and moving to a more intimate venue, The Garden in Tisno. Thirteen curators – including Goldie, Storm, Mala, and Mungo’s Hi Fi – have been tasked with bringing sound system culture’s underground sounds to the fore. “It brings it back to the crews that have been there since the beginning,” says Doug Paine, co-founder of Mungo’s Hi Fi. “I think they’ve realised that people go for the underground music and there’s enough people interested in just that to make it work.” Outlook’s downsizing recalls the question that haunts sound system culture as it gains popularity – can it stay antiestablishment, or will the passage of time and growing commercialism dilute its anarchical history? “It is still political but not in terms of you could sum it up in a manifesto,” says Paine. “I’ve felt that it was important for us to be able to earn a living from doing the music. If you look at the ecosystem of the music industry, in the last 20 years medium-sized companies have been blown away as their business models are unsustainable. I think it’s important to repopulate the ecosystem with small and mid-sized companies that can be more innovative with the music they make, and hopefully more genuine and less shareholder driven. In that sense, I don’t think that some of the commercialism that’s been brought into sound system culture is necessarily a bad thing.” “I think there is a core message in reggae, even the most party-orientated sound system music, which is love and respect,” says Knight. “For me, a big part of it is getting people together who wouldn’t otherwise be together, to listen to Outlook Origins music with a message and to have a good time.” Photo: Nicholas Leer

March 2020 — Festivals

Let It Roll

Forum Karlín, Prague, Czech Republic, 30 Jul-1 Aug Pendulum, Fabio & Grooverider, Mantra letitroll.eu

rom dub to jungle, hip-hop to drum’n’bass, reggae is the beating heart in some of the most impactful music across the world’s four corners. Helping to drive its immeasurable legacy has been an ever growing many-legged beast, which we call sound system culture. “Wherever you go in the world, you will find a sound system,” says Chris Knight, co-producer of Wee Dub Festival. “They operate independently but also as part of a wider network, almost like a brotherhood. There’s a respect between people who maintain the tradition of the sound system but represent different styles of music within that.” The basic tenets of that tradition date back to at least the 1950s, famously emerging in the sound clashes between reggae crews in the streets of Jamaica and spreading to London via the Windrush. But their legacy arguably stretches back further. The griot, a storyteller and social commentator in West African oral traditions, has been named a predecessor of the deejay, who speaks rhythmically, or ‘toasts’, over the reggae beat. They rose again in New York, where rappers and DJs spinning hip-hop records threw their first parties, and later in cities across the UK, where MCs spat bars over hardcore and jungle.

Photo: Ben Daure

Music

Interview: Becca Inglis

Rototom Sunsplash

Benicàssim, Spain, 16-22 Aug Line-up TBC rototomsunsplash.com

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THE SKINNY

March 2020

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THE SKINNY

The Troubles I’ve Seen

The Skinny’s Best Scottish Short Films of the Decade Exchange & Mart

Cara Connolly, Martin Clark; 2014 Teenagers at an all-girls’ boarding school in the Highlands prepare for unwanted male attention with the help of their intense self-defence instructor.

A highlight of this year’s Glasgow Short Film Festival looks to be its Barbed Wire Love season. Mariah Garnett, director of season opener Trouble, tells us more about the project

The Golden Bird

Interview: Eleanor Capaldi

Monkey Love Experiments

Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson; 2014 Stop-motion/live-action hybrid about a misguided lab monkey who believes he’s destined to travel into space after seeing a TV report on the 60s space race. !!! Piping Hot !!!

Trouble

performs the footage in today’s Belfast. There is a sense of desire – a need – to close a physical gulf, having not seen each other since she was a toddler. Garnett says the re-enactment approach had “an immediate impact on me and I did feel I understood him better by doing that.” She continues, “Of course… the stakes of me walking down the street in drag after an Orange march in 2015 were much lower than my dad doing the same in 1971, but I think I understood something about him in a physical way from being in the place.” As a process, it found Garnett reaching for understanding at greater lengths, “trying to drum up fear in my own body that I wouldn’t have gotten from just talking to him about it.” Studying at CalArts, Garnett’s previous documentaries include Picaresques, Encounters I May Or May Not Have Had With Peter Berlin and Full Burn. What unites Garnett’s approach is an openness to experimentation. “I like to try a bunch of different things, and they usually all end up in the end product.” Most of these experiments have ended up in the final cut. The initial vision is fairly regular; documentary is as documentary does, but it’s the process, “where things get weird and then the challenge for me is putting all these disparate elements together.” We see Belfast from Garnett’s perspective, new to the complexities wound within the city, as she plays out her dad’s journeys from those

times. Beforehand, Garnett purposefully didn’t find out too much, “because I had some kind of vague notion that I would somehow metaphysically feel the history of the place by standing in it.” She wasn’t wrong but it didn’t feel particularly abstract. She elaborates: “the history of Belfast is very much alive in the present day.” In her time there, Garnett meets residents, attends marches and gets to meet (some) family. “In every taxi, every pub, in the graffiti, the signage, flowerpots on peoples’ porches, the way certain roads are pronounced, even the bus routes – the legacy of the conflict is very much present.” Garnett shares with us the process of relationship building, history finding, and making sense of things. Since Trouble’s making, Garnett reflects on what it’s like to put so much into your work. “It can be scary to dedicate so much… to a thing without knowing if it’s going to resonate with anyone else,” she says. “When I finished it, I cared a lot about if it would resonate with my dad and with folks in Belfast.” Speaking of her dad, a crucial reviewer, this documentary is up his street. “He liked it!” confirms Garnett. “He said, ‘Oh my darling what a wonderful film you’ve made.’ That was a real relief!” Trouble screens at Glasgow Short Film Festival (18-22 Mar) as part of Barbed Wire Love, CCA, Glasgow, 20 Mar

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Rory Alexander Stewart; 2017 In the wake of their grandfather’s death, a pair of siblings resurrect the family tradition of ‘Soupy Sundays’ and record it on granddad’s camcorder for [sic] prosperity. Pulse

Ruth Paxton; 2014 Director Ruth Paxton and composer Dobrinka Tabakova join forces for this Glasgow noir, which gives a whirling impression of two bodies trying to find a connection. Rubber Guillotine

Bryan M Ferguson; 2016 An anarchic 17-year-old girl’s ambition is to just chill in a fridge as a lime green jelly. Salt & Sauce

Alia Ghafar; 2017 Between serving up battered sausages at the local chippy and taking photographs of her customers, a young woman tries to figure out what the hell to do with her life. Spectators

Ross Hogg; 2013 A day at the fitbaw is vividly brought to life in this expressive animation rendered in watercolour and crayon. Tumult

Johnny Barrington; 2012 Past and present collide as a tribe of Norse warriors traipse across the Highlands, only to encounter other outdoor adventurers. All of the above shorts will screen as part of GSFF, CCA, Glasgow, 3:30pm, 21 Mar

March 2020 — Feature

rouble starts with memories. We’re introduced to a 17-yearold David and his then-girlfriend. They’re both appearing in a 1971 BBC documentary, ostensibly about a couple finding love across faith divides in Belfast. David now lives in Vienna and hasn’t returned to his hometown since he was a young man. Filmmaker Mariah Garnett recounts meeting him as an adult for the first time at 27, father and daughter having communicated by letter for much of their lives. The documentary evolved in parallel with Other & Father, a gallery show Garnett opened in Belfast. She explains, “I was always envisioning a feature film, and I made Other & Father very early in that process.” Strands of the film displayed in the show include archive footage of David from the BBC documentary, Garnett’s diary entries written on the walls, and what goes on to become one of Trouble’s central conceits, Garnett performing as her father. Early on, Garnett films David watching his appearance in the BBC documentary for the first time, decades later; “this is not my aunt,” he says partly to his daughter, and partly to the film. Placing herself in the documentary, Garnett reminds viewers that we are watching something constructed. We are reminded to be critical of what is perceived as trustworthy or neutral, as the subjectivity of its maker is foregrounded. “That has nothing to do with me,” David comments, as footage from almost 50 years before shows him loping down certain streets and murals, as if he did. Garnett suggests her interest in dismantling some kind of monolithic “truth” told by a revered institution, “stems from the way the history of queer people has been told (or, more accurately, not told).” Trouble doesn’t just aspire to ‘walk in another’s shoes’. Garnett puts on the suit, sports her dad’s haircut of the 70s and re-enacts his original scenes. David’s voice from the first documentary is heard as Garnett

Film

Cat Bruce; 2011 Beautifully crafted stop-motion adventure based on the Brothers Grimm story following a boy whose pursuit of a golden owl takes him on an otherworldly adventure.

THE SKINNY

Accessibility in Comedy Comedy

We speak with comics Tim Renkow and Rosie Jones ahead of Glasgow Comedy Festival about accessibility in the comedy industry Interview: Emma Sullivan

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

25 Mar-19 Apr Like the Edinburgh Fringe but with more predictable weather (Oliver Coleman, Mawaan Rizwan, Jessica Fostekew) Machynlleth Comedy Festival

1-3 May Said ‘Ma-cunt-lith’, you heard (AMusical, Beth Vyse, Jain Edwards) Brighton Fringe

Latitude

Henham Park, Suffolk, England 16-19 Jul Excellent music line-up AND always excellent comedy line-up (Simon Amstell, Flo and Joan, Kerry Godliman) Leith Comedy Festival

23-25 Oct Brand new for this year (Line-up TBC)

Photo: JIKSAW

March 2020 — Festivals

1-31 May Sorry to disappoint you, the beach is full of pebbles. (Evelyn Mok, Liam Withnail, Tues Night @ Social Club)

osie Jones and Tim Renkow may have very different comedy styles, but both share a delight in subverting cultural expectations of disability, while insisting upon their reality as flawed human beings. Jones introduces herself as ‘a triple threat’, proclaiming gleefully: “I’m disabled, I’m gay and I’m a prick”. Meanwhile, Tim Renkow, in a wry reference to the effects of his cerebral palsy, is a self-styled ‘jerk’, and in his BBC Three show of the same name, he exploits his disability to get away with all manner of bad behaviour. For both comedians, the cultural representation of people with disabilities is improving, albeit very slowly. Both agree that we are still in the early stages of the development of disabled civil rights, and given that disability is something many able-bodied people have very little experience of a basic level of exposure is still required. Jones points to the 2012 Paralympics as a watershed moment when disability was granted visibility and started being seen in a more positive way, less something “people couldn’t understand” or “to be pitied or patronised”. And Lee Ridley’s success on Britain’s Got Talent in 2018. was also massive. For many, “the first disabled person they’d seen on TV.” Beyond mere exposure, both instances also showcased undeniable skill and Renkow suggests that comedy specifically is “a good shorthand” for broadcasting a simple statement. “I’m clever... clever enough to make a well-crafted joke,” he says. Furthermore, comedy also offers a way of performing a certain resilience or robustness, which counters preconceptions of fragility and defies the conventional narrative of disability as tragic or traumatic. However, we should be wary of situating comedy as the crucible of cultural change, given how slow moving it is as an industry. Jones describes the laborious process of getting to ‘known’ status and how “we won’t see the ripples of, say, me or Lee Ridley for a few years yet.” Stand-up also has a notorious issue with inaccessible venues – a topic which exasperates Jones, who describes the persistence of the lack of accessibility as “staggering”. Renkow is more sanguine, however. “Stand-up is a guerrilla artform,” and perhaps not much can be done without destroying that ad hoc quality. He cites a statistic that only 40% of Edinburgh’s venues are accessible, and argues that “for the way that city is built, that’s Rosie Jones quite impressive. — 32 —

Photo: Tim Renkow

Five more comedy festivals we’re looking forward to

People are trying.” Both comedians are nervous about being role models. Up until now, Jones has embraced it fully and says that it makes her so happy if she’s able to inspire other disabled people. That quest is partly what fuels her extraordinary work ethic – the panel shows, the podcasts, the TV writing, the stand-up – as she grasps every opportunity that comes her way. “[It] gets a bit heavy for me,” she says. “I worry that when I am on TV or radio I have to Tim Renkow speak for all disabled people, and that is such a daunting thing because I don’t speak for all disabled people, I speak for me.” Her upcoming BBC Radio 4 series, Rosie Jones, Boxticker – out in April – explores precisely the impossibility of representing “all disabled people, all women, all gay people.” Studiedly less high-profile, Renkow echoes her concern about being representative, and clearly has little appetite for the same degree of cultural engagement. He’s enjoying the recognition though, to a degree. The only real downside is the difficulty in judging the right response to people who address him on the street. Is it ‘thank you, glad you like my work’ or ‘no, I’m not homeless and I don’t need the change’? Both comedians are clearly pleased by their deserved success. Renkow, with a new series of Jerk just starting rehearsals, says with some perplexity, “I keep setting myself goals that I feel are too ambitious and then I keep achieving them.” While Jones’ enthusiasm and joy is a delight to behold. “I’m living my dream,” she says. While clearly there’s much more to be done in order to reach the point where disability is a social irrelevance, there are glimpses of it here and there, and Jones mentions the relief of a recent panel show when her disability was barely referenced, because “it just wasn’t relevant”. The ultimate dream. Tim Renkow Tries to Punch Down, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, 28 Mar Jerk is currently available to watch on BBC iPlayer Rosie Jones: Backward, Blackfriars Basement, Glasgow, 15 Mar Rosie Jones’ Box Ticker Radio 4 show will be available to listen to from April

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March 2020

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Local Heroes

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Design for Music Ahead of the Lunchtime Gallery launch of her first solo exhibition MUSICA! MUSICA! MUSICA! we speak to graphic designer Raissa Pardini about her twin loves music and design and why she relocated to Glasgow to pursue her career Interview: Stacey Hunter

March 2020 — Feature

irst exhibited at London’s The Social before touring to Milan’s ParcoGallery and Manchester’s Pink, MUSICA! MUSICA! MUSICA! will be on show in the designer’s adopted hometown of Glasgow at The Lunchtime Gallery until 14 March. Pardini’s style is characterised by an experimental approach to traditional typography and lettering forms. The exhibition focuses on her posters for an eclectic mix of bands like IDLES, Squid, The Orielles and Snapped Ankles featuring retro patterns and colourful detail. The posters have been organised differently in each city to maximise the benefits of each unique location. In Milan’s exhibition in the ParcoGallery, the first graphic design exhibition space in the city, all of her posters were organised closely next to one another forming what Pardini calls “A sort of propagandistic wall of adverts. Manchester was extremely cool as we saw an opportunity to use a listed space in the heart of the city with big walls, huge windows and an incredible industrial view. Glasgow is next up and I’m so excited to work alongside Lunchtime gallery – an incredible space connected to the amazing Good Press in the Saltmarket. They work hard on grassroots artists. Lunchtime has a unique layout so expect big posters and big letters all around. Colours will be bright and so will the messages!” The energetic Italian began designing at an early age, studying graphic design from the age of 13 – she recalls discovering music at the same time. “They immediately became two worlds that needed to run next to each other for me. Monday to Friday was to study hard and weekends were for — 34 —

bands and gigs. However I soon needed a bigger city to challenge me and the European Institute of Design in Milan was famous for allowing you to work alongside real creatives. I moved there from a small town and did my studies in Visual Arts and Graphic Design for the next three years.” After a short stint working in Berlin, Pardini spent six years in London where she threw herself into music. “I was working in record shops, hosting a radio show, touring with my band and DJing around London and having a good time!” She began working for Music Sales Group, the biggest music publisher in the world, but working for studios and companies left her cold. “I was only able to give them 20% of my creativity when I wanted to give them everything I had inside. London played a major role in starting my career, it introduced me to the right people, but London didn’t show me who I was as a designer.” After visiting Glasgow a few times with her band she decided to move here and make design her focus. “Moving to Glasgow was the best thing that could have ever happened to my career. Freedom comes from many things: affording a studio, a space for yourself, a little home where you go and produce things that need to come out of your brain. Being able to afford a space is crucial for an artist. Limitations are barriers to ideas and London is a city full of limits. Glasgow made me feel free and took away the anxiety and pressure I had. Glasgow turned the risk into excitement. I’ll always owe this city for giving me this; my best work was to follow and I felt like a real designer for the first time!”

THE SKINNY

Local Heroes Photo: Matteo Girola

March 2020 — Feature

“Glasgow’s community is so strong and you notice such a big difference in people as soon as you come out of Central Station. The design community is very individual and there are amazing studios all around the city. Ed and Kerr at Cause & Effect took me under their wings from the beginning. Their constant support shaped me as a designer and as the person I am behind projects. Their massive success at the latest Scottish Design Awards made me so proud of what they can create and reach.” Pardini is passionate about the role public exhibitions play in instilling confidence in designers as well as demonstrating the cultural value of design. “When designers and artists are given the chance to build their own vision for an exhibition, they can finally show the world what they’ve been up to, make their work tangible, being seen and felt by many people from many walks of life. Not just curators or art writers. Exhibitions make people think, and reformulate contexts, meanings, opinions. Exhibitions help us to question ourselves culturally. And since design is in everything – and it seems difficult to explain what it does – putting up design exhibitions is so significant.” The Lunchtime Gallery opens between Tuesdays and Saturdays, 11am-6pm or by appointment. The A1 posters on display are on sale and can be also reprinted by commissions. Some special riso-printed A3 posters will be available to purchase raissapardini.com

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THE SKINNY

Skate to the Party We helped welcome The Loading Bay skatepark to North Glasgow last month – here’s a recap of the night

veryone loves a housewarming – invite some friends round, have a few drinks, get some good tunes on and show everyone around your new digs. That was the idea behind our party at The Loading Bay last month, throwing a showcase night for Glasgow’s first indoor skatepark. The new 30,000 square foot skatepark in Port Dundas – the result of a collaboration between Scottish Canals and the world-renowned skatepark builders at Vision Ramps – is a new hub for the skate scene in Glasgow, so we were more than happy to help welcome them to the neighbourhood. Here’s what happened...

March 2020

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Photos: Alice Meikle

The venue The Loading Bay makes the most of its hefty square-footage – there’s a bespoke 60-foot skate bowl, a modular area for skaters to create their own obstacles and skate runs, and a reduced-risk practice area that includes a trampoline and foam pit. It’s one of the centrepieces of Scottish Canals’ regeneration plans for North Glasgow, and among The Loading Bay’s plans to make the park as accessible as possible is a scheme that offers free skating to young people from low-income areas in the north of the city. Skaters simply sign in with their postcode on a tablet device at the park – if they qualify for a discount, it’s discreetly offered there and then. — 36 —

THE SKINNY

The Loading Bay, 100 Borron Street, Port Dundas, G4 9XE

The skating The music proved to be an excellent background for the clicks, clacks and occasional thumps of the skaters making the most of the city’s first indoor skatepark. A collection of top-level skaters pulled some spectacular tricks for a watching crowd that included BMX legend Danny MacAskill, while plenty of Glasgow’s skate community took the opportunity to carve around the park as the party continued around them. There were a few scrapes and tumbles, but as a showcase of what The Loading Bay can offer the city’s skaters, it was hard to argue with.

Open 10am-10pm, 7 days a week theloadingbayglasgow.com

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March 2020

Thank You You can’t throw a party without a bit of help, so we want to say a big thank you to the following people: Scottish Canals, The Loading Bay, Glasgow City Council, Banditti Club Rum and The Glasgow Distillery, Innis & Gunn, and Red Bull. Thanks to Nightwave, VAJ. Power, AISHA and Bessa for DJing, and Wee Moe for running the sound, and thanks to everyone who came down on a chilly Saturday night.

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The refreshments Keeping the party hydrated were a pair of our favourite Scottish drinks brands. The Glasgow Distillery were on hand with their Banditti Club Rum, spiced and matured just a few miles from The Loading Bay, while Innis & Gunn brought down a selection of their brilliant beers. The fine folk at Red Bull also came through with the energy kick that’s needed after an evening of skating (or watching other people skate).

The music On the decks were a collection of Glasgow’s most exciting DJs. Heading things up was the fantastic Maya Medvesek, aka Nightwave, bringing the genre-defying sounds of her Nightrave parties to The Loading Bay. Nightwave was ably assisted in keeping the party going by a trio of selectors – VAJ.Power’s Sofya Staune, AISHA and Bessa.

THE SKINNY

Protest Poetry As thousands of university workers across the country go on strike, we take a look at the outpouring of creative projects being produced as part of the protest

March 2020 — Feature

Intersections

Interview: Anahit Behrooz Illustration: Jacky Sheridan

t’s a familiar story to anyone involved in contemporary academia: precarious, short-term contracts are propping up the UK’s entire higher education system. According to University and College Union (UCU), 46% of British universities use zero-hour contracts to deliver teaching, with 68% of staff on fixed term contracts, often undertaking hundreds of hours of work that they are not paid for. This current university strike is the third to take place in two years, and the second in four months. It is also the first which does not directly affect me. After teaching two years, four courses and 12 classes at the University of Edinburgh, my contract expired in January and I was told it wouldn’t be renewed. This casualisation of labour and its impact on the ever-widening gender and race pay gap is one of the cornerstones of the UCU strikes. The other surrounds pensions and protests a model that would see lecturers pay on average £40,000 more into their pension only to receive £200,000 less over the course of their retirement. These issues don’t even encompass the concerns of overworked and underpaid administrative and public service

staff, many of whom don’t earn above the threshold to be eligible for UCU representation. Meanwhile, student fees are rising, class sizes are increasing and student satisfaction – itself an absurdly consumerist metric – is at an all-time low. This capitalist position is one that is fundamentally incompatible with the university as a space of learning, according to UCU Scotland Vice President, Lena Wånggren. “To me, education is a civic good, a means of liberation and collective change,” explains Wånggren. “But when functioning according to the market logics of neoliberal capitalism, the main goal of education becomes not education itself, but profit.” It’s a system that benefits neither staff nor students with young people paying £9000 a year, if not more, to be pushed through a programme that is structurally set up to disregard their education. This understanding between staff and students – that they are on the same side of the fight – led to the creation of the Staff-Student Solidarity Network at the University of Edinburgh during the 2019 strike, with members of the network staging an occupation of David Hume Tower and publishing a zine called ‘Another University is Possible,’ one of numerous creative responses to the unfair working conditions in British universities. “I really believe in archives and tangible objects,” explains one of the student organisers behind the network. “We wanted to show that there is another way to think about the university, that there is a counter narrative.” Filled with collages, articles and photos protesting casualisation and exploitation – many addressed directly to University of Edinburgh Principal, Peter Mathieson, who was infamously paid £26,000 in moving fees (including his pets) – the zine is a vibrant, emotive expression of radical anger, made using print credit offered by various tutors, a credit that often amounts to twice their monthly teaching income. — 38 —

A similar project took place on the picket lines at the University of Glasgow. On Being Used was a zine edited by the University of Glasgow’s Sophie Collins, Kirsty Dunlop, Jane Goldman, Colin Herd and Maria Sledmere. A collection of cutouts and poems contributed by both staff and students, each page is a virulent protest against the precarity, privatisation and commodification that defines the modern university.

“The zine is a gesture of friendship, curiosity and play – it’s a statement of solidarity” Maria Sledmere “For me, creative projects have both a social and educational function, in the sense that they can bring a wider cohort of people up to speed on crucial issues around the strike, but also their collaborative, anthologising nature means that numerous voices can be brought together,” Sledmere explains, pointing to zines as a particular tool for personal protest. “The zine feels like the ideal medium for voicing precarity and holding your rights and needs collectively. It’s a gesture of friendship, curiosity and play – it’s a statement of solidarity.” Nell Osborne, a researcher at the University of Manchester, agrees with the radical potential of zines and their potency in strike action. Along with Hilary White, Osborne co-edits Academics Against Networking, a creative challenge to the institutionalisation of knowledge and community at universities. “I think zine culture is a particularly useful site for supporting workers’ struggles since it developed indirect antagonism to ideas of institutional knowledge, taste, legitimacy, value and circulation. Zines seem particularly important in the context of the university: they don’t acknowledge structures of hierarchy, exclusivity or bureaucracy.” The collective anger behind these zines throws into sharp, heartbreaking relief the extent to which our current higher education model is failing both students and staff alike. Yet these astonishingly innovative, daring works, built into the fabric of the UCU strikes, also reveal the possibility of another, imagined university based on community, care and knowledge as liberation. It’s the university where students – victims of yet another tuition fee hike – deserve to go and the university where my peers and I have always dreamed of teaching. As with all industrial action, these strikes are a step towards making it a reality. For more information, visit www.ucu.org.uk

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This Must Be The Place Gentrification may seem relentless, but, after years of new artisan cafes and rising rent prices, Govanhill is still pushing back. We speak to some local businesses about how a focus on community has been integral to combatting gentrification Words: Katie Dibb Illustration: Rachel Tunstall Intersections

conflict that MILK relies on visitors to support the local community, Morna who runs the cafe says: “I don’t think that deflects from our desire to be a community organisation, and particularly the migrant and refugee community.” Indeed, a major reason these new customers are attracted to the cafe is because of MILK’s community work that includes free sewing classes and pottery workshops. People want to support the cafe because they want to support integration within Govanhill’s community.

“Gentrification is like pornography: ‘you can always tell what it is when you see it’” Speaking to Jim Monagham, the Arts Coordinator for Govanhill Baths, he agrees with many that Govanhill has a unique relationship to gentrification. “It’s one of the few places that seems to be resisting it,” he muses. “Only the public sector is building housing and millions are being spent to buy back property from the private to the public sector, meaning rent and house prices are not rising like elsewhere. As an area we are bucking the trend.” However, despite Monagham’s very welcome positivity, there is concern around the regulation of housing associations which are separate — 39 —

entities from the government. Particularly, the rise of mid-level housing, for example the Housing Association and Southside Letting, which only advertise at those with a household income between £15,000–37,000. Is this a way of getting a diverse range of clientele renting in social housing or is it a step towards developing a more profitable market? Although affordable, public owned housing is an important aspect in offsetting the effects of gentrification, it’s not a complete solution. Speaking to displaced former residents of gentrified areas, there is a common recurrence of the psychologically isolating results of gentrification. Community owned housing helps allow current residents to stay in the area but it doesn’t offer comfort in seeing a once familiar locale changing. That’s why businesses such as MILK cafe, LGBTQ+ bookshop Category is Books and Govanhill Baths, all of which have community-minded intentions, are so important, as spaces where both locals and visitors from further afield can come together. This is where some responsibility begins to lie with the individual, especially newcomers, to support organisations that have community at their heart and seek out places that are already integral to the local area. Gentrification is a mammoth beast that relies on institutional change rather than individualism, but we can all still do our bit to do our research, diversify where we spend our money and, on the whole, just try to be a good neighbour.

March 2020 — Feature

lasgow’s Govanhill has a rich history of migration which has made it the most ethnically diverse neighbourhood in Scotland. It has welcomed a regular changing population of migrants: Irish, Jewish, Italian, people from Punjab and other parts of the Indian sub-continent and, most recently, economic migrants from Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania. Govanhill’s seemingly perfect microcosm of creative interest, cheap rent and diversity has made it an especially attractive place for people, like myself, to move to. But with this new insurgence, the inevitable signs of gentrification have arisen, foreshadowing a potential future which could put minorities at risk of displacement. As Pete Saunders wrote, gentrification is like pornography: “you can always tell what it is when you see it.” It is particularly prevalent around Govanhill’s Victoria Road with artisan coffee shops, organic food stores and trendy restaurants continually popping up. However, at the risk of sounding like a baby boomer muttering about hipsters, the tell-tale signs of gentrification are so well-known that it almost feels pointless to keep mentioning them. And it’s also not as simple as a new cafe offering organic oat milk lattes; these visible manifestations are more symptoms than causes of what is a systemic issue. While most people can point to gentrification’s common signs, not many people can explain the source or offer a solution. Often conversations about gentrification can lead to feelings of doom and inevitability, but there are practical ways that the current community of Govanhill is fighting to prevent it. MILK Cafe has been around for nearly five years and has already witnessed many changes in Govanhill. As a self-funded, not-for-profit social enterprise, MILK strives to support the local community, running a timetable of free English classes and informal workshops aimed at refugee and migrant women in the area that don’t rely on language to communicate but still offer an opportunity to practise English. In the early years, business was rough but a growing number of customers meant MILK were able to offer work experience and training to recruited volunteers, some of whom have gone on to be hired as paid staff. Like many of the businesses in Govanhill, MILK relies on revenue from both locals and the influx of visitors to the area. Addressing the

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welcome to the fun haus, acrylic + texture medium,on mounting card, 2019

March 2020 — Feature

Daryl Terri Cooney D

aryl Terri Cooney was born in Dundee and graduated in Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone in 2019. Currently residing in Dundee to develop her practice, she aims to move around the globe in forthcoming years while furthering her work. Along with the RSA New Contemporaries award, she was also selected as a Visual Arts Scotland Graduate Showcase Shortlisted Artist. Her work is on display in Edinburgh at the Royal Scottish Academy’s New Contemporaries exhibition until 11 March. She writes, “Humour, colour and form are the key foundation to my work. I aim to create organised chaos through playful paintings, striving to produce an overbearing image in the hope that it entices the viewer to take their time to observe every element, as opposed to quickly glancing the

work over. My paintings coincide with their titles in ways that most people do not realise as sometimes they do not appear to match up. The title is typically the first decision I make about the painting and it is usually something I find humorous or silly from notes that I am always jotting down. However, sometimes the title evolves as the painting comes into its own being. The paintings rarely have any form of preplanning and are created through a continuous process of changing pattern and intense colour; each stage of the painting is created in reaction to that of the previous.” darylterri.com i: @daryldaryldaryldary

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THE SKINNY

Showcase March 2020 — Feature

Dorris, acrylic + texture medium on woooden board, 2019

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New Perspectives

Edinburgh International Festival. Despite notable achievements and undeniable quality, disabled people remain massively underrepresented across the arts, with Creative Scotland recognising ‘employment of disabled people in [its] funded organisations is low’. Given the fact that disabled people are much more likely to live in poverty (50% of all disabled people do), the increasing ‘class ceiling’ of the arts sector also disproportionately affects them. This also extends to criticism and arts journalism. A 2019 report from Ofcom found that only 6% of broadcast journalists identify as disabled, compared to 19% of the working-age population. When we leave out the unique perspectives of a section of society, we are all the poorer for it. Since Disability Arts Online became established in 2004, nurturing, supporting and showcasing the artistic expression and critical engagement of disabled people has been at the heart of what we do. That’s why we’re so excited to be partnering with Creative Scotland and The Skinny to deliver Diverse Critics, a career development programme for four aspiring disabled arts journalists, who will receive a bursary, mentoring, training and publishing opportunities. It is our hope that it will not only enable them to have careers in arts journalism but also help the wider arts sector to diversify the voices that get heard. “Professional arts criticism is an important element of the creative cycle, connecting work in the sector with audiences and providing artists with informed responses to their work,” says Creative Scotland’s Equalities & Diversity Officer, Graham Reid. “As well as the artists and companies creating and presenting new work, it is vital that those critical voices are representative of the diversity within our Thank You Very Much society. This pilot Photo: Hugo Glendinning

Art March 2020 — Feature

eaders of this publication are probably well aware that Scotland is a cultural powerhouse. Home to the ‘world’s biggest arts festival’ (Edinburgh Fringe, obviously), not to mention Glasgow International, the new V&A in Dundee… we could go on and on. You may be less versed in the fact it also boasts some of the world’s leading Disability Arts talent. Historically, Disability Arts has been intertwined with the Disability Rights Movement, which fought for human rights and equality for disabled people, particularly in the 80s and 90s, culminating in the Disability Discrimination Act in 1995. Today it encompasses work across art forms practised by disabled artists, bringing their own unique perspectives and aesthetics to work, often with a social or political aspect. We know it’s a space where some of the most exciting and innovative work is being made. Flying the flag for Scotland are a slew of artists and companies including learning-disabled theatre company Lung Ha, Deaf theatre company Solar Bear, learning-disability arts organisation Project Ability, Deaf theatre-maker Ramesh Meyyappan and integrated dance company Indepen-dance. Choreographer Claire Cunningham and theatre company Birds of Paradise are two leading proponents of Disability Arts, regularly touring and mentoring internationally. Last year, Cunningham’s Thank You Very Much debuted at Manchester International Festival (before coming to Glasgow, then Germany), whilest Birds of Paradise played to sell-out crowds with Purposeless Movements at

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Photo: Hugo Glendinning

Diverse Critics is a new programme delivered in a partnership between The Skinny, Creative Scotland and Disability Arts Online. It will develop the careers of four aspiring arts journalists based in Scotland. Disability Arts Online’s Editor Colin Hambrook and Assistant Editor Joe Turnbull introduce the programme and the need for fresh perspectives across the arts and cultural scene

Thank You Very Much

project aims to help remove some of the barriers met by emerging disabled writers, but is also about recognising the value of a rich diversity of perspective for readers, audiences and artists.” The artists themselves are also well aware of the value of criticism. “For a long time art by disabled people suffered because it wasn’t subjected to the same level of critique as other work – non-disabled critics felt they lacked the knowledge they needed to discuss the work and didn’t want to offend,” explains Artistic Director of Birds of Paradise, Robert Softley Gale. “There’s a real value in hearing what ‘your people’ think of your work. This scheme – in training more disabled arts journalists – will be crucial in moving all of our work forward.” Cunningham agrees: “It’s always important to hear what people have responded to who are outside of the process and removed from your own circles of friendship, and from those who are seeing a lot of other work. It’s essential that we have disabled critics. It matters to me that disabled critics review my work, partly because I see peer critique as incredibly important. However, it’s also important that disabled critics are reviewing work by non-disabled artists from a lived experience of disability perspective and, if necessary, calling out the ableism.” Some of the articles produced as part of the Diverse Critics programme will grace these pages over the coming months. Prepare to be excited, challenged and entertained. disabilityarts.online

THE SKINNY

Let's Dance While shooting And Then We Danced – a tender romance between two male dancers – in Georgia, director Levan Akin and his cast needed bodyguards. He tells us how love and the music of Robyn helped make a joyous film inspired by hatred Interview: Jamie Dunn

Film

my emotions in front of people I don’t know,” Gelbakhiani tells me. “So it took a while to build up trust.” “For months I was just being with him and his friends, filming them and being around them,” adds Akin. “It was like being an undercover journalist.” This isn’t to say it was all plain sailing between the pair. “Our relationship was really built around trust, but when we started shooting the film, that was when the director in me came out.” Both men laugh knowingly at this. “So we had some tense moments there because he thought I was very strict.” None of this tension is evident on screen. Gelbakhiani’s performance is enchanting – and intensely physical. “You can express so much through your body, so I always tried to use the actors’ physicality as much as I can,” says Akin. The film’s standout scene – perhaps the scene of the year – is one such moment of pure physical expression. It also features a perfect needle drop. “The Robyn scene was a lovely moment,” recalls Akin.”I just had in the script, Merab dances sensually and playfully to Irakli and feels free for the first time in the movie. We tried a bunch of different Robyn songs and Honey had just come out. We put that on and he did that dance in the moment and we just filmed it – the whole movie is like that actually.” This isn’t to suggest Akin’s filmmaking is slapdash. Rather, he was forced to work on the hoof given he was making an LGBTQ film in a culture that is, to say the least, not tolerant of a queer presence. “We couldn’t plan anything,” says Akin. “We didn’t know where we were filming tomorrow because people were constantly blocking us once they got wind of what the film was about. We needed bodyguards!” Despite the open homophobia Akin’s production faced, this violence doesn’t spill on screen, avoiding the old cliché of gay protagonists being somehow punished for their sexuality. “I mean, can you imagine?” he says, grabbing the shoulder of his embarrassed leading man. “People would have hated me if I put them through the agony of falling in love with him only to have him beat up. It would be such a tragedy.” And Then We Danced is released 13 Mar by Peccadillo Pictures

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March 2020 — Feature

hey may be separated by 5000 miles, but Georgian-born Swedish director Levan Akin reckons his home nation and Scotland aren’t too different. “I’ve been there. For the Edinburgh festival! It’s very beautiful,” says Akin excitedly when he clocks my accent as we meet to discuss his exquisite third feature, And Then We Danced. “And it’s so fascinating because both the country of Scotland and the people really look Georgian.” Really? “Totally. He could be Scottish.” Akin is pointing to his lead actor, Levan Gelbakhiani, who looks on sheepishly wearing a bright tangerine hoodie that compliments his curly auburn locks. “It’s not just that both countries have lots of redheads,” laughs Akin. “But it’s also the nature and the sort of topography too.” And Then We Danced concerns the attraction that forms between two male dancers at a Georgian dance company specialising in the country’s folk dance tradition. The men falling for one another are Gelbakhiani’s Merab, a nervy livewire with a smile as wide as the Caspian Sea, and the company’s newest member, Irakli (Bachi Valishvili), who’s so cool he wanders into training on his first day wearing an earring. Such flourishes of personality and self-expression are not tolerated by their stern dance instructor. “This is not the lambada,” he says, reprimanding Merab, whose thrusting hips and florid hand movements break two of the company’s cardinal rules: be chaste (“There is no sex in Georgian dance”), and be hyper-masculine (“You should be like a nail!”). The idea of setting a gay romance in this milieu came to Akin after violent attacks on “It sounds corny, but Tbilisi’s pride parade in 2013. “I was very horrified by what I I just want it to say, saw, and ashamed,” he recalls. ‘Listen, people can love “I live in Sweden, but I’m of Georgia descent, so I said to who they want. Chill’” myself: perhaps I can go to Levan Akin Georgia and do something on this topic.” The inspiration may be born of hate, but the execution is overflowing with joy. “It was really important for me that the film felt like a warm embrace rather than a kick in the stomach,” says Akin, “because I wanted to celebrate love. It sounds corny, but I just want it to say, ‘Listen, people can love who they want. Like, it’s not a big deal. Chill.’” The film succeeds on this front. It’s incredibly tender, thanks in no small part to Gelbakhiani’s balletic, almost feline performance. “I was instantly fascinated by Levin the first time I saw him,” says the director. While the 23-year-old had no experience of acting, he had other qualities to make up for it. “Levan is a dancer himself but he’s also very expressive in his face,” explains Levin. “He has these very subtle changes that the camera picks up.” Gelbakhiani is practically squirming in his seat through Akin’s effusive praise. Their fruitful director-actor collaboration didn’t come easy, though. “For me, it was really difficult to show

March 2020 — Feature

Intersections

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THE SKINNY

The Young Team Inspired by his own experiences in an Airdrie gang, Graeme Armstrong’s debut novel is an instant Scottish classic. We speak to him about the legacies of violence, mental health and Trainspotting

Graeme Armstrong

had stopped using drugs on Christmas Day, 2012, and was in the early stages of drug withdrawal. “I was spending most of my time alone, away from friends, and I was struggling with that,” he says. “I wrote three words down – The Young Team – and I stared at it and thought, ‘this is going to be a film, it’s going to the new Sweet Sixteen’. I realised after 15 minutes on Wikipedia that it was hard to make a film but I started to write the first chapter of The Young Team. I just locked myself away and wrote and wrote and wrote.” Seven years later, Armstrong had his novel but the next challenge was publishing it. Was a story written in Lanarkshire vernacular about gangs a hard sell? “Oh, absolutely,” he laughs. “I did around 300 submissions before I managed to get an agent. People were interested in my story and the authenticity but some were very hesitant to commit to a novel in that dialect.” Despite the success of Irvine Welsh – “the toughest and roughest renderer of dialect I’ve ever read,” states Armstrong – publishers were still unsure if The Young Team could work outside a Scottish market. But the novel’s vernacular isn’t just a stylistic decision, it’s inseparable from Azzy’s – and Armstrong’s – world. “It’s the way I talk, the — 45 —

Graeme Armstrong appears at Waterstones, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, 5 Mar and Aye Write! festival, Glasgow, 12 Mar The Young Team is published 5 Mar by Picador panmacmillan.com/authors/graeme-armstrong/the-youngteam/9781529017328

March 2020 — Feature

veryone has that book. Your absolute favourite, the one that changed everything, blew your world wide open and set you on a new path. For a teenage Graeme Armstrong, that book was Trainspotting. Sitting in English, a classmate suggested Armstrong study Irvine Welsh’s novel for his book report. “I read that book and it transformed my life,” says Armstrong. “The reason I went to university and studied English, and what probably saved my life, was reading Trainspotting.” It’s also the reason why Armstrong is about to publish his debut novel, The Young Team, a work of fiction but very much based on his own experiences in an Airdrie gang as a teenager. The novel follows its protagonist, Azzy, across three turning points in his life: aged 14 and new to gangs, then 17 and struggling with a drug addiction, and finally, aged 21, off drugs and trying to move on. “Me and Azzy are the same person in some respects and in other respects, we’re completely different,” explains Armstrong. “He’s a fictional entity but a mouthpiece for me to narrate my own experiences especially when it comes to violence and mental health and suicide and trauma.” In 2013, Armstrong found himself in a similar position to Azzy at the end of The Young Team. He

way I think and the language of my community.” While its dialect might make The Young Team seem like a story rooted in the specificity of its location, the novel’s exploration of mental health and drug use tells a universal tale of working-class masculinity that’s based on Armstrong’s own experience. “As a teenager, I was a daily drug addict,” he explains. “I would use drugs constantly and struggled with anxiety and panic attacks and my mental health suffered because of it. The legacy of that doesn’t just vanish.” Armstrong admits to being concerned with representing gangs, especially gang violence, but he hopes that The Young Team will encourage conversations about how masculinity, mental health and substance abuse intersect with one another. “I’m sure some people will say I glamourise gang violence and sure, the violence adds drama and pace to the book, but I don’t think the violence is particularly fetishised,” he says. “The novel is about the internal life of Azzy and the alienation of drug addiction and the loneliness of poor mental health amidst a gang conflict. There are lots of young men in the west of Scotland who are wounded by trauma and can’t talk about their feelings. They go on to become violent men, to offend, commit suicide and self-medicate through drugs and alcohol. We see that legacy in the book.” Our conversation comes full circle as Armstrong contemplates how his school days shaped his future, Trainspotting aside. “When I started telling teachers I was going to study English at university it was met with healthy scepticism. One teacher said there was too much reading for someone like me and another told me to just leave school. But I hung on.” Now, with a Masters and publishing deal under his belt, Armstrong is just getting started; he’s already working on a new novel about rave culture. His success points to an institutional change that needs to happen in our education system: if we want to see diverse stories in the literary world, we need to start supporting kids from all backgrounds in the classroom. As Armstrong says, studying Trainspotting changed, and probably saved, his life. It’s also given Scotland a new classic in The Young Team.

Books

Photo: Robin Farquhar-Thomson

“ Lots of young men in the west of Scotland are wounded by trauma and they go on to become violent men, to offend, commit suicide and self-medicate”

Interview: Katie Goh

THE SKINNY

Suddenly I See Dan Snaith, aka Caribou, tells us about his intimate new album, Suddenly

ntil 2010, Dan Snaith was contentedly plodding away making cerebral electronic music, garnering a good amount of critical acclaim but without much mainstream attention. Then he released his third album as Caribou, Swim, and his audience started to expand, paving the way for his most successful release, 2014’s Our Love. Six years on, Suddenly marks a new chapter in the Caribou story, an album that sees Snaith exploring his most personal material yet and using his own voice a lot more, while still retaining a veteran producer’s touch when it comes to sample management and song production. Snaith sings on every song on Suddenly, often without any reverb or effects, bringing the material into sharp focus. “I’ve been getting more comfortable with the sound of my voice over the years and the songs I kept coming back to were more emotionally direct, probably because of the subject matter,” Snaith explains, speaking from his home in London. “The things I was singing about were far more personal and intimate than in the past. “The big things that have happened in my life, with my family and kids – one was born in the back of a car! – these are things that shifted my perspective in an instant,” he continues. As well as the birth of his second daughter, there have also been tragic events, such as deaths and health scares among his close family. Because of this, many of the songs came from more melancholy beginnings than the jubilant compositions may suggest. “Music is so enmeshed in my personal, day-to-day life, so it’s natural for that to be the subject matter. I felt like I needed to write about it; to some degree, it’s therapeutic. It’s nice to have music to turn to, to help make sense of [these things], to feel optimistic and process them. “Often I was in the supportive role, trying to comfort the people that were more directly affected, so some of the songs are written to those people. My role was to be positive, but also the music is doing that for me. I’m going through these things too, and music is always the thing I’ve turned to to bring me joy and happiness, so I think that is always going to be there in the music.” A sense of joyfulness is palpable throughout the album, not just in

Snaith’s hopeful lyricism, but also the sense of freewheeling fun that he has behind the decks. “Right from the start,” he says, “I had the thought: Our Love was the most polished, most digestible version of my music, without being pejorative. It was meant to be shared out in the world as widely as possible, as a big thank you after Swim had kicked off in a way that I didn’t expect. “So I didn’t want to do that again; I can’t push that idea any further,” he continues, “so let’s do the opposite... and emphasise all the eccentricities in

music that I like, and that had a tangible effect. On You and I, for example, the verse and the chorus are from completely different musical worlds, and in the past I probably would have built a bridge, as a producer, from one to the other, so it’s not such an abrupt change. But I was excited about the idea of having those sharp edges sticking out and not messing with them.” A prolific worker, Snaith is continually making music in his home studio and had to pare down the material that would comprise the album from hundreds of pieces of music. One of his “virtual cratedigging” styles might strike some as familiar, but few of us are likely to make our YouTube rabbit holes so productive. “I might end up on a video of some weird record I’d never heard of, then I’ll see that the person has uploaded like 500 songs and I’ll listen through every one, not knowing who this person is or where the music has come from. So I follow threads,” he says. However, this tactic, along with all of the self-produced music Snaith makes, leads to an inevitably gargantuan task of choosing what to cut and what to keep. Snaith is pragmatic, even cheerful, in his approach. “The first stage is fairly easy: out of the maybe 900 ‘songs’ there are 600 to 700 that are obviously not going anywhere,” he says. “They were fun at the time, but after a second listen it’s clear they have nothing to offer. Then there’s always three or four that I know for sure are going to make it, but then there’s a whole bunch in the middle – maybe the top 100 – that I really get lost in. “That’s when I turn to my wife and Kieran [Hebden, aka Four Tet], and their feedback is completely indispensable for that middle ground,” he says. “I’m too close to it to really get a sense of what’s needed or missing.” The level of detail, along with the intimate subject matter, is what makes the album stand out. The final product is much smaller in scope than the broad maximalism of Our Love or Swim, but there’s no shortage of beautiful moments for listeners willing to get lost. Photo: Thomas Neukum

March 2020 — Feature

Clubs

Interview: Lewis Wade

Suddenly is out now via City Slang Caribou plays Barrowlands, Glasgow, 4 Apr caribou.fm — 46 —

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March 2020

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March 2020

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THE SKINNY

Language, loss and land Interview: Eliza Gearty

“I

names of the Torsay region of Mull and what is causing their disappearance. Does he think practices such as non-native tree planting directly threaten the survival of the Gaelic language and music in places like Mull? Photo: Laurence Winram

“Gaelic people understand what extinction is” Evie Waddell “For me, they go hand in hand,” he answers. “One section of the piece focuses on the huge clearance of Glenforsa on the Isle of Mull, for example. There are a few farms at the foot of the Glen, but nobody actually living in the Glen now. We’ve seen people actually being replaced by — 49 —

non-native trees, and these trees being planted on top of ruined settlements. That symbolises everything for me.” How can rural communities fight back against these forces? “There are little things you can do on a local level,” says Waddell. “Mass tree planting...” “Native species, though!” adds Whyte, laughing. For Waddell, theatre is also a form of fighting back. “Theatre is, in my opinion, a different, effective way of protesting,” she says. “It’s a more human way than being on the streets and just shouting – people are more likely to listen.” Whyte hopes that MAIM will be a call to arms, encouraging people to think about what they can do to respect their environment. “We’ve lost that deep connection with the land, that people who sang some of these traditional songs that are in the piece had,” he says. “They were living off it, so they had to have that symbiotic relationship with the land to survive – obviously we don’t have to do that now, and things have changed a lot in terms of what’s available to us. But the more we live sustainably and locally, the better. So hopefully, by raising some of these issues in this piece, we can... not raise awareness, because I think everyone’s aware of it these days – but get people to think a bit more about what they can do.” “I don’t think it’s been discussed as much in Gaelic,” points out Waddell. “Through this project and Gaelic Extinction Rebellion, I’ve learned lots of new terminology, like what the Gaelic is for climate change.” As well as being performed in Gaelic, BSL has been woven into the fabric of MAIM. Waddell identifies as half-deaf and half-hearing, and is performing BSL throughout the show. The piece therefore platforms two Scottish minoritised languages, and is additionally accessible to non-Gaelic speakers. The care that has been put in to MAIM to create a thoughtful, dynamic show – as accessible as possible, and interweaving various artistic mediums – only emphasises how important it is to preserve all art forms and protect all cultures from extinction. “Mono-linguism and mono-culturalism worry me deeply,” concludes Whyte. “Without disrespecting other cultures and languages, celebrate what is local to you.” MAIM, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, 6-14 Mar; then touring Scotland until 27 Mar

March 2020 — Feature

’m part of Gaelic Extinction Rebellion,” says Evie Waddell, a Gaelic singer, musician and dancer, when asked about why she wanted to take part in MAIM. “I wanted to get involved because of the theme of the piece. [Gaelic XR] makes sense – Gaelic people understand what extinction is, and how important it is to preserve things.” MAIM is a collaboration between Scotland’s award-winning Gaelic theatre company Theatre Gu Leòr and the equally lauded Gaelic electronica band WHYTE. Featuring movement, video and spoken word as well as live music by WHYTE, it is Theatre Gu Leòr’s first departure from Gaelic text-based work. “[The show] came off the back of our second album, Tairm,” explains Alasdair Whyte, member of WHYTE and a Gaelic singer and composer. The album – a mixture of traditional and original songs – draws heavily on themes of extinction and loss. It was inspired by the concept of ‘an endling’ (the last known member of a species), and draws on the melody of the last Kaua‘i ‘ō‘ō bird, a mating call left forever unanswered. Whyte says that the album holds the human species accountable. “One song in particular, that will feature in the show – mùthadh – is about climate change, changing our relationship with the land and language theft,” he says. “The key thing in all these elements is that human beings have caused these changes. Mùthadh literally translates to mutation – which obviously has some pretty negative connotations, in English and in Gaelic.” The show specifically explores the impacts of climate change, non-native tree planting and land mismanagement on the Isle of Mull, where Whyte grew up – including the knock-on effect such things have on culture. The son of Riona Whyte, who won the An Comunn Gàidhealach Gold Medal for solo singing at the National Mòd, Whyte was brought up singing local Gaelic songs. Despite not being a native speaker, being surrounded by the music and the place names on the island gave him an early insight into how “deep and rich the Gaelic culture is in Mull.” MAIM highlights a connection between the erasure of the Gaelic language and culture, and the destruction caused by climate change and human intervention. As native woodlands disappear, Gaelic place names are slowly slipping away too – Whyte has been researching the place

Theatre

The Skinny speaks to Alasdair C. Whyte and Evie Waddell about the themes of climate change, culture and survival in Theatre Gu Leòr and WHYTE’s new show

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Photo: Eoin Carey

Theatre

Power and Control Award-winning Scottish crime writer Denise Mina speaks to The Skinny about gender swapping and power misuse in her latest work, Mrs Puntila and her man Matti, an adaptation of Brecht’s master and servant comedy Interview: Lynn Rusk

March 2020 — Feature

“I

think the master and servant relationship is less formal since the Brecht era. However, I don’t think much has changed,” says writer Denise Mina, speaking about her new adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s master and servant comedy, Mr Puntila and his man Matti. Originally written for a male lead, this genderswapped version tells the story of Mrs Puntila (played by actress and comedian Elaine C. Smith), an Argyll landowner who’s a ruthless and greedy tyrant when sober, but a generous and kind benefactor when drunk. Her shrewd chauffeur Matti (Steven McNicoll) spends his time extricating her from drunken mishaps while wooing her wayward daughter Eva, a match which will only be possible if Mrs Puntila can get over the class divide. Born in East Kilbride, Mina is the author of a hefty list of plays, novels and comics, and is best known for her Garnethill, Paddy Meehan and Detective Alex Morrow crime series. She’s worked with Smith – one of Scotland’s most well-known performers – before, on Ida Tamson, a play adapted from a short story originally written for the Glasgow Evening Times. Turkish director Murat Daltaban, who previously directed Eugène Ionesco’s multiaward-winning satire Rhinoceros at the Lyceum, returns to Scotland to direct this new work. Gender swapping “The decision to swap the gender of the main character was made by Zinnie Harris and David Greig at the Lyceum. I think it’s a genius move,” says Mina, when asked about this creative choice. “Although the whole play is about power misuse, Brecht didn’t explore gender politics in his original version.” Mina challenges the perception of the female

boss as being ‘softer’. “We’re inclined to believe that a female boss would be different to a male boss,” she says. “But when we look at people like Margaret Thatcher we can see that this isn’t the case.” Mina has been a fan of Brecht since she was 14 – an adaptation of The Caucasian Chalk Circle was one of the first theatrical projects she ever worked on. With this adaption she’s remained faithful to Brecht’s original, although aspects of her version aim to satirise the modernday injustices and absurdities of capitalism. “This version is a literal translation of the original script. I stuck to the original structure, but certain aspects were rewritten to highlight modern issues such as zero-hour contracts, food banks and contemporary politics,” she says. Brecht wrote the original play in 1940 while living in exile in Finland during the Nazi period. It was based on another play called The Sawdust Princess by Finnish-Estonian playwright Hella Wuolijoki, with whom Brecht was staying at the time. Its protagonist Puntila was based on a cousin of Wuolijoki’s former husband called Roope Juntula. Juntula had become engaged with three village women and had also driven recklessly in the middle of the night to procure alcohol. Brecht went on to dramatise these events in his story. Mrs Puntila and her Man Matti features the same plot development, but with a slight twist. “As opposed to getting engaged to three women, in the adapted version Mrs Puntila hires three personal assistants at the same time,” says Mina.

penny-pinching when sober. Does Mina think Brecht intended for Puntila to be viewed as an alcoholic? “[I think that] he uses the shift of Mr Puntila’s character as more of a Jekyll and Hyde metaphor,” she explains. “In this play, the use of alcohol is seen more as a metaphor for change.” The duality of the protagonist Puntila is an example of Brecht’s use of the literary device, the split character. In The Sawdust Princess, Wuolijoki meant to dramatise alcoholism – she wanted to draw attention to what she thought of as Finland’s national drinking problem. But Brecht borrowed the tool in order to expose the callous carelessness of the rich, and to illustrate the farcical nature of the disingenuous ruling class. “In this version, Mrs Puntila’s consistent drunkenness is where most of the comedy lies,” says Mina. Power misuse is the main theme of this production, and Mina particularly hopes that it will shed some light on the tactics those in power use to manipulate others. “I hope the audience will understand the use of rhetorical tricks throughout the play. In this play, there are many tools employed [by the characters] to manipulate people,” she says. “One of the main aims of this piece is to illustrate how the 1% in power manipulates the other 99%.”

Alcoholism The character of Puntila is warm, friendly and loving when drunk but cold, cynical and

This new work is a co-production between the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh and Citizens Theatre in association with DOT Theatre, Istanbul

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Mrs Puntila and her man Matti, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until 21 Mar; Tramway, Glasgow, 25 Mar - 11 Apr

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Books

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The Museum is a Prison Photo: Tom Nolan

As Sulaïman Majali launches several projects and shows across Scotland, they guide us through some of the thinking driving their artistic practice and some of the works they are currently making

Art

Interview: Adam Benmakhlouf

n Sulaïman Majali’s show at Collective Gallery in Edinburgh, there is one sculpture which is a 3D print of a bit of a wall from the Alhambra, in southern Spain. The print was not taken from any of the Edinburgh collections Majali has spent extensive time in as part of a two-year residency in Talbot Rice Gallery – instead they sourced it from a public domain file on the internet. Majali thus operates outside the carefully guarded official collections in order to generate an encounter with the physical remains of Muslim culture in Europe: a history that is often effaced. In Collective Gallery, Majali has produced works in sculpture and sound that take as their starting point an instance of racist graffiti in Cumbernauld during 2016. ‘Saracen* Go Home’ was written large in spray paint on the wall of a mosque. For Majali, this scrawl has a lineage that extends from forgotten and deliberately erased histories of oppression.

“An object can operate as a seed of destruction for the collection that holds it” Sulaïman Majali

Majali ends the interview with a story that is indicative of the kinds of erasure they observe and kick back against throughout their artistic practice. It happened during a holiday in Malaga, when they were excited to visit a Muslim space - what they found was a falling apart tourist site. “They [Spanish cultural authorities] just don’t care,” explains Majali. “We went to the archaelogical museum and there’s a big sign that talks about 700 years of Islam being a ‘hiccup’.” Majali speaks about the unfairness of this, “the idea that that stretch of time, 900 years of scientific advancement of not just Muslims but amazing coming-together and reformations in the way we understand science, arts and poetry, it’s described as a hiccup because of the prevailing ideological state that Europe fell into. It expelled Jews and Muslims. I was nearly thrown out of the museum because I started filming myself walking around hiccuping.” It is with this knowledge that Majali has been seeking to reddress the covering-up and downplaying of Muslim European history through visits and enquiries into museological collections. “It becomes a fugitive process of trying to encounter these objects, and understand them as incarcerated.” Majali describes that the extreme restrictions are in response to a “risk [that] is not necessarily that the object might get damaged. For me, it’s the risk that the object might be understood as [entropic], how within colonial logic there are these entropic moments, how an object can operate as a seed of destruction for the collection that holds it.” While the Collective show takes the processes of institutional collections as a point for critical enquiry, Majali also speaks passionately about their research into historical translations of 1,001 Nights, the collection of Persian-Arabic folk tales. This will form the basis of their upcoming exhibition in Glasgow International in April. “Through colonial translations, certain characters start to speak about the colonial interest in ways.” In this regard, Majali looks to the character — 53 —

Scheherazade, “the character that frames the entire series of tales that tesselate.” At the beginning of 1,001 Nights, a King “sees his wife cheating on him (or what constitutes cheating for him), decides that he hates women, and initiates a femicide. He marries a woman in the evening, then kills her by dawn.” The King’s systematic killing continues until he proposes to the character Scheherezade. “She decides to take up the offer, and tells a story as a way of surviving and stops the story just before dawn in a way that makes him want the story to be finished. The 1,001 Nights idea comes from this endless telling of a story for her to remain alive. It’s a story about survival and mortality.” While Majali had known Scheherazade from a few cartoons and other sources, it was when they encountered her in the colonial translations that Majali recognised her as a “radical disruptor in every sense. I played with this idea of her time-travelling, what it means for her to exist in the colonial [translations]. I think various diasporas encounter those moments in translations, or objects in museums – another excretion or processing. I not only relate to Scheherezade as a character, but she really taught me so much about disruption. Refusing narrative or keeping this thing in a state of evasion.” Returning to the idea of entropy that provides momentum for a lot of Majali’s practice, they look to Scheherazade as “radical disruptor in every sense. There is something about the way she exists in the colonial narrative that she maps out a way of destroying it.” Laughing as they remind themselves she’s not real, nevertheless Majali is clear Scheherezade is present in the studio with them every day. “I could make work about Scheherezade for the rest of my life.” Sulaïman Majali is in shows in Transmission (until 28 Mar), Collective (until 29 Mar) and Glasgow International (House for an Art Lover, 24 Apr-10 May). *Saracen is an aggressive and archaic term for Arab Muslims dating back to the Crusades

March 2020 — Feature

Photo: Tom Nolan Sulaïman Majali, saracen go home, 2019

Sulaïman Majali, saracen go home, 2019

THE SKINNY

Quick Draw Inuit Artist Shuvinai Ashoona’s drawings are idiosyncratic and virtuosic renderings of memories and fantastical scenes she encounters and imagines whilst living as part of her community in Cape Dorset Art

Interview: Adam Benmakhlouf

huvinai Ashoona not only forms worlds of her own memories of her home in Cape Dorset, Nunavut as well as imagined landscapes and beings, but she has created an entirely idiosyncratic form of image-making. There are parents child-rearing in many of the images, as well as more fantastical mythical beings like mermaids and giants made of planets, then fantastical visions of communities in circles around different planets and worlds. The drawings often come across as both comforting and uncanny. A vision of a new life that is startling, but nevertheless welcoming. They are almost all completed in coloured pencil, virtuosically rendered.

March 2020 — Feature

How do you know which images to develop into works? Is it from a thought, or from drawing and seeing what comes out? My drawings happen pretty quickly, I start making them once I have an idea. I have lots of ideas because I get them from the things I see around me, just outside the window, when I’m walking around Cape Dorset or from television. I have so many ideas, that I can draw every day. Has your way of working changed during the course of your drawing career? Are some things easier or faster than they were before? If you practise something a lot, it can get easier and faster to do it. I’ve been drawing for a long time so I really know how to do it. But sometimes my drawings take longer to make because I can

work with a bigger paper and then I have to draw something big. I don’t know, but maybe it can sometimes take a long time and be harder to finish, like when I’m drawing a big one, it’s harder to finish when there’s lots of details because my hands get sore and tired nowadays.

“Drawings can be anything I want them to be” Shuvinai Ashoona Shuvinai Ashoona, Untitled, 2010 Coloured Pencil, Ink

Often your drawings show people working and living together, and your biography will often refer to the studios you’ve shared with other artists. Why is community and collaboration so important in your work? Cape Dorset is a small place where many people know each other and there are lots of families. Lots of people start drawing because their father or mother or other family members are artists. We learn from each other, sometimes it’s an elder teaching a younger person but sometimes it’s my friends and other artists who can teach me something new. Do you think of the drawings as a protection of erasure or forgetting of the culture and lifestyle shown? Do you think the culture and lifestyle you show are in danger of being lost? I’ve lived a long time in Cape Dorset and lots of people have lived here for a long time. We used to do things differently, in the old days. Now our town has a new cultural centre, where I draw in the studio; it’s a very nice place. Things are more modern now, but some things from the old days are still around. They’re definitely around in my drawings.

Shuvinai Ashoona, Untitled, 2015 Graphite, Coloured Pencil

What makes drawing a process that is so endlessly fascinating for you?

— 54 —

I draw every day, whenever I can. I come to the studio in the morning ready to draw. Sometimes they are pretty and colourful pictures that I draw, other times they are very different than that, but I like them anyway. Drawings can be anything I want them to be, that’s why drawing is so interesting for me. The West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative is an organisation that represents 120 artists, whose works the Cooperative sells, with the proceeds distributed amongst the members. Can you speak more about the Cooperative and its impact on your life and work? Since I started drawing and even when my mother started to draw, and my father, he was a carver, the Coop was around to buy from them. It was a different studio then, it was smaller and down the hill, but they still bought lots of drawings and carvings. I have some paper and pencil and markers that the Coop gives me when I need them. And I come here every day to use them to draw. Can you describe how you started making art, and the sources of your inspiration and learning? I started drawing because I was around my mother when she was drawing. This is a way to make money and I like to draw. In the studio, something will happen, or at home I’ll see something on TV and then I just draw it. There are lots of things that help me to draw, I just have to see them or think of them. Shuvinai Ashoona: Holding on to Universes, CCA, Glasgow, until Sun 22 Mar Screening of Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, CCA, Glasgow, 12 Mar, 6pm, free but ticketed

THE SKINNY

March 2020

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THE SKINNY

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THE SKINNY

Album of the Month

Album of the month WAXAHATCHEE — Saint Cloud Released 27 Mar by Merge rrrrr Listen to: Lilacs, The Eye, Hell

artful command of heartfelt truths is still present and correct. But rather than storybook tropes on love, country-tinged Hell taps into the realities of being intimate with someone while recognising our own destructive patterns: ‘I hover above like a deity but you don’t worship me / You strip the illusion / You did it well / I put you through hell’. These raw emotions continue in Can’t Do Much as she grapples with the addiction. Sweetly sung ballad The Eye introduces the intricate interplay between Crutchfield and Detroitbased duo Bonny Doon. Alongside Josh Kaufman (Hiss Golden Messenger) and Nick Kinsey (Kevin Morby) the pair bolster her vision with a Badalamenti bassline that could be straight out of the Love Theme from Twin Peaks. And really, Saint Cloud has the ability to drum up the same immense backdrops, dressed with leafy firs, starry nights, and a painful realisation. For FBI Agent Dale Cooper, it was the murder of seemingly innocent high schooler Laura Palmer. For Katie Crutchfield, it’s a much-needed moment of reckoning. Saint Cloud marks that shift, out of the fug and into the fresh air, as the days get a bit lighter and brighter for us all. [Cheri Amour]

March 2020 — Review

There’s something very seasonal about Katie Crutchfield, better known as songwriter Waxahatchee. Perhaps, it’s the roots of that moniker that she took from the creek that circles her parents’ lake house. Or her discography to date that manages to effortlessly tap into our constant state of flux. From the bedrock of Cerulean Salt’s angular punk to 2017’s Out in the Storm – a messy post-mortem of a bad relationship – Crutchfield’s self-reflection is always in tune with our own weary souls. If her last release felt like an open book of regret and recrimination, Saint Cloud finds her turning inwards like a prayer plant at sunset. Two years ago, the Alabama-born songwriter made the decision to get sober. Saint Cloud charts that process as Crutchfield moves with the elements to find her place. She takes a moment of solitude in the indie lilt of Lilacs which conjures up the dark skies and fresh-cut blooms that ‘mark the slow passing of time’. The soft organ keys of Fire put you in the warmth of the hearth’s glow as she attempts to move past shame and into a place of unconditional self-acceptance. That’s not to say that Saint Cloud is all moments of quiet self-reflection. Crutchfield’s

Read more online: theskinny.co.uk/music/reviews/albums

Sorry 925 RRrrr "lacking in personality"

Nap Eyes Snapshot of a Beginner RRrrr "focused and uplifting"

Half Waif The Caretaker RRrrr "demands your attention" — 57 —

Stephen Malkmus Traditional Techniques RRrrr "free-spirited"

Porches Ricky Music RRrrr "relatable"

THE SKINNY

Comfort Zone Ahead of their appearance at Counterflows, we speak to Glasgow-based duo Comfort about using honesty in their lyrics to challenge gender identity and class disparity

Local Music

Interview: Tony Inglis Comfort play Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow, 11 Mar; The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, 14 Mar; Counterflows, Glasgow, 3 Apr comfortglasgow.bandcamp. com Counterflows runs across various venues in Glasgow from 2-5 Apr counterflows.com

he idea of ‘passing’ as cis for a binary trans person, and especially transgender women, is to have a society uncomfortable with your mere existence impose standards that should have long ago started gathering dust. Natalie McGhee, who makes thunderous, kinetic music that wriggles away from easy definition with her brother Sean in the band Comfort, channels an honesty and resoluteness into lyrics about her life as a trans woman and the persistent dismissal and disrespect of gender non-conforming people. “So many of my negative experiences came out of not passing and being visibly trans,” she explains, sitting across from her sibling and musical partner. “I want to show people that I don’t really give a shit what you think about me. It’s not about whether someone in the pub feels uncomfortable about being sat down the bar from me. I don’t care how I look; I know I’m not cis passing all the time. It used to bother me for a long time, but now I’m like why should I have to erase all these parts of me just to fit in and lose a part of who I am. I think I look great, and I’m proud to say so.”

“So many of my negative experiences came out of not passing and being visibly trans” It’s a sentiment that is explicit and urgent on the duo’s 2019 album Not Passing. This relatively brief and austere record packs a considerable punch. Gurgling, rubbery electronics warble underneath Sean’s drumming, which is somehow both taut and skittering. Natalie’s vocals are roared unflinchingly in your face. She can sound pained, dejected, triumphant and oratorical all at once. Comfort mix abrasion with beauty, beats and vocals tangling in interlocking rhythms. It makes sense when they explain their greatest influence isn’t punk or noise-pop, but hip-hop. Natalie’s delivery is never calmed, and so not always easy to follow, which makes the meaning and emotion behind her words even more essential. ‘Voyeurs come, rabid and spray / I don’t get what it is you’re supposed to be... / They don’t know if it’s okay to fancy me’, she declaims on the title track. In a note accompanying the record, she could not be any clearer: “My womanhood needs no permission.” Originally from Aberdeen, Natalie and Sean, in their late 20s and early 30s respectively, have been thinking creatively together all their lives. But it wasn’t until 2017 that they began playing — 58 —

Photo: Clara Patrick

March 2020 — Review

Natalie McGhee

shows, and released a mini-album called Built to Waste. It contained the basic components of their music now, but the production was warmer, dialled down, and Natalie didn’t quite know what she wanted to say yet. “I guess when writing is such a vulnerable process, you’re putting part of yourself out there to be judged,” says Sean about their evolution since then. “As time went on, we became more confident and we knew that we wanted to do something that really encapsulated our beliefs and had our own identity. The bond we have has let us push everything a bit further.” Natalie adds: “I wasn’t comfortable in myself yet, and I hadn’t been out for long, so I didn’t know if I could be that honest. But I realised if I could do it I should, because it would help for that honesty to exist and for other people to hear it. I figured if you’re going to write politics, you should relate it to your own life. And since making that decision, I have a stronger belief that it doesn’t matter if I’m poetic or angry – I just need to be honest.” Class disparity is another social injustice close to their heart, touching on it in the tumbling track titled, … promises to heal divisions. “It makes a big difference,” agrees Sean. “If you have a great education as a teenager, you believe genuinely you can do whatever you want to. On the other side, you struggle. You’re pushed through the system. And it takes years to build that confidence back up, if you ever do. You don’t feel like you can do anything – do art, make big statements. A lot of people never do. It’s a real shame.” The pair are quick to praise the Glasgow music scene they’re now a part of, not only in how it has supported them artistically – they worked with Kay Logan, aka Helena Celle, to produce the album, which was put out by local label Anxious Music – but also its work to establish inclusive spaces and lift up marginalised voices. Next month they bring their restless, polemic art to Counterflows, a festival that embraces music that pushes boundaries. They are also refreshingly direct about all that still needs done to move forward in Scotland – a country which celebrates its progressiveness and yet enables notable figures in politics and the media who are transphobic. “I’m not interested in being part of that,” says Natalie. “We’ll make our own thing and be better than them. That’s what the people who are looked down upon always do.”

Comfort

THE SKINNY

Ahead of the release of their debut EP, we chat to Katie Lynch from st.martiins about the past, the future, and the importance of home Interview: Bethany Davison st.martiins hoping for the worst [13 Mar] st.martiins play The Poetry Club, Glasgow, 13 Mar facebook.com/stmartiins

Local Music

Hometown Glory st.martiins

“Music has always been something that brings me a great feeling of serenity” Katie Lynch Lynch frames the issues dealt with on the EP as a sort of circular reasoning, confronting and condensing the complexities of the past decade. “I just wanted to explore that. I think it’s funny how I’ve always been quite honest that I’m not the happiest person, but I also see great humour in it,” she says. “The main themes of the work are grief and death, and the things that threaten normality. I’ve always had this huge fear of — 59 —

dying, but alongside the push and pull of being so scared of it, and the things that threaten it, like losing someone close and this feeling that the world is going to end. Those feelings lead to environmental anxiety too, like the feeling that the carpet will be ripped from under your feet.” Confronting such intensely painful issues on the EP, it seems only natural that music brings Lynch a sense of catharsis. “Music has always been something that brings me a great feeling of serenity,” she tells us, “because my mind never really switches off, so to be able to write music and escape to the band, that’s quite a good thing for me.” Through our conversation, the idea that home is paramount to the band is radiant, with this sense of safety in community lending itself to the warmth of the EP, underpinning the notion that things will be okay. After being met with isolation and creative paralysis upon moving to Glasgow, they soon returned home to Dundee, where all but one track on the EP was recorded. “We came back and just felt this sense of relief of leaving Glasgow,” Lynch confesses. “We kind of felt like we’d failed, but also like ‘I don’t really care’ because I’m safer now.” Further expressing the importance of Dundee to the band, Lynch says: “I think it’s funny how things are so Glasgowcentric. The way me and Mark are, the way we grew up, the people that are here, and where I live now, it’s a really funny part of Dundee, but it’s really beautiful, and that’s really important to my identity. I didn’t actually realise that until I moved away. I was in America for a while and then obviously in Glasgow, and when I came back here I realised that this style is so based on our experiences of being here, which is so interesting because I didn’t realise it before. “Mark works at Assai so that’s a good gateway for us,” she adds, “he always knows what’s going on. And our release of the EP is going to be with Assai which is exciting, they’ve been really supportive of us.” In terms of what’s next for the band, it’s clear they’re not slowing down. “There are going to be [further] releases pretty soon,” Lynch imparts with the excitement that deservedly inflects onto their upward momentum. “We are just going to keep going – we want this EP out now because we’ve been sitting on it for years. I’m excited for it to be out, to move on to something else.”

March 2020 — Review

ver the past ten years life has been pretty hectic for Katie Lynch and Mark Johnston of st.martiins. From leaving their home of Dundee and since returning, experiencing loss and settling differences with a world increasingly harder to find joy in, it’s almost a surprise to find so much warmth in their music. Though warmth and sincerity is precisely what they put across. The pair’s debut EP hoping for the worst is embellished with the kind of fuzziness you would expect from a DIY band; intertwined with heartbreaking stories and witticisms born from struggle, it makes for an affectingly refreshing listen. Even in its name, Lynch projects her witty acidity onto a weary world. “I just thought it was kind of funny,” she explains. “It’s not that I do hope for the worst, but I expect the worst. [There was a] time I felt everyone would say that phrase, ‘hoping for the best’, I was like ‘fuck off, I’ll just hope for the worst’. And that just tied in all the themes.” hoping for the worst has found Lynch’s approach to songwriting move away from premature external influences, instead turning her gaze inward, to build vignettes taken from a ten-year scope of things that have happened to both herself and Johnston. “I don’t really write in the same way now as I used to,” she tells us, “especially in this piece of work. It’s something a bit different and about things that have happened to us. It wasn’t like I drew direct influence from anyone, but what was going on in our life at this time.”

Albums

THE SKINNY

Little Dragon New Me, Same Us [Ninja Tune, 27 Mar]

rrrrr

March 2020 — Review

Listen to: New Fiction

Catholic Action Celebrated by Strangers [Modern Sky UK, 27 Mar] rrrrr Listen to: I’m No Artist

‘Time has changed us so in every way’, Yukimi Nagano sings on Hold On, the opening track to Little Dragon’s new album. It’s a statement that could be applied to the band. From being Grammy-nominated and collaborating with everyone from SBTRKT to Gorillaz, the four-piece have come far from their roots in Gothenburg. For album six, they aim for a musical transition, bringing their instruments to the forefront. That’s not to say that New Me, Same Us is a complete departure from their recent outings; it still retains the band’s take on left-field pop and synths aren’t on the backburner. The result feels less restrained than its predecessor, yet is still prone to falling into a somewhat lethargic mid-tempo. On Hold On they aim to up the tempo but other tracks lack that punch. New Me, Same Us finds its vigour in the sweet spot between pure pop and the band’s more adventurous tendencies. When an emotionally-charged, jazz-inspired piano climax cuts through the otherwise smooth veneer of New Fiction or when Where You Belong leans fully into a part-funk, part-R’n’B groove, the band really hit their stride. It’s just a shame there are some stumbles on the way. [Eugenie Johnson]

It would be fair to say that Celebrated By Strangers, the second album from Glasgow’s Catholic Action, has had a complex gestation, with recording sessions for the record dating back to at least 2017. Musically, Catholic Action are still deeply indebted to the sound of classic rockers. Lyrically though they’ve pushed on a long way from their debut. Almost every track here has some kind of political message. Lead single One of Us is a noisy masses-against-the-classes throw down with McCrory proclaiming himself ‘the welfare son of a welfare son’. Elsewhere, from the sprightly indie-disco of People Don’t Protest Enough to the closing Four Guitars (For Scottish Independence), McCrory sees the state of the world and decides he’s had enough. They’ve not forgotten how to write a melody either. Another Name For Loneliness has a swooping vocal and a keyboard line that threatens to resolve into a David Bowie song at any second, while Sign Here is an explosive ballad that seems to address exploitation in the music business. At times it feels like a strange fusion of medium and message but it’s a triumph that Catholic Action manage to imbue an increasingly staid format with some revolutionary zeal. [Max Sefton]

U.S. Girls Heavy Light [4AD, 6 Mar] rrrrr Listen to: Woodstock ‘99, The Quiver to the Bomb

Nadia Reid Out of My Province [Spacebomb, 6 Mar] rrrrr isten to: Get the Devil Out, All of L My Love

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Meg Remy’s sixth album as U.S. Girls, In a Poem Unlimited, was a fierce, biting and captivating record for angry women everywhere. Her latest, Heavy Light, however, is more personal. It looks inward and backwards, acting as a retrospective of her career so far. Produced by Remy and recorded live with 20 session musicians, Heavy Light is rich, textured and sonically huge. It features reworked versions of old songs – Overtime, State House (It’s a Man’s World) and Red Ford Radio – and spoken word interludes – Advice to Teenage Self, The Most Hurtful Thing and The Color of Your Childhood Bedroom. All of this contributes to our understanding of the moments that have shaped Remy as a person and an artist. As we approach the end of Heavy Light, The Quiver to the Bomb feels like a countdown. Its rapid, thumping piano keys and Remy’s sighing vocals create tension and play on the melodrama she captures so well. With its closing track a reworked version of a song she released ten years ago, Red Ford Radio, it feels like coming full circle; closing one chapter of the U.S. Girls story in order to begin a new one. [Nadia Younes]

All of Nadia Reid’s records have painted such a sublime picture of where she was at a certain period of time that it seems tasteless to pit them against each other and call this – her third record – her best yet. That being said, Out of My Province finds the New Zealander on magnificent form. Despite her youth, Reid’s voice has always carried a depth of feeling that would suggest it belonged to someone in their twilight years, able to reflect on the overwhelming highs and lows of a life well lived in a breathtakingly composed manner. For all the emotion she conveys and coaxes from the listener, she sounds like she’s been singing these songs all her life, like all her thrilling and incredibly distinctive inflections come as easy as breathing. Describing this as her “travelling album”, listening to it is a disarming and heartening experience that’s likely to leave more than a few listeners feeling simultaneously vulnerable and comforted. Very few people can sing of love as convincingly as Reid in 2020. For all its intensity, Out of My Province is a welcome invitation to be still for a moment and reflect, to remember how deep you can feel. [Fraser MacIntyre]

THE SKINNY

Listen to: saw the moon, want god, melvin

isten to: The Coming of the L Strange Ones

Listen to: Lilac, Born Confused

Pantha du Prince Conference of Trees [Modern Recordings, 6 Mar] rrrrr isten to: Pius In Tacet, Lichtung, L The Crown Territory

— 61 —

Pantha du Prince has always been a producer adept at locating the humane amid fractured electronics. Conference of Trees perhaps represents the fullest realisation of the German producer’s desire to truly inhabit his music, however. A daring return to the organic, it was constructed using a complex series of wooden instruments, partly handmade from different kinds of wood, and it envisages the sort of melodious conversations that trees might have, outwith the range of human interference. Approach In a Breeze opens the record, unfurling as a mini-manifesto for these kindling methodologies, while Holding the Oak coalesces in a thicket of austere melody, its bracken notes splintering to the touch. When We Talk, meanwhile, aims for a kind of sub-conscious conversation, an emotional communion that almost goes beyond performance itself. Closing piece Lichtung enraptures across its 12 minute expanse, echoing the techno-leanings of Pantha du Prince’s previous work. It’s a finale that brings together so many of the themes present on Conference of Trees – the patient exhibition of atmosphere, the translation of electronic themes into organic modes, and the bold imagination of its creator. A record that thrives on its biocentric themes, it’s one you won’t want to leave behind. [Robin Murray]

March 2020 — Review

Shabaka & The Ancestors We Are Sent Here By History [Impulse! Records, 13 Mar] rrrrr

A living archive of history, a griot is a storyteller and a repository of the oral tradition. Four years since their breakthrough Wisdom of Elders, Shabaka & The Ancestors return with their own form of griot, drawing on the tradition and reformatting it into a spiritual jazz odyssey for the modern age. Where Wisdom of Elders mused on an upcoming societal collapse, We Are Sent Here By History is centred within that environment, reflecting on the coming extinction of the human race. At other points, the music takes a slight step back, allowing the words of South African performance artist Siyabonga Mthembu to drift to the surface (as at the opening to You’ve Been Called, where he’s accompanied by fragile, eerie piano). Though it’s often dark in tone, there are moments of urgency, with The Coming of the Strange Ones and They Who Must Die bursting into flurries of stirring saxophone and propulsive bass and drum licks. Ultimately, although it’s more immediate than their 2016 record, what you gain from We Are Sent Here By History will be dictated by how much you connect with its musical vision. Sink into its groove though and it’s an album that presents a fascinating societal commentary. [Eugenie Johnson]

Porridge Radio Every Bad [Secretly Canadian, 13 Mar] rrrrr

With four years since Porridge Radio’s debut, Every Bad is similarly anxious and seeking validation, endearing itself desperately to any listener who’s ever felt the same way; it’s flooded with that hellish anxiety of your 20s, where the existential becomes the personal and vice versa. Opener Born Confused fixates on the looping line ‘thank you for making me happy’ while Pop Song is a tongue-in-cheek antithesis to what pop is, ending with the all-too-recognisable sentiment: ‘please make me feel safe’. These pleas for validation and security are countered with tentative moments of self-affirmation. Long is an avowal to put yourself first; Sweet is full of walls of noise that feel like defensive mechanisms from being caged in by outside expectations of what you should be; Lilac brings us an aspirational motto: ‘I don’t want to get bitter / I want us to get better / I want us to be kinder / To ourselves and to each other’. Every Bad might appear pessimistic, but there are glimmers of hope throughout. It’s difficult not to expect the worst in 2020, but with their new album, Porridge Radio offer a soundtrack for how to carry on without letting it all get the best of you. [Jemima Skala]

Albums

st.martiins hoping for the worst [LAB Records, 13 Mar] rrrrr

Katie Lynch and Mark Johnston describe themselves as inseparable. Their music as st.martiins on hoping for the worst evokes the blurred image on a water damaged polaroid, memories of a summer half-remembered by everyone but themselves. This EP’s twinkling dream-pop sustains from the moment you are plunged under its tremolo waterfall. The first four tracks trickle with reverb, while want god is paired with sour, acerbic kiss-offs to someone giving Lynch only partial attention: ‘You live through your phone anyway’. The last three songs don’t ditch the sun-bleached vibes, but drum machines and Lynch’s deceptively soulful voice on my girl feel like waking up and stepping into something more vintage pop. When songs are pared down to just mournful strums, they sound cracked and off balance – they could be coming from a beaten-up transistor radio and it feels timeless. Companionship is central to hoping for the worst. There are odes to good friends and inspirations and elsewhere – including one track called bad friend – Lynch re-evaluates how happy some of the people in her life make her. But these two’s inseparability outweighs them all. [Tony Inglis]

Film of the Month

THE SKINNY

Film of the month — And Then We Danced Director: Levan Akin Starring: Levan Gelbakhiani, Bachi Valishvili, Ana Javakishvili, Giorgi Tsereteli

March 2020 — Review

RRRRR Released 13 Mar by Peccadillo Pictures Certificate 15 theskinny.co.uk/film

Homosexuality is not criminalised in Georgia: in fact, Georgian law has specific protections against homophobic crimes and there have been calls to introduce same-sex marriage. But legislation alone cannot dissolve generations-deep prejudice, and homophobia remains high in the former Soviet state, particularly among older traditionalists. Situated in the world of professional Georgian dance and a backdrop of deep-seated homophobia, Swedish-Georgian director Levan Akin’s third feature sets the immovable object of conservative tradition against the unstoppable force of youthful longing. Merab (Levan Gelbakhiani) and older brother David (Giorgi Tsereteli) are training at the local traditional Georgian dance school, run by mirthless perfectionist Aleko (Kakha Gogidze). Following in their (now separated) parents’ and grandmother’s footsteps, Merab is talented and passionate while David is as confident as he is gallantly uncommitted to his studies. Where Merab is a knot of put-upon insecurity, his slight frame and puppyish eyes full of romantic softness, David’s elder sibling is invested with a squared-off, masculine cockiness. There’s an air of danger, and even tragedy about David, hovering in the margins of the frame while the story focuses on Merab, making a late-stage tender moment between the two all the more moving. While Merab’s dance partner, Mary (Ana Javakishvili), is clearly in love with him, some invisible, undefined force sits between them preventing his reciprocation. That force is given figure with the arrival of Irakli (Bachi Valishvili), a talented newcomer to the dance group. Furtive glances between Merab and Irakli initially read as rivalry but soon develop into something else, hidden from view as teacher Aleko bellows the mantra that “there is no sex in Georgian dance.” The film’s central performances are captivating – Gelbakhiani bringing tender vulnerability to Merab, while Valishvili’s eyes sparkle with desire and promise. Javakishvili — 62 —

brings an unspoken sadness to her Mary, silently witnessing what is happening between Merab and Irakli. Mary is somewhat underwritten – especially in her passive acceptance as the third point in a love triangle – but like Merab’s brother David, her situation in the margins of the film suggests unexplored, unspoken interiority. Similarly, a subplot involving an alluring young man Merab encounters on a bus feels underdeveloped from a narrative standpoint, but is important in establishing the sense of a thriving, underground gay youth culture clashing with endemic prejudice and the constant threat of exposure and violence. And Then We Danced’s strongest suit, however, is in Lisabi Fridell’s vital cinematography. The bare white daylight of the dance gymnasium is contrasted against the lush warmth of Merab’s family apartment, illuminated at night by soft yellows and reds. Fridell emphasises space throughout; the softly furnished, cosy interior of Merab’s home seems to spill out into the building’s courtyard, with neighbours pottering among the foliage and walkways. Long shots with telephoto lenses are frequently used with conversations between characters. The distance between observer and observed is often emphasised by placing some out-of-focus object – a doorframe, a dancer’s leg – in the foreground: a visual irony in crafting private moments from far away. It’s an effect that serves to enrich and intensify important moments between Mary, Mekab and Irakli; the tension of these scenes find their release in dance sequences shot in close-up and handheld, in sensual, subjective proximity. A bravura shot that tracks Merab leaving his brother’s wedding party is undoubtedly the film’s masterstroke, a minute-long sequence whose use of space both depicts Merab’s heartbreak and tells a handful of stories in miniature of marginal characters who are just as bound by tradition as Merab. [Christopher Machell]

THE SKINNY

In Cinemas The Painted Bird Director: Václav Marhoul Starring: Petr Kotlár, Nina Shunevych, Alla Sokolova, Udo Kier, Michaela Doležalová, Zdeněk Pecha, Lech Dyblik, Jitka Čvančarová

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Director: Haifaa al-Mansour Starring: Mila Alzahrani, Khalid Abdulraheem, Dae Al Hilali

lightning. Named after one of the film’s most shocking scenes, in which a starling daubed with white paint is pecked to death by its flock, Marhoul’s depiction of the Second World War shifts seamlessly between ugliness and lyricism, thanks primarily to Vladimír Smutný’s luminous black and white cinematography. Inhabiting an abstract landscape of moral degradation, Marhoul’s bludgeoning portrait of humanity’s innate aptitude for cruelty may not offer any new perspectives on the horrors of war, but there’s something stubbornly impressive about his fire and brimstone approach. The Painted Bird might be difficult to endure, but it is even harder to ignore. [Patrick Gamble] Released 27 Mar by Eureka; certificate 18

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British road movies feel like anomalies in comparison to their American counterparts, possibly because there is simply less road down which to lose and/or find yourself. This limitation turns into a strength in Run, from Scottish director Scott Graham (Shell, Iona). Here, the struggle to escape and reclaim youth finds its subject in Finnie (Stanley), a former boy racer turned fish processor. He captures the frustrations of a life that seems to be going nowhere – he married his high school sweetheart Katie (Manson), stayed in his home town, and sees his teenage son, Kid (Hayward), going down the same path of intermittent employment and a

pregnant girlfriend, Kelly (Siu). The film’s high hits in the second act, when Finnie and Kelly share a glorious night tearing through town in his son’s car. On a technical level, the cinematography and editing of this sequence is impressive, shifting focus from the screeching tyres and deserted factories outside to the haltingly intimate conversation inside with confidence and clarity. When the film comes back to earth, the fallout from that night remains to be explored. The final act is slightly anticlimactic by comparison, but the astute and mature handling of personal growth feels honest – and hopeful. Underlined by homages to Springsteen’s universal odes to the working man, Run is extremely specific to its time and place while reaching beyond to dreams all can recognise. [Carmen Paddock] Released 13 Mar by Venue; certificate 15

The Perfect Candidate

The Truth Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke, Clémentine Grenier, Manon Clavel, Christian Crahay, Ludivine Sagnier

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Japanese writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda heads to France for The Truth, which serves as both his French and English-language film debut. While the locations and social milieus have dramatically changed, the filmmaker’s skill with powerful and tender portraits of family conflicts has not been lost in translation. Catherine Deneuve plays Fabienne Dangeville, a major veteran star of French cinema set to publish her memoirs. She’s faced with familial tensions when her estranged screenwriter daughter Lumir (Binoche) returns from New York to Paris with her American

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Released 27 Mar by Modern Films; certificate PG

The Truth

actor-husband, Hank (Hawke), and her young daughter. Lumir’s disputes with the accuracy of Fabienne’s memoirs’ accounts of events and relationships prove just one cause of a visit riddled with confessions and passive-aggressive confrontations. There’s a comic lightness and luscious atmosphere to The Truth that feels of a piece with certain French films Deneuve and Binoche have on their resume, and in contrast to the darker waters in which Kore-eda’s domestic dramas often tread. But Kore-eda maintains his knack for the gradual accumulation of little moments for maximum effect, rather than going all-in on grand speeches and showdowns. [Josh Slater-Williams]

Released 20 Mar by Curzon; certificate PG

March 2020 — Review

Director: Scott Graham Starring: Mark Stanley, Amy Manson, Marli Siu, Anders Hayward, Scott Murray

Haifaa al-Mansour’s first film, Wadjda, was a big festival hit, but after a questionable dalliance with historical biography with 2017’s Mary Shelley, and her little-seen Netflix romcom Nappily Ever After, one might be forgiven for suspecting Saudi Arabia’s first female director of losing her edge. Al-Mansour’s latest happily dispels any such concerns: following the travails of Dr Maryam (Al Zahrani), The Perfect Candidate is a pointed critique of the way that endemic social misogyny works to police women’s behaviour. When Maryam tries to treat an elderly man suffering from back pain, he refuses treatment because she is a woman, choosing the care of a male nurse instead. When a senior male doctor

Run

The Painted Bird

Run

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hears the argument, his only concern is that Maryam is “upsetting” the patient. When the man is readmitted after an MRI scan shows up a serious problem requiring urgent surgery, he must be cajoled into being examined by Maryam, even in the face of death. Later she is denied travel to a conference by the Saudi law that requires written permission from her father, so instead Maryam runs as a candidate for the city council, running on a ticket to fix the hospital’s road. The Perfect Candidate’s point is not to attack the country’s sexist laws, but to understand the misogynist discourses that underpin their perpetuation. Al-Mansour examines each instance of prejudice and discrimination – much of which is internalised by other women – as symptomatic of a broader cultural edifice, at which fierce women like Maryam are obliged to slowly chip away. [Christopher Machell]

In Cinemas

Adapted from Jerzy Kosiński’s 1965 novel, Václav Marhoul’s The Painted Bird comes at the viewer with its talons bared; an affront that asks audiences to stomach a vision of war marked by acts of barbarism and sexual deviancy. The film follows an unnamed boy of Jewish heritage (Petr Kotlár), as he embarks on a nightmarish voyage through an austere and implacable wilderness, where characters cross paths like ghosts, and violence strikes as suddenly as

The Perfect Candidate

THE SKINNY

At Home

Cheer

Locke & Key

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Creator: Greg Whiteley Starring: Monica Aldama, Gabi Butler, Jerry Harris, Morgan Simianer

Creators: Carlton Cuse, Meredith Averill, Aron Eli Coleite Starring: Darby Stanchfield, Connor Jessup, Emilia Jones, Jackson Robert Scott

At Home

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After Rendell Locke is murdered, his family move to Massachusetts to the punningly-named home where he grew up – Keyhouse. Their new abode hides much, but the Locke children turn out to be adept at seeking out its secrets, which take the form of magic keys endowed with powers. Joe Hill’s source material told you from the off what to expect by naming the town Lovecraft. Carlton Cuse and his co-showrunners changed this to the more forgettable Matheson, and all Locke & Key’s other issues can be traced back to this change, with almost everything else going from the unsettling to the innocuous. Where Hill and his illustrator Gabriel Rodriguez offered up a tale of scars both physical and mental, Cuse and co instead choose a defanged retelling. This is most telling in Laysla De Oliveira’s enigmatic villain, who calls up to one of the younger Lockes from the bottom of a well. De Oliveira works hard to convey evil manifest, and yet she’s edited and shot more like a mean girl from Riverdale. Even when the writers make clear her bona fides by having her kill, each episode’s director seems to be in agreement with the next. The show steadfastly refuses to let her become the creature of death that she is, ready to jump out at us (and The Lockes) from any of the many shadows of Keyhouse. [Tom Charles]

Locke & Key

I Am Not Okay With This Creators: Jonathan Entwistle, Christy Hall Starring: Sophia Lillis, Wyatt Oleff, Sofia Bryant, Kathleen Rose Perkins

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There are a few things OK with I Am Not Okay With This, starring It’s Sophia Lillis as 17-year-old Sydney, still processing her father’s death while trying to get through high school unscathed. She reluctantly deals with an overworking mother and a smart, adorable younger brother, while figuring out her zany neighbour and actively hating on her bestie’s bully boyfriend. As if life weren’t tough enough already, Sydney realises there’s more to her supposedly bad temper than meets the eye: she has superpowers. A compelling opening scene à la Carrie sees our protagonist running in her formerly pristine homecoming dress, now soaked in blood. This powerful flashforward lets the audience wonder whose blood that might be for seven short, sweet and action-packed episodes. And it’s not the only nostalgic Easter egg to collect along the way – keep your eyes peeled for John Hughes references at every turn. The show shares some DNA with hit teen series The End of the F***ing World. I Am Not Okay With This is also adapted from Charles Forsman’s comic book, while Jonathan Entwistle, who created The End of the F****ing World series, is its co-creator and director. I Am Not Okay With This ventures into the realms of sci-fi and horror but is at its best when it portrays teenage social anxiety and heartaches regardless of its rather forgettable supernatural elements. Fresh queer representation seals the deal, together with a killer soundtrack and a couple of on-point scenes handling a confusing kiss and a bittersweet pet funeral. [Stefania Sarrubba]

Streaming on Netflix

Photo: Netflix

March 2020 — Review

Streaming on Netflix

I Am Not Okay With This

In the cheerleading world, Navarro College is acclaimed for its 13 national titles and five grand national titles since 2000. Throughout Cheer, personal profiles are interwoven with action shots as the team prepares for the 2019 College Nationals cheerleading competition. Navarro’s cheer coach Monica Aldama is held in high esteem for the success of the Navarro cheer squad and is lauded by her student athletes as their saviour or their second mother. This endearing portrait of Aldama is soon contrasted with her stoic and stern coaching methods, which push her cheerleaders to test their physical limits for the prosperity of their routines. Eager to please, the athletes featured in Cheer worship Aldama and live in constant fear of failing to meet her intense expectations. The individual narratives unpacked throughout Cheer are loaded with lament and highlight the diverse backgrounds and personalities behind Navarro’s squad. The cheerleaders share their personal journeys and, by doing so, generate important conversations about grief, depression and self-worth. As a whole, Cheer is a sensation but at times it can struggle to hold attention throughout its 50-60 minute episodes. Despite occasional lags, Cheer redefines stereotypical understandings of what it means to be a cheerleader in all its grit and glory. Exposing the multifaceted complexities of the cheerleading industry through the athletes and coaches participating in the sport, Cheer is an emotional and perceptive show that is both inspiring and frightening. [Caroline Ring]

Cheer

TV & Streaming Highlights in February 2020

The Twilight Zone Every Wed, Syfy UK Cross over to another dimension with Peele’s take on the classic.

Noughts + Crosses 5 Mar, BBC iPlayer Six-parter based on Malorie Blackman’s cult dystopian novel.

Lost Girls 13 Mar, Netflix Amy Ryan leads this real-life drama about the Long Island killer. — 64 —

Feel Good 19 Mar, Netflix Semi-autobiographical romantic comedy series from ace stand-up Mae Martin.

The Mandalorian 24 Mar, Disney+ The adventures of Werner Herzog and his son, Baby Yoda, or something.

THE SKINNY

Art Reviews Hardeep Pandhal Tramway, Glasgow The irreverent caricatures and all the wanking references of Pandhal’s drawings, video, textile and sculptures go between being fun, funny and existentially dreadful. First, knitted cricket jumpers have bulging-eyed multicoloured, round-faced knitted

additions. They refer to British colonial cultural rule (cricket being one means), as well as its unpredicted outcomes that resist easy control. Across from the circle of display tables-cum-partitions that hold drawings and textiles, a large chipboard structure contains an animated film. Chains, Neighbourhood Watch iconography, deities, and

followers Thuggees. In the drawings, Pandhal makes epic landscapes of imperial castlelike architecture and minarets labelled in an angry slashing script: ‘SO MUCH FUN GALLERY,’ ‘ME AGAINST THE WORLD INSTITUTE’. There’s a nerdy attention to detail that makes them full and rich. For example, the carefully penned dark black hair of a giant alien monster that’s being flanked by winged bearded white men standing on Mario Kart spiny blue shells – the nightmare one that’s unavoidable and only hits the first place rider. With a careful focus on his idiosyncratic cartoonish worldmaking, Pandhal makes for rich new encounters with images of political violence, racist oppression, rapping about isolation and self-hatred, and the mystical mythologies he quotes. [Adam Benmakhlouf]

Art

Photo: Keith Hunter

other supernatural beings slide across the screen. The protagonist, a swordwaving decapitated horse-rider with a beard and turban, carries his own severed head across uncannily empty acid coloured landscapes. With Pandhal’s DIY rapping about isolation, sexual shame and self-hatred, it balances adroitly between being nightmarishly overwhelming and the comedic lankiness of the wiggly bodies he’s drawn. 2Pac is a recurrent personality in Pandhal’s drawings, appearing longlashed and gorgeous. A video Pandhal lifts from YouTube reasons that 2Pac is the ‘absolute divinity,’ with reference to an etymological and spiritual relationship between Thug Life and Hinduist epochs of Kali and her

Until 22 Mar

Hardeep Pandhal, Confessions of a Thug: Pakiveli, installation detail, Tramway, 2020

Isabella Widger CCA, Glasgow

March 2020 — Review

Red is the only colour within Widger’s solo exhibition. White walls, midtone grey floor, and flashes of red. It’s in the body suit of the character that spans the different A4 sized drawings. The quick and skilful line describes fear, violence, freneticism, as much as it economically draws place, space, figures. Across the drawings, the red woman is shown sometimes impossibly contorted, or in anguish, with text above describing ‘punitive silence’ lasting long ‘maudlin hours’. She is in the midst of a bloody murder in another, a giant pen in the heart of the same man that punished her. Alongside the poem, the images make reference to the life of artist Charlotte Salomon, as well as literary references to the likes of James Joyce. The careful installation comprises 20 drawings, a huge photographic print pasted to the wall, and several sculptures. There is also a poem hanging from the two metal sculptures that look like chair backs. With these modest means, the room is filled and the space is theatrically transformed. The wall shows a small handmade set of a corridor blown up to life-size scale. Three of Widger’s

Isabella Widger

drawings are carefully placed to shimmer in and out of the optical illusion of the hallway. Among the austere geometry, the flick of Widger’s pen brings dramatic movement to the quiet order of the room. As if starched to the point of absurdity, Widger’s sculpture of shirts are made up of cleverly cut wood pasted together. In one of them, a rogue spattered line of ink runs

across some of the buttons. There’s a tension between order and interruption. Fragments of confrontation, violence and tragedy tinge the provisional order of the austere set, allowing for an atmosphere of unease in which layers of intertextual reference shudder against one another. [Adam Benmakhlouf] Run Ended

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THE SKINNY Photo: Bernard Yenelouis

CCA Highlights Fresh takes on classic films and experimental music underscore much of CCA’s vibrant spring programme Words: Ben Venables

he Rise of Skywalker officially completed the three Star Wars triologies, yet with all the varied spin-offs there’s no reason for fans to leave the galaxy far, far away anytime soon. But a fascinating parallel universe also exists in the form of the film Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam, a rare screening of which opens the Remakesploitation Fest (25-26 Apr). Partnering with Matchbox Cineclub, the festival showcases Turkish remakes of classic films. The original remake of Star Wars has been carefully restored – and has the advantage of featuring no George Lucas tampering retcons. Now in its 13th year, Glasgow Short Film Festival (19-22 Mar) brings many of its highlights to CCA. The Scottish Short Film Competition runs across four nights. Grouped together by themes – from All Stripped Away, about surface judgements; to We Are Guided, about shared myths and histories – it’s a way to see lots of filmmaking talent in under

two hours per evening. Our own film team have also dug through their favourite Scottish shorts of the 2010s. The Skinny: Best of the Decade (21 Mar, 3.30pm) includes Alia Ghafar’s Salt and Sauce and Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson’s Monkey Love Experiments, which picked up a BAFTA. There’s also international features introduced by the filmmaker: known for his comedic critiques of corruption within Thai society, Sorayos Prapapan (21-22 Mar) is in Glasgow to present two programmes of his work. The Scottish Vegan Film Festival (12 Apr) also has many short films to choose from. Cow’s Milk clocks in at 1min 11secs but still finds dairy industry secrets hiding at the bottom of the glass. Among a varied programme there’s also the feature length documentary Code Blue, following a US physician adopting lifestyle-medicine after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

March 2020 — Review

Art

Glasgow Short Film Festival

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Now dividing their time between Glasgow and Berlin, indie-pop band Spinning Coin (15 Mar, 7.30pm) make a full return to their home city on the back of their recent second album Hyacinth. Marking a definite progression to their sound, the LP is a successful mix of their rugged sound with an ethereral charm. Counterflows (3-5 Apr) is the part-experiemental music festival and part-community space for fresh ideas and discussion. Its events at CCA reflect these different aspects, including the three-piece Still House Plants who, with creative expertise, bring about a playfulness to making music. Then there’s Once Upon a Time in Glasgow, a special event celebrating the legacy of the late double bassist George Lyle – with rare recordings and a discussion hosted by music journalist Stewart Smith. cca-glasgow.com

THE SKINNY

NICE TIMES BAKERY The new bakery from the team behind Edinburgh favourite Lovecrumbs is an oasis of pastel colours and impeccable pastries

Mon-Fri, 7.30am-4pm; SatSun, 8am-3pm

but there’s a lovely handwritten sign on the door that describes it as a ‘work-in-progress’ so all’s forgiven. Nice Times is the new joint from the team behind Lovecrumbs, and while the decor is a bit more minimal than the ‘Mary Poppins’ favourite dive bar’ aesthetic up the road, the schtick is similar. The focus is on the sweet stuff, with a collection of cheery, kitschy but extremely interesting sweets and treats. The croissants, freshly baked in the back room, stand out from the pack. The chocolate and hazelnut (£3) manages to be absurdly decadent and surprisingly light at the same time, and the almond (£3) is a supreme example of the genre. The success lies in both their wafer-thin layers, and what we assume to be an absolute shitload of butter. That would explain the crispy, crusty edges, and the super-soft pastry layers within, as well as the fact that we become suddenly and completely covered in butter and chocolate within the first two bites. The chocolate, rye and peanut Photo: Sally Price

March 2020 — Review

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butter cookie (£2) is similarly full-on. It’s black hole-dense, but its flavours all manage to pull through. The decadence, which you’re always going to get when you sandwich two biscuits together, is dialled-back enough for a massive earthy slap of rye to catch you in the face when you aren’t looking. It’s chewy, it’s squidgy, and it’s probably more than enough on its own. While some of these treats veer a bit too sugary-sweet (icing fans, prepare to fill your boots, possibly literally), there’s an impressive balance to almost everything on offer. A chocolate and stout cake (£1.50) is dark, rich, and – as you always have to point out when discussing a cake – moist. The lemon and poppyseed cake (£3), meanwhile, is shot through with enough poppy seeds to blow up a drug testing machine, and topped with not-quite enough of an excellent lemon curd. The coffee is very good, and we’re told on the way out the door about Nice Times’ in-progress plans for brunch, but this is a place for engaging your sweet tooth. Grab your best pals, wear your third-best jumper in case you get chocolate on it, and take a bit of a break; you’ve earned it.

Food

nicetimesbakery.com i: @nicetimesbakery

ree time’s precious, so it’s always interesting to see what other people do with theirs. Yes, we’ve been eavesdropping again, although we’re not sure it really counts as eavesdropping if someone is standing a yard away from you and loudly yet vaguely shouting about their business deal. Also, lads, it’s a Sunday – take five minutes off. This is not The Wolf of Wall Street, this is a delightful cafe and bakery and I’m worried you’re going to knock my coffee off the table. We’re in Nice Times, a burst of life on a relatively grey strip of road between the Edinburgh International Conference Centre and Haymarket; an island of Wes Anderson-esque colour amid the natural habitat of the All Bar One business wanker. The tables are a tasteful pastel green, somewhere between mint and aloe. The chairs are three-panel pink leather affairs that look a bit like an extremely minimal drawing of a crab. The floor is bejewelled with black and white polkadots. The toilet looks like someone shot it with a cannon,

Photo: Sally Price

Nice Times, 147 Morrison St, Edinburgh

Words: Peter Simpson

March 2020

THE SKINNY

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THE SKINNY

ICYMI Glasgow-based stand-up and co-host of bi-monthly feminist comedy night, Emily Benita, takes a look at the ultimate Scottish sitcom Still Game. Get it roond ye

even years ago, I moved to Scotland for a laugh. Smack bang in the middle of a minor mental breakdown, I sent all my belongings to take the low road – so they could be there before me, natch – while I bought a one-way train ticket, arriving in my new home on April Fool’s Day. It’s the least foolish thing I’ve ever done. Warmly welcomed by the locals, I delved into comedy to do my best to integrate. Though I can quote Burnistoun, Limmy’s Show and Scot Squad – doing the respectful thing by not even attempting an accent – I’ve somehow never managed to see an episode of Still Game. Okay-I’m-sorry-please-don’t-kick-me-out-all-my-stuff-ishere-don’t-make-me-go-back-down-there-they’ve-gone-fullblown-Tory. Don’t get me wrong, I’d been raised on a varied, balanced diet of comedy growing up, shot through with a strong Scottish streak. I knew Rab C. Nesbitt because my mum was an avid fan of the philosopher of Govan. He would cheekily peer out of the boxy TV set in her bedroom, look me right in the eye and dispense his own brand of wisdom, string-vest and all. Gregor Fisher did make you feel as if he was talking to you and you alone. I am forever indebted to the Glaswegian family friends who first showed me Chewin’ the Fat, starring Greg Hemphill and Ford Kiernan, as well as the dynamic Karen Dunbar. Crosslegged in front of my friends’ TV, the tracking on the VHS shooting a lightning crease across the picture now and again, I gawped as a boy let a swingball hit him again and again in the face because his mother had just told their neighbour she was

Emily Benita: Big Wendy, ARG @ The Vacant Space, Glasgow, 27 Mar Emily Benita: Posers, ARG @ The Vacant Space, 29 Mar Emily Benita and Rachel-Anne Clarke present The Salon @ The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, 15 Apr glasgowcomedyfestival.com

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March 2020 — Review

having to wash the sheets again because he wouldn’t stop masturbating. I don’t think I’d heard anyone use that word on TV before. Oh, and don’t get me started on Invisible Boss. How are they allowed to be this funny? I thought to myself. So I must have met Jack and Victor at some point back in the day but it wasn’t until now that I got to see them in their final forms. Still Game is set in the fictional Glaswegian borough of Craiglang, which looks eerily like Maryhill. In the first episode, Flittin’, Jack and Victor end up living together in a looming high rise, Osprey Heights. Of all the characters in Chewin’ the Fat, Jack and Victor didn’t seem like the break-out stars who could make the transition to a full series. But the beauty in Hemphill and Kiernan’s writing and performing is that Jack and Victor are well-rounded characters, not caricatures. It’s not what I expected at all. As we learn from the opening credit sequence, Jack and Victor have been laughing beside each other for a long, long time. They get on each other’s nerves but they’re not bitter or cruel. They’re just crabbit. Without wives or family nearby, it’s the two of them against the world. Beneath the bravado, they’re best friends. And, in quiet moments, they talk to each other about grief and loneliness. It’s astonishing how forward-thinking this feels, given that the first series was broadcast back in 2002, before men’s mental health and elderly isolation were widely discussed. Compared to Last of the Summer Wine, none of these emotional or slapstick notes are overly sentimental or played for ridicule. Shifts in status and the rally of power dynamics are fertile ground for comedy, which is distinctly different from bullying. It’s holding your head up high, convinced that your Timpsons shoe grips will protect you before you slip on the ice that makes a pratfall funny. Jack and Victor hold their own as they’re faced with the death of their peers, unstable living conditions and growing old disgracefully. Instead of relying on hack, ageist gags, it’s Jack and Victor’s gallus personalities along with the flaws and foibles of their pals that bring the laughs. Still Game is a love letter to Glasgow and the people who make it. But Jack would just say I’m talking birthday caird pish. That’s me telt.

Comedy

Illustration: Julija Straižytė

THE SKINNY

Books

Book Reviews

Losing Eden

Fate

The City We Became

The Bass Rock

By Lucy Jones

By Jorge Consiglio, trans. Carolina Orloff and Fionn Petch

By N. K. Jemisin

By Evie Wyld

Penned by one of Argentina’s most prolific contemporary writers, Fate is only Jorge Consiglio’s second work to be translated into English following his short story collection Southerly that was also published by independent Edinburgh publishers, Charco Press. By the end of Fate’s first page, it becomes abundantly clear why Charco Press are such Consiglio devotees and baffling that the rest of the translation world slept on him for so long. Fate unravels the tale of two unrelated couples in Argentina, one coming together and one slowly falling apart. Titled Tres Monedas in the original, the English title draws out the uniting thread that weaves through every scene: each character attempts to seize hold of and control their own destiny, challenging the lives they were fated to live. An almost cosmic investigation into free will, Fate is made powerful because it eschews abstraction, exploring destiny through the quotidian, the minute and the prosaic. Consiglio’s writing aches with poetry through its attention and complexity, yet his style is simple and measured, echoing the determinism of his characters through its deliberate prose. Translators Carolina Orloff and Fionn Petch do a remarkable job capturing Consiglio’s layered and deceptively straightforward writing, resulting in a novel that encompasses the beauty of the original to its full. If fate is intention, as the novel suggests, then Consiglio is fated for great things. [Anahit Behrooz]

If you’d told me last year that someone had written a book where New York City comes to life, and each borough is represented by a human avatar and they must all band together or be destroyed by a tentacle monster from another dimension, I would have laughed. And it’s easy to see how in any other hands this idea could end up gimmicky or ridiculous. Luckily, N. K. Jemisin is in the driver’s seat for this one. Jemisin seamlessly weaves intense personal struggle together with world-shattering conflict, infusing everything with all the pathos and humour the premise has to offer. The human element is never out of sight in The City We Became with a cast of characters that features a young grad student sending money home to her family in Chennai, an aging art organiser struggling to keep an inner city gallery afloat and a handsome young Manhattanite with a murky, violent past. There are no superheroes here and neither does Jemisin pull her punches. With a punchy, dynamic voice, she tackles everything from police brutality to domestic violence to creeping gentrification, all while keeping a tense and pacy plot in motion. The City We Became is a love letter to NYC and everything that makes it beautiful and ugly. Few writers are as rigorous and principled as Jemisin, and certainly none are better suited to tell this story. [Eris Young]

There’s a great deal of fight in Evie Wyld’s third novel entitled The Bass Rock, named after the Scottish island, which anchors the stories of a trio of women separated by time but connected through familiar struggles. There’s Sarah who is on the run after being accused of being a witch, Ruth who is struggling with a new marriage post-WWII and, six decades later, Viv who is cataloguing Ruth’s belongings and picking up the pieces of her own life. Wyld is not in the mood to be timid about how these women’s fates are at the mercy of men, whether that’s through witch hunts, infidelity, abuse or oppression. The breadth of wrongs come thick and fast. Why, Viv is asked by the eccentric Maggie, are women thirty-six to forty-five most often killed by men? “They’ve finished breeding with us, but we are still fuckable.” Vicious words for what, Wyld portrays, is a vicious cycle. The narration swaps between the women constantly, and chapters are not named, so it’s easy get disorientated. An intention perhaps, from the talented Granta Young Novelist of the Year, to catch you off guard and emphasise how time presses repeat in different forms. Wyld is often praised for her lyrical prose, and The Bass Rock is most certainly a continuation of this form. [Julie Vuong]

March 2020 — Review

rrrrr

Losing Eden by Lucy Jones has the potential to change things. A study into ‘why our minds needs the wild,’ it delves much deeper than that. Jones pools together research that is not only at the height of modern scientific study, but also truly fascinating. It is hard not to repeatedly shout about these facts – did you know there is a species of bacteria in soil that boosts our ‘happy chemicals?’ It is now being used in trials for PTSD. Or that there are more negative ions in the air around waterfalls and beaches? Negative ions have been linked to biochemical changes and a boost in brain activity. The idea that the natural world is good for us has always been there. We have always known that looking at a tree outside our window is preferable to looking at a concrete block. But we have forgotten why and how crucial this bond to nature is. Through the lens of recovering from addiction and then becoming a mother, Jones presents the strongest argument yet to understand the natural world. She never professes that nature is a ‘cure all’ but instead explains how it helped at her lowest point. This book is about finding a way to improve our own lives and a way to save our world. As Jones herself puts it, “nature isn’t just beautiful; it is our life support system.” [Rebecca Wright] Allen Lane, out now, £20

rrrrr

Jonathan Cape, 26 Mar, £16.99 Orbit, 24 Mar, £16.99

Charco Press, 5 Mar, £9.99

— 70 —

THE SKINNY

Listings Looking for something to do? Well you’re in the right place! Find listings below for the month ahead across Music, Clubs, Theatre, Comedy and Art in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee. To find out how to submit listings, head to theskinny.co.uk/listings

Glasgow Music

KISSTORY PRESENTS THE BLAST OFF! TOUR

Tue 03 Mar

With a huge all-star line-up, The Blast Off Tour! features live performances from top US artists Nelly, Salt N Pepa, Shaggy, Mya and Blu Cantrell.

LOVATARAXX

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Cold wave and minimal synth duo from France. OH WONDER

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £18.50

London-based pop duo, consisting of Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West. NEW PAGANS

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 19:30, £6 - £8

Irish post-punk band. MAKE FRIENDS (BLUSH CLUB + OXELEY)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

Dispensing hook laden and infectious indie-pop, Bristol’s Make Friends have already earned favourable comparisons to the likes of Bombay Bicycle Club and Bloc Party.

Wed 04 Mar MOSES BOYD

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:00, £12

At the forefront of the London jazz revival, Moses Boyd’s debut album, Dark Matter, is sure to break him into the mainstream. TONES AND I

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £18.50

An Australian busker who made it big with a single called Dance Monkey, because that’s where the world is at. PREGOBLIN

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10

PREGOBLIN are one of the most exciting new acts to watch out for this year. THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £5

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. MHENWHAR HUWS

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:30, £6

Mhenwhar Huws celebrate the release of their debut album, with help from friends including Jer Reid and Stevie Jones. CORNERSTONED #5 (SCOTT C PARK + CARBRAIN) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £4

A monthly showcase of some of the best new upcoming bands in Scotland.

Thu 05 Mar

ARMS & HEARTS (JAKE MCALLISTER) BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Post-adolescent misery from two of alt-indie’s finest.

THE JOY HOTEL

Stockport-based indie rock foursome.

The Joy Hotel are a sixpiece alt-rock band formed in the heart of the east end of Glasgow in 2019.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £8

MOTHER FOCUS

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £6

Come down and celebrate the launch of Mother Focus’ debut EP, Mezzo Forte. BLACK FOX (RIVERMAN COLLECTIVE)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:00, £5

Black Fox will, apparently, “rock you” with their full band sound straight from the West End. LEWIS CAPALDI

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £31.20 - £42

Scottish singer-songwriter who released the biggestselling album and single of 2019.

IDA WENØE (SAMANTHA WHATES) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £11

Ida Wenøe’s music demonstrates an obvious appreciation of Americana, but very definitely laced with more English undertones.

Fri 06 Mar DAVID KEENAN

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8.80

Dundalk-born David Keenan’s compelling songcraft draws equally on poetic forebears and musical heroes. STRAIGHT GIRL (S!LENCE + NEON SEAS)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6 - £8

Gender-bending electro punk from the Leeds singer. THE SEAMONSTERS (LIFE MODEL + BLACK TILES) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8

A belter of a line-up with heavy hitters The Seamonsters heading up the bill. MALKA

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £9

The Glasgow album launch party for I’m Not Your Soldier. Expect sequins, dancing, handclaps and more. CADAVER EYES (AILBHE NIC OIREACHTAIGH + ADAM GREEN + ALI ROBERTSON DUO + TARANTULA)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:30, £5

Doom noise duo.

LEWIS CAPALDI

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £31.20 - £42

Scottish singer-songwriter who released the biggestselling album and single of 2019. BETH ROWLEY

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £13.50

English singer-songwriter championed by Jools Holland himself.

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £7

Sat 07 Mar

JESSE MALIN (DON DILEGO) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £18.70

New York singer-songwriter who began playing live at the tender age of twelve, in seminal hardcore band Heart Attack. DECLAN J DONOVAN SWG3, FROM 19:00, £8.50

Young singer from Essex with some intense press shots – Google it, we dare you. ALFA MIST

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £14

A pianist and producer, and one of the artist’s pushing London’s jazz scene forward. HOUSEWIVES (EGOPATTERNS)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8

London-based postpunk/experimental noise enthusiasts. THE HELLFIRE CLUB

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 19:30, £6

The Hellfires return to Glasgow with their brand of garage Americana, with very special guests to be announced.

HALSEY (PALE WAVES) THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £26.10 £44.85

The blue-haired electropop songstress tours in support of her latest album. WILLE & THE BANDITS (TROY REDFERN + NAVALI) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £14

Blues rock act rated by many as one of the best bands on the live circuit.

Sun 08 Mar

HOT 8 BRASS BAND

QUEEN MARGARET UNION, FROM 19:30, £22

Extraordinary, raw and funky brass band from the streets of New Orleans. YBN CORDAE (CHILDISH MAJOR) SWG3, FROM 19:00, £19.50

Rapper from North Carolina, who recently collaborated with Anderson .Paak. ADRIAN SHERWOOD

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £15

UK dub godfather Adrian Sherwood presents a live A/V attack covering his 35-year adventure with the Mighty Upsetter. ORLANDO WEEKS ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £20

Orlando Weeks, formerly of The Maccabees, will be performing new solo material.

THE PAISLEY PATTERNS

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5

REWS (PHOXJAW) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £11

Rews is the high energy, empowering, infectious alt-rock/pop band lead by Northern Irish musician and songwriter Shauna Tohill. SPECIAL INTEREST (PUBLIC SERVICE + COMFORT + GIMP WORLD)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £7 - £10

The debut show for the Glasgow-based sevenpiece.

Night School Records showcase a handful of acts. LAURA OAKES

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £8

Mon 09 Mar

THE BLAS COLLECTIVE BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Celtic Connections glitterati perform a night of inspiring covers, originals and classics. PHIL X & THE DRILLS KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £13.75

Theofilos Xenidis, better known as Phil X, is a GreekCanadian musician and songwriter, playing with his band The Drills. TOVE LO

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £25

Swedish dirty pop musician. SHAWN JAMES

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £13

Bluesy folk-soul from the Chicago-born multi-instrumentalist.

Tue 10 Mar

ARLO PARKS (MATILDA MANN) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £13.20

London-based songwriter and poet, who made it on to the BBC Sound of 2020 longlist. AARON SMITH

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £8

Not the American house producer, Aaron Smith; Scottish busker turned singer-songwriter, Aaron Smith. ALEX BAND OF THE CALLING (PSYCHO VILLAGE + SCREAMING ON SUNDAY)

Country singer from Liverpool; yes, country singers exist outside of the States – didn’t you see Wild Rose? GAFFA TAPE SANDY (BEACH RIOT) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8

Trio from Bury St Edmunds crafting instantly memorable garage-punk/rock tunes. FRANK TURNER (MICAH SCHNABEL + JESS GUISE) BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £31.45

The former Million Dead singer turned folk troubadour does his thing – full of his usual rockabilly charm. THE RESIDENTS: PETER CAT

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £5

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

Caustic, cerebral and bizarre, LICE have spent their early years flirting with mainstream acclaim while remaining British punk’s constant outliers.

Thu 12 Mar TORPOR (STILL)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £25

Still going wherever you will go, and still rocking waxy curtains – it’s Alex Band from The Calling! LOUIS COLE

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £16

A left-field pop musician whose energized material often puts an ebullient spin on everyday pitfalls. SEAFRET

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £14

Wed 11 Mar

Hailing from the small town of Bridlington, Jack Sedman and Harry Draper serve up acoustic soul-food that’s easy on the ears.

A night of sludge, doom and post-metal. LUCIA & THE BEST BOYS (MEDICINE CABINET + THE DRIVE) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £11

Incorporating the sweetness of bubblegum pop, the easy swagger of classic college rock, Phil Spector’s widescreen ambition, and the gritty rumblings of the best riot grrrl and grunge. MONDO GENERATOR (ALUNAH + ACID CANNIBALS)

JAMES LEONARD HEWITSON

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:00, £5

James Leonard Hewitson is a songwriter from Hartlepool. THE SCRIPT

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £31.20 £56.20

Whingey indie for anyone that’s interested. ELIZA SHADDAD

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £9.50

Punkier than Daughter, more consistently driving than Soko and far more wintery than First Aid Kit, Londoner Eliza Shaddad will appease any cravings for haunting, passionate new songwriting.

Fri 13 Mar EMBRACE (STARSAILOR)

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £37.35

Indie crooners Embrace return in search of some newfound relevance. ST.MARTIINS

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £8

Dundee-based indie duo who’ve drawn comparisons to Model Aeroplanes. CRYPTIC CULTURE BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £6

A guitar-focused band bringing guitar back into the limelight. Hope you like guitars! LOVE MUSIC, HATE RACISM PRESENTS KIOKO (ZOR + THE WAKES)

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, £5 - £10

Kioko are a Birminghambased band on the rise, known for their infectious grooves and electric live performances.

Sat 14 Mar

MIRACLE GLASS COMPANY

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £11

The fledgling power rock trio play a polished set of psychedelic grooves, built on their tight vocal harmonies and ingenious song structures. JEHST

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £15

English rapper and YNR co-founder, also known as William G. Shields. LEMON DRINK

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £6

Glasgow-based indie duo consisting of Sophie Bartholomew and Kirstie ‘KC’ Cunningham. THE ROOV

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £5

Nasty rock’n’roll for losers.

Four-piece from Lossiemouth who want to make music that could change your life.

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £13.50

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £13.50

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £15

THE DUNTS

DELTA SLEEP

Four-piece council punk band from Glasgow.

Born in January of 2010, Delta Sleep was driven by a desire to create fun and original, forward-thinking music.

— 71 —

Sun 15 Mar BAD // DREEMS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:00, £12

Australian punk eejits.

NIMMO (CHUCHOTER) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £7

NIMMO are two best friends from London, a queer pop duo, event curators and a fully independent female partnership. THE JACQUES

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £7

The Jacques, now with the backing of Modern Sky, are unleashing the fruits of their labours on the world as firm indie heroes. NADA SURF

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £18

Brooklyn trio big on the melody, with Matthew Caws’ vocals soaring over gentle backing. SPINNING COIN (MOLLY LINEN + HAIRBAND)

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 19:30, £9

Glasgow’s Spinning Coin are a ramshackle quartet who make a singular indie pop sound.

Mon 16 Mar

THE BLAS COLLECTIVE BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Celtic Connections glitterati perform a night of inspiring covers, originals and classics. HAUNT THE WOODS KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8.80

Folk-rock band hailing from the shires of Devon and Cornwall. NIAMH (JEN ELLA + NICO G)

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £5

All out brawl filled with cliché movie quotes! Just kidding, it’s a night filled with indie music from Niamh.

Tue 17 Mar

HANGING FREUD

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Claustrophobic, dense, ambient workouts from the Brazilian/London duo. GONE IVY

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Gone Ivy celebrate the release of their new EP. M HUNCHO

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £16.50

JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £29.50

British blues rock guitarist discovered as a 16 year-old by the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart.

Wed 18 Mar

ATTORNEYS GENERAL (THE DEEP SHINING SEA) BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

A spontaneous evening of experimentation and indie rock. ANDY SHAUF (MOLLY SARLÉ)

DRYGATE, FROM 20:00, £15.50 - £18

The Toronto-based, Saskatchewan-raised musician’s songs unfold like short fiction. They’re densely layered with colorful characters and a rich emotional depth. YELAWOLF

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £20 - £95

Alabama hip-hop artist, aka Michael Wayne Atha. HI-REZ (EMILIO ROJAS) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10

Rapper born in New York and raised in Florida, combining the traditional hip-hop sounds of the two states. THE RESIDENTS: PETER CAT

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £5

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £24.75

Country-tinged acappella group, also known as the Home Free Vocal Band.

Thu 19 Mar

DAMMIT PRESENTS GAS HANDS

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

High-octane punk rock from Northern Ireland.

PLAIN WHITE T’S (HARRY MARSHALL) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £22

The Chicago band who gave us Hey There Delilah, and we still haven’t forgiven them. TUNGZ

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £8

North West London-hailing, balaclava-wearing artist and pioneer of trapwave.

Bristol-based, funkinspired pop group.

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £13.50

Post-hardcore, metalcore and Taylor Swift should never go in the same sentence, but all three apply in this band’s case.

TWINNIE (FILMORE)

Following her stand-out performance at last year’s C2C festival, Country music star Twinnie returns to Glasgow.

I PREVAIL

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £20

HAYSEED DIXIE

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £18.50

US novelty metal legends playing a mixture of hard rock cover versions and original compositions.

March 2020 — Listings

THE RESIDENTS: PETER CAT

KASHMERE

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:00, £42.55 £100.45

THE SKINNY REAL LIES

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7.50

London types telling it how it is over some retro synth backing.

Fri 20 Mar

ELLES BAILEY (ZOEE + KATIE WHITTAKER) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £13.20

Bristol-based blues/roots singer-songwriter. RUVELLAS (IDLE COMETS + PERMO + MOSKOW MULE)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £7

Ruvellas are a young upand-coming band who are definitely not one to miss. WHITE TAIL FALLS

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £10

The musical project of London artist Irwin Sparkes – you’d think with a name like that you wouldn’t need a stage name but who are we to judge? ASH

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £22.50

The Irish Britpopsters play all the hits and live favourites of a 20+ year career. GRACE CARTER

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £13

Piano-pop starlet tipped for big things. STONEFIELD (SLEEP EATERS) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9

Australian, psych-rock luminaries Stonefield follow up a busy 2019 with even more live dates. KING OF BIRDS

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £10

King Of Birds return to Stereo, following their sell out appearance last September for the launch of their debut album, Eve of Destruction. CHELSEA WOLFE ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £23.50

The Californian singer brings the richly layered and darkly haunting stylings as per.

BRONSTON (GREATER THE DIVIDE + FRANTIC) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £6

Bronston showcase their riff-oriented, synthaugmented, alternative rock style.

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, £15

Eight-piece funk/soul powerhouse from Glasgow, making moves in the Scottish scene. KENDAMA (ALF)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

Kendama combine addictive, hook-laden songwriting, large pop production and intense live performance.

Sun 22 Mar DANKO JONES

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £17.60

Canadian rock trio led by singer/guitarist Danko Jones, ably backed by John Calabrese and Rich Knox. SID GRIFFIN (PETER CASE)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £12.50 - £15

Following European tour dates in April with Long Ryders, Sid Griffin returns to the road with his longtime L.A. buddy Peter Case. LOUISE REDKNAPP SWG3, FROM 19:00, £22.50 - £95

The former member of R&B group Eternal and coverer of Stuck in the Middle With You is back making music, with her first album in 20 years. GREG DULLI

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £23 - £123

An evening with American rock musician Greg Dulli, known for his work in The Afghan Whigs, The Twilght Singers and The Gutter Twins. CRAWFORD MACK BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £7.50

Crawford Mack launches his new EP, The Story is No Longer Available. THE LAST INTERNATIONALE

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £10

American rock troupe featuring Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk. THE MAGPIES (CHAMELEON LADY + LIAM WELSH) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

Tue 24 Mar

DAMMIT PRESENTS TOODLES & THE HECTIC PITY

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Indie-punk greatness from the Bristolian The Specialist Subject Records signings. MARTHAGUNN (NUALA + ANNA LEYDEN)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £7

Brighton via London fivepiece, with no members named Martha. SUPERCLOUD (LOST VEDO + BIRTHDAY CAKE) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5

Three-piece post-punk band from Glasgow, pairing aggressive guitars with heavy drums and deep bass lines.

Wed 25 Mar

RUSSELL STEWART (LOLA YOUNG)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £9

Singer-songwriter from Glasgow draws on multiple soul influences to form his fresh sound. FLY PAN AM

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £15

Reforming in 2018, following a 14-year hiatus, Montreal-formed experimental rockers Fly Pan Am return to the road. JAY SOM

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £13

Jay Som, aka Melina Mae Duterte, released her critically-acclaimed third album Anak Ko last year, featuring the likes of Vagabon’s Laetitia Tamko and Chastity Belt’s Annie Truscott. THE RESIDENTS: PETER CAT

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £5

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.

Thu 26 Mar

THE MODERN LEPER CHOIR BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Sat 21 Mar

A trio of acclaimed musicians, made up of Bella Gaffney, Polly Bolton and Holly Brandon.

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £17.65

Mon 23 Mar

A revolving collection of musicians improvising, with 100% of profits going to Tiny Changes.

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £8

JAX JONES (DANIEL BLUME)

March 2020 — Listings

TOM MCGUIRE & THE BRASSHOLES

South London DJ and multi-instrumentalist, responsible for many a radio hit. MICKEY 9S

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10

Glaswegian foursome offering up a manic fusion of bass, beats, onstage bodypopping and ski masks (yes, really). TARA CLERKIN TRIO

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 21:00, £7

The Bristol group’s debut album demonstrated an adventurous and enveloping example of DIY experimentation that shines far brighter than its modest inception should permit. JACK RUTTER (TARRAN)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 20:00, £11

Jack Rutter is a highly respected folk singer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist from West Yorkshire. DAVID GRAY

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £39.75 £112.35

Performing White Ladder in its entirety, as well as his greatest hits (whatever those are).

THE BLAS COLLECTIVE

Celtic Connections glitterati perform a night of inspiring covers, originals and classics. RAT BOY

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £16.50

Parlophone Records mischief maker Rat Boy (AKA Jordan Cardy) brings his Jamie T vibes to the stage. SLØTFACE

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10

Punky pop rock tastiness from the Norwegian fourpiece, who were forced to change their name from Slutface to the more PG Sløtface. THE WHO

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £73.80 £141.90

Money must be drying up for the iconic mod rockers, because they’re back on the road. CLOCK OPERA

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

London experimentalist Guy Connelley brings his eclectic avant-pop ensemble our way.

HUMANIST

The expansive and ambitious project orchestrated by guitarist and producer Rob Marshall. GENDER ROLES

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £9

Bombastic Brighton trio Gender Roles hit hard with their scuzz-fuelled, punk, emo garganutan sounds. FLETCHER

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £15

ANIMAL SOCIETY (UMBRA)

CUL ZAG (THE FURRY EMPEROR + PALE YOUTH)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

Animal Society is a group of renegade musicians from the darkest corners of Glasgow’s jazz scene, led by Joe Williamson.

Fri 27 Mar

CIRCA WAVES (RED RUM CLUB)

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £20.45

Liverpool garage-pop quartet taking their cue from the early-00s indie scene. WILLIAM DUVALL

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £22

Former Alice in Chains frontman whose 35-year long career has been incredibly diverse. MARGARET GLASPY

MONO, FROM 20:00, £14 - £17

Highly-acclaimed young artist reaffirming her status as one of the most sharpeyed singer-songwriters of her generation while managing to audaciously reinvent her sound. THE GIFT (BIG HOGG)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC

There’s a progressive Renaissance happening at the mo, and The Gift are said to be at its vanguard. WEATHERSTON

STEREO, FROM 19:00, TBC

Weatherston are an indie rock band from Glasgow.

PETLIB (DEATH GOALS + VENT.)

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £6 - £8

Chaotic metal and posthardcore to industrial and electronic. ZIGGY ALBERTS

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £24.75

Independent Australian singer-songwriter.

LIFE MODEL (ONE DAY AFTER SCHOOL + BIKINI BODY)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:30, £8

Four-piece dream pop band from Glasgow, mixing classic indie and pop influences with the noisier side of alternative bands.

Sat 28 Mar JAMIE POLLOCK

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £11

Singer-songwriter from Alloa. ANDY CROFTS (SCOTT BEATON)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £10

After a successful debut acoustic tour at the end of 2019 Andy Crofts is inspired to get back on the road with his guitar. LEAVING BORDEAUX BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £7

Five-piece presumably with a fondness of French towns famous for their wine. NORDIC GIANTS (A.A. WILLIAMS)

Pop singer making music to empower women and normalise queer relationships, so basically she’s great.

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, £16

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £11

CONOR HEAFEY

AMY WADGE

Amy Wadge has been performing and releasing music since leaving the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama over 20 years ago. SANTANA

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £39.75 £112.35

Latin-influenced Grammy Award-winning, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rock bunch, fronted by the inimitable Carlos Santana.

Mysterious Brighton-based post-rock duo who perform to a backdrop of oft-dark short films. 16 NICHOLSON STREET, FROM 19:30, £6 - £7

Previously described as ‘jangly’ and ‘woozy’, Conor Heafey writes in an eclectic yet coherent style drawing from psych rock, jazz and dream pop.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £4

Noise pop art shapes duo. D DOUBLE E

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £12.50

Grime legend D Double E is back making his signature crazy noises (OOH, buddabupbup etc.) and doing a bit of MCing too. JEFFREY MARTIN & ANNA TIVEL BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9

A joint show from the two singer-songwriters from Portland, Oregon. MOMO

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £5

MOMO (Morven WarrenMcArdle) is a Scottish singer-songwriter whose melancholic melodies are reminiscent of Gabrielle Aplin and Phoebe Bridgers. STEVE HAUSCHILDT THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £11.50

The ex-Emeralds electronic muso continues his experimentation with synthesizers, computers and digital processing.

Mon 30 Mar

DAMMIT PRESENTS TIM HOLEHOUSE (GREG REKUS)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

An evening of folk, Americana and blues infused with punk. MUNCIE GIRLS

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £11

Catchy Exeter punk rock band. IMONOLITH

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10

Hard-hitting, Canadianbased band made up of an impressive pedigree of musicians. RALPH TV (THE ROUTINES)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

Cool kids out of Brighton making woozy pop of the cool and danceable variety.

Tue 31 Mar STRATA

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Minimalist jazz meets noise meets meditative groove from one of Scotland’s finest musical collectives. HENRY GREEN

SWG3, FROM 19:00, £9

The Bristol-based singer made famous when KYGO remixed his cover of MGMT’s Electric Feel. BOB WAYNE (JASON CHARLES MILLER + STEVE GROZIER)

Edinburgh Music AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £20.35

The alternative rock veterans return, defined as ever by the push and pull of Conrad Keely’s epic mysticism and Jason Reece’s primal punk surge.

Wed 04 Mar

ANVIL (RAGDOLL SUNDAY + ELECTUS) BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £17 - £20

Metal legends Anvil are here to bring you metal on metal. JON HOPKINS

USHER HALL, FROM 20:00, £30.25 - £33

Expect a night of blissful ambient techno from English producer Jon Hopkins.

THE TESLA COILS (THE VICTOR POPE BAND + DR SALAD) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £4

The Tesla Coils are going to be hanging around Sneaky Pete’s, and playing music too. UPHILL AND STILL (JON LEPP)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

The boot-stomping, washboard-wielding duo Uphill and Still are on the move again, this time in support of their new album, No Time Forever.

Thu 05 Mar

DAX & ROXANNE (BLUE NATION + CROOKED SHAPES) BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

The classic rockers are back at Bannermans to rightfully headline. THE TROPICANAS (THE VERY MOST + ERIN CUTHBERT)

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:30, £5

The Tropicanas are back to sooth all your troubles and worries away. PREGOBLIN

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £10

PREGOBLIN are one of the most exciting new acts to watch out for this year. DAVID KEENAN

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £8.80

Dundalk-born David Keenan’s compelling songcraft draws equally on poetic forebears and musical heroes.

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £14

NORTH ATLAS (KLEOPATRA)

Tue 03 Mar

Scottish alternative rock trio North Atlas are back on the road, championed by the likes of Planet Rock and BBC Introducing.

The head of the Outlaw Carnies does his solo thing.

HOT 8 BRASS BAND

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £24.75

Extraordinary, raw and funky brass band from the streets of New Orleans. TEMPERS (/////)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

TEMPERS are a New Yorkbased duo, comprising of Jasmine Golestaneh and Eddie Cooper, playing dark, ice-cold electronica.

Sun 29 Mar

MIDLAND (DESURE)

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £23.25

No, not Midland, the DJ; Midland, the country trio from Austin, Texas.

— 72 —

OPIUM, FROM 19:00, £7 - £9

Fri 06 Mar

DUSKWOOD (FUZ CALDRIN + SANITY WARD) BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £5

A selection of doom/stoner rock outfits come to slay Bannermans. SMASHING PATRIARCHY (FISTYMUFFS + THE HARPIES) WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £3 - £5

Gig full of patriarchy-smashing musicians to celebrate International Women’s Day.

FRESH PRODUCE (THE ROQUES + PLASMAS + MIDNIGHT ALLEYS) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

Fresh Produce bring you three raw and enticing bands from Dundee, who will enthrall you and put a groove in your toe-tapping shoes and a shimmy in your hips. JAKE MCALLISTER (ARMS & HEARTS + LANA WILD)

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, FROM 19:00, £5

Jake McAllister (from Sunliner) brings us a night of righteous acoustic punk rock from south of the border. FUZZ BAT GIGS PRESENTS (BUFFET LUNCH + BANANA OIL + LUKI + PUPPET MIDNIGHT) LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

A night of fuzz, noise and experimentation.

Sat 07 Mar

RUDE PRIDE (PANIC ATTAK + SKURVI + HALF CHARGE + RARE BREED) BANNERMANS, FROM 19:00, £8.50 - £10

Sing-along street punk.

ADRIAN SHERWOOD: TIME BOOM X THE UPSETTER DUB SESSIONS THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £15

UK dub godfather, Adrian Sherwood presents a live A/V attack covering his 35-year adventure with the Mighty Upsetter. DANIEL PADDEN (DREW WRIGHT + OLIVIA FUREY)

WAVERLEY BAR, FROM 20:00, £6

Expect a multi-instrumental improvised solo performance, using tape machines, ukulele, reed organs, bass clarinet, voice and percussion. THE SEAMONSTERS (LIFE MODEL + BLACK TILES) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

A belter of a line-up with heavy hitters The Seamonsters heading up the bill. LADYTRON (SHHE)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £29.15

Ladytron mix synth pop, shoegaze and indie pop into a sound all of their own.

Sun 08 Mar

THE RUMJACKS (THE PLACKS + THE GALLOWGATE MURDERS) BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £13 - £15

The folk punk legends return to Bannermans. JAKE BUGG

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £27.50

Young Nottingham-born folk-meets-indie singersongwriter, who everybody once thought was going to be the next big thing. DEAF MOUNTAIN (PAPER RIFLES)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £5

Featuring members of Gareeda and Hair Of The Dog, Deaf Mountain launch their debut album If…

JESSE MALIN

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £18.70

New York singer-songwriter who began playing live at the tender age of twelve, in seminal hardcore band Heart Attack.

Tue 10 Mar

FASTER PUSSYCAT BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £18 - £20

The LA sleaze kings return to Edinburgh for their only Scottish date. PHIL X & THE DRILLS THE CAVES, FROM 19:00, £13.75

Theofilos Xenidis, better known as Phil X, is a GreekCanadian musician and songwriter, playing with his band The Drills. ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS (IAN PROWSE)

USHER HALL, FROM 19:30, £55 - £104.50

E.C. and The Imposters finally get to bring one of their recent stage shows to the UK.

Wed 11 Mar

ELECTRA PALACE (A SHORT DARK STRANGER) BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5

Alternative electronic rock. JUPITER STRANGE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £5

The excellent Jupiter Strange play their first headline show at Sneaks.

Thu 12 Mar

BUFFALO SUMMER BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £10 - £13

Southern-tinged blues rock outfit. LEWIS MCLAUGHLIN THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 20:00, £8

Edinburgh songwriter Lewis McLaughlin is attracting attention around the country with his honest, atmospheric songwriting and intelligent musical arrangements. SPINNING COIN (BUFFET LUNCH)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

Glasgow’s Spinning Coin are a ramshackle quartet who make a singular indie pop sound. BLANCK MASS

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £16

Electronic artist and one half of F*ck Buttons, Blanck Mass is a heavy, shimmering and orchestral work defined by manipulated field recordings, warm analogue synth, heavy sub and deep drone. MICROBAND

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £4 - £6

This will be the last chance to hear some of your favourites from the last seven years as The Micro Band move forward with a brand new sound on their latest EP, due out in April.

Fri 13 Mar

THE VARUKERS (DOGFLESH + HAPPY SPASTICS + REALITY ASYLUM + STATIC SHOCK) BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £10 - £13

Old school punk rock at its finest. KILGRVSTON

THE CAVES, FROM 19:00, £8

Kilgrvston is a five-piece pop/rock band from Edinburgh with a distinct and catchy sound.

THE SKINNY THE CRUNCH

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 18:30, £10

Combining the talents of four renowned rock and punk players. Fronting the operation is Sulo Karlsson, the honey and gravel voice of Swedish blues rockers Diamond Dogs.

BONG (JOE COGHILL + FALSE BLISS) WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £4 - £5

Psychedelic drone doom metal. CASUAL DRAG (GELATINE + BIKINI BODY)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6

Local belters Casual Drag headline the club for the first time to mark the release of their single Johnny going out into the big bad world. WOLFGANG FLÜR SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £20 - £23

A member of Kraftwerk during the group’s golden era, Wolfgang Flür was the band’s electronic percussionist from 1973 to 1987.

MEURSAULT (RACHEL SERMANNI + BLUE TIGER)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £8

Neil Pennycook and his Meursault cohorts return to Edinburgh. DANCING ON TABLES

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £8.80

Five-piece indie-pop band from Dunfermline. Officially formed in a school cupboard, the boys have spent their last teenage years earning plaudits for their dreamy melodies wrapped up in luring harmonies. OK PAL RECORDS PRESENTS (THE SILVER FIELD)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £7

The Silver Field is a sound world of Coral Rose and friends. Voice, tapes, bass, strings, reeds, drums, small sounds, big sounds, sunlight, moonlight, and a lot of water.

Sat 14 Mar

SHE BURNS RED (JACK RABBIT SLAMS + SUNDAY MORNING ELVIS) BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5 - £8

She Burns Red launch their stunning new EP. FUTURE GET DOWN

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

SOUPED UP FORD’S LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £6

Back with a new line-up and third album, Souped Up Ford’s bring their unique mix of soul, blues and rock to Leith Depot.

Sun 15 Mar

VELVETEEN RIOT (EAT THE FRIEK + THE HOMOROMANTICS) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6

Four-piece shoegaze/punk band from Glasgow.

CLOSE QUARTERS DIY (VELVETEEN RIOT + EAT THE FRIEK + THE HOMOROMANTICS) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6

An exciting new gig night in Edinburgh celebrating local DIY music in an intimate and friendly environment. GALLUS

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £9.30

The hotly tipped five-piece from Glasgow return to shake things up.

NIMMO (CHUCHOTER) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

NIMMO are two best friends from London, a queer pop duo, event curators and a fully independent female partnership.

Wed 18 Mar

JACK J HUTCHINSON (WILD FIRE) BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £7 - £10

The blues guitar master makes his Bannermans debut. JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £33.04

British blues rock guitarist discovered as a 16 year-old by the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart. LITANY (FOURTH DAUGHTER)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

CHRONIC CAT DISCO 2020 (COMACAT + CHRONIC JOHNNY + FINGERING AT THE DISCO) LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £5

Coma Cat is proud to introduce, for one night only, the New York sensation Chronic Johnny.

Sat 21 Mar GORILLA RIOT

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

Dirty rock’n’roll and blues from Gorilla Riot. AGBEKO (SAMEDIA SHEBEEN)

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 19:00, £7 - £10

Manchester’s 11-piece Afrobeat orchestra launch their new album D.O.D., with selections from local legendary clubnight Samedia Shebeen. PETER CASE + SID GRIFFIN

Litany is the alias of 25-year-old singer Beth Cornell from Harrogate, who creates a unique brand of effortlessly cool alternative pop.

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5 - £6

Thu 19 Mar

HAYSEED DIXIE

FRIENDSHIP (KUROKUMA + ENDLESS SWARM + SOMAESTHESIA + INSUFFERABLE) BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £10

Japanese hardcore aggression. ANGUS MUNRO

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £14

Known for his powerful and bombastic live shows in Scotland, Angus Munro’s 2019 album, Mirror Man, saw him breakthrough to a nationwide audience. WHITEY (ORANGE TILES + LOGAN GILMARTIN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

Whitey are a four-piece alternative band from Perth, whose live shows can be described as sweaty with energetic precision.

ALL WORK TOGETHER (HAMISH HAWK + EMILY SCOTT + ADAM HOLMES) SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:00, £14

All Work Together is Summerhall’s new series of songwriters circles, highlighting some of the best of Scottish music’s established and up-andcoming songwriting talents.

Fri 20 Mar RED LARSEN

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, TBC

Red Larsen launch their new EP. HANLEY AND THE BAIRD

Back to the UK by popular demand, following a sellout UK tour in 2019, two Americana legends on one amazing bill. THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £20.35

US novelty metal legends playing a mixture of hard rock cover versions and original compositions. PLEASURE HEADS (WEEKEND DEBT + ANGRY MAN CAR PARK)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

Vintage Society Live comes to Edinburgh, teaming up with old friends Pleasure Heads. THE REYTONS

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £11

Yorkshire-based indie-rock band. THE MILK LIZARDS (THE NO-THINGS + SECRET ADMIRER + MARIACHI DEATH SQUAD) LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £7

A night of twang and bang with Newcastle’s ultimate surf punk heroes The Milk Lizards, featuring very special guests The No-Things.

Sun 22 Mar

BELTER FOR SHELTER (MIKE MCKENZIE + STEFAN CLARKIN + KATE HARRIS + GARY TAYLOR) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £5

A stacked line-up of local acoustic acts, with all proceeds going to Shelter Scotland. YORKSTON THORNE KHAN SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £14

Hanley and the Baird are the band behind Sing in the City, which has sold out the Festival Theatre and Usher Hall.

Yorkston Thorne Khan tackle Robert Burns and Sufi poetry via Dick Gaughan and Amir Khusrow Dehlavi, traditional Scottish songs, ragas and their own spidery compositions.

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, FROM 20:00, £6

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:00, £10

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, FREE

LE BREA PULPIT

SQUID (KAPUTT)

The unholy union of Vymethoxy Redspiders and Pete Cann summon a microbial astral landscape of dissolving black-hole drones, obfuscated pulsar melodies and filter driven solar radiation noise.

The hotly tipped post-punk, disco-funk phenomenon Squid is the brainchild of Ollie Judge, Louis Borlase, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell and Anton Pearson.

Tue 24 Mar PALACE

THE CAVES, FROM 19:00, £15.40

London-based trio made up of childhood best friends Leo Wyndham, Matt Hodges and Rupert Turner.

Wed 25 Mar

HUNTER & THE BEAR

THE SLOW READERS CLUB

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £19.25

Electro/indie outfit from Manchester, churning out everything from catchy upbeat indie tunes to introspective ballads. TOODLES AND THE HECTIC PITY (10AM + LOU MCLEAN + HOMERUN)

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, FROM 19:00, £5

Bristol-based indie poppunks, Toodles and the Hectic Pity head out on their first ever headline tour in support of their new EP.

Thu 26 Mar PETE WYLIE

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £16 - £19

The musical legend, of The Mighty Wah, performs two sets live in Bannermans. SCARYPOOLPARTY

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £13.75

From busking and playing backyard parties, Scarypoolparty has blossomed into a superstar who oozes with talent and honesty in his music.

Fri 27 Mar

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £12.50

They supported Eric Clapton once, which is perhaps the most remarkable thing about this industrious folkrock four-piece.

Sun 29 Mar EMILY DUFF

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £14

Emily Duff’s street-smart poetry and vocal style conjure moods and images that seduce the listener to visit emotional vistas that entice and beguile. LEE SCRATCH PERRY SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £25 - £28

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:00, £11 - £30

Fundraising punk festival with a great list of bands. GERRY JABLONSKI BAND THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £11

Gerry Jablonski and the Electric Band have a unique trademark sound and style. A powerful and energetic, stand-out act with an ultra confident, no-holds-barred swagger. GOLDFRAPP

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £35.75 £49.50

Alison Goldfrapp and co come to Edinburgh on the only Scottish date of their tour. VLURE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

Having played at Stag and Dagger, The Great Escape and The Great Western festivals, Vlure have built themselves a highly impressive reputation with their memorable and energetic live shows. MARK SHARPE & THE BICYCLE THIEVES

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £11

Five-piece Whitburn outfit Mark Sharp & the Bicycle Thieves are the latest product from a thriving West Lothian music scene. TINNITUS TRANSFER LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

The 10th anniversary of Tinnitus Transfer.

Sat 28 Mar PUNK FOR PAM

BANNERMANS, FROM 12:30, £11 - £30

THE GIFT

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 12:10, £10

There’s a progressive Renaissance happening at the mo, and The Gift are said to be at its vanguard. THE FAKES

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £6 - £7

A night of feedback, post-punk, reverb and fake news. THIS FEELING: RATS

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

This Feeling host the heartfelt, infectious melodies of RATS.

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £6

The rock’n’roll harmonies four-piece hit the road.

Thu 26 Mar RATS

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 19:30, £7

Liverpool four-piece playing direct and anthemic indie.

Glasgow Clubs Tue 03 Mar

Mon 30 Mar

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

STEPHEN DALE PETIT

ANGEL DELIGHT (BOOSTERHOOCH + SNOUTNADO)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

UK garage all night. SOULJAM

Stephen Dale Petit is a pioneer in the new blues circle.

One of the UK’s premier touring soul, funk and disco parties, currently bringing the best in boogie to 1000s of students every month.

Tue 31 Mar

Wed 04 Mar

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £12 - £15

Cool kids out of Brighton making woozy pop of the cool and danceable variety.

Dundee Music Sat 07 Mar

IT’S NOT A PHASE, MOM!

Pop Punk + Nu Metal + Hip Hop PALA

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

All three Pala residents in control of La Cheetah all night long. STEVE STAMP (ONEMAN + SKILLIS)

ROOM 2, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £6

Alternative rock, indie and pop.

People Just Do Nothing’s writer, actor, comedian and wiggy mess headlines Room 2 in Glasgow for an old skool UKG special.

Sun 08 Mar

Thu 05 Mar

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £5

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

EMERALD SUNDAY

TAKE TODAY

Described as “one of the hardest working new bands to break onto the Glasgow scene.” HEIR OF THE CURSED (NICOLA MADILL + GREENBACK) CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:30, £5 - £7

Beldina Odenyo Onassis operates under the musical moniker Heir of the Cursed.

Thu 12 Mar GALLUS

THE HUNTER S. THOMPSON, FROM 19:00, £8.80

The hotly tipped five-piece from Glasgow return to shake things up.

Fri 13 Mar

SPINNING COIN

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £8

Glasgow’s Spinning Coin are a ramshackle quartet who make a singular indie pop sound.

Wed 18 Mar

Fundraising punk festival with a great list of bands.

NICKY AIKEN & THE TEMPLE SONS

Regarded with awe throughout the music world, Lee “Scratch” Perry holds status as one of the most enduring and original reggae producers and artists of all time.

RALPH TV (PLASMAS + ETAPE)

PUNK FOR PAM

Sun 22 Mar

CIRCA WAVES

FAT SAM’S, FROM 19:00, £12

Liverpool garage-pop quartet taking their cue from the early-00s indie scene.

Fri 20 Mar

ALL EYES ON YOU

Ruvellas are a young upand-coming band who are definitely not one to miss.

— 73 —

ECLAIR FIFI

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £10

One of the most popular DJs on the scene begins her Sub Club residency, playing all night long.

SHOOT YOUR SHOT: T4T LUV NRG (ERIS DREW B2B OCTO OCTA + BONZAI BONNER + MI$$ CO$MIX + ANNA GRAM) THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £15

Eris Drew and Octo Octa bring their T4T LUV NRG tour back to Glasgow for more joyous raving.

SYMBIOSIS PRESENTS ATOMIC (HEX + ALCANE + CALACO JACK) AUDIO, FROM 23:00, FREE

Glasgow’s longest running drum’n’bass club invites Atomic, pioneer of Edinburgh’s pivotal Split club.

GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL: WHITE RIOT AFTERPARTY WITH LOVE MUSIC, HATE RACISM (THE F*CK BORIS ENSEMBLE) THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 23:00, £5

GFF partner up with Love Music, Hate Racism for a night celebrating some of the finest punk music that sticks it to the man. WATERMELON RECORDS X BROTHERS IN ARMS (HAYLEY ZALASSI + LEZURE X CHESTER + PARTIAL + DD WATERMELON)

ROOM 2, FROM 23:00, £6

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 23:00, £5

Celebrate the end of GFF with a night of Afrobeat, funk, jazz and much more from Rebecca Vasmant, presented by yours truly – The Skinny.

Tue 10 Mar ROSEHIPS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Action disco romance party. FEEL GOOD WITH ADA (GERRON + JACK CRAWFORD)

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 21:00, £6.50

Strathraisers are throwing a Feel Good Night to keep the joy alive, in support of CHAS (Children’s Hospices Across Scotland).

Wed 11 Mar ANXIOUS MUSIC

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

The nastiest of discos. ARCADE

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4

Arcade return for their third residency night.

Thu 12 Mar

SCIENCE FICTION

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

The Queens of the Glasgow disco scene, FKA Drugstore Glamour. AFLOAT (THAT’S HOT)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Afloat raise money for Glasgow foodbanks with all female DJ collective That’s Hot who previously held a residency in The Reading Rooms.

Fri 13 Mar

Fri 06 Mar

Sat 07 Mar

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

FANTASTIC BOYS

WHITE RABBIT (DATABASS + CLMT + JOYO + ERROR E)

SISTERS IN DISTRESS

DAMMIT ALL TO HELL

80s buzz, non-binary, hedonistic queer fun shit; come as you are for weird, alien, unfamiliar, mad sexy times.

Big chorus club extravaganza where punk meets pop hits.

ANNA & HOLLY’S DANCE PARTY

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

Rock’n’roll, garage and soul.

GROOVEJET

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

SWG3 PRESENTS PARTIBOI69

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £10 - £14

Doof your way through some serious hard and fast ghetto, techno and house with the undisputed CEO of Stingboi Productions and Unprotected Records. SWG3 PRESENTS SOLARDO

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £18 - £20

Mancunian duo, hailed as one of the most exciting names in UK dance music.

C.A.R. brings her new live show to Glasgow for a special club show alongside some of Glasgow’s finest.

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £6

MPC bring hardcore and gabber queen Astrid Gnosis to the basement.

A Friday night out moving and shaking to space synths, post-punk jams, and wave beats to make you dance with tears in your eyes.

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5

Trio of Glasgow lads touting indie, post garage, punk and rock. RUVELLAS

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £8

GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL: THE SKINNY PRESENTS THE END OF THE FESTIVAL WITH REBECCA VASMANT

Techno from residents Kane and Craigen.

FOUNDRY

C.A.R. (PLEASURE POOL + TAAHLIAH + SOFAY B2B MR TC)

Sat 21 Mar

MISSING PERSONS CLUB (ASTRID GNOSIS)

To celebrate the label’s first birthday, Watermelon Records have partnered up with Glasgow-based charity Brothers In Arms to raise awareness for men’s mental health.

Eclectic debauchery.

EVERYDAY PHARAOHS (MOONRUNNERS + IDKID) CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:00, £5

Clubs

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 22:00, £5 - £10

Hip-hop, nu-metal, trap and techno patter. SWG3, FROM 22:00, £8

A full on night of house, vocal anthems, special edits and disco edits. DECADES OF DUB

STEREO, FROM 23:00, £7

Glasgow-based roots, dub and reggae collective spreading love and unity. ARCHIVES

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

New Glasgow party series Archives kicks off with an array of quality local selectors from Glasgow and Edinburgh. LEZURE (DR BANANA)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £10

Lezure celebrate five years in the game with UK Garage specialist Dr Banana.

HEARTBREAK BEAT BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

STAR SIGNZ

Flamboyant disco dream weavers.

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, FREE

A locally sourced line-up from Glasgow that will lead you by the ears on an adventure to the depths where only the white rabbit goes. A CUT ABOVE (JUNTO CLUB + MAVEEN B2B VAJ.POWER + HEATNAVI + PABS DEBUSSY)

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 22:00, £5 - £10

A night with a focus on electronic, experimental, fun and weird music, featuring the best DJs and live acts from Glasgow and further afield. OUTER ZONE (WARDY & DOM D’SYLVA)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

La Cheetah Club residents Wardy & Dom D’Sylva showcase the sounds of their Outer Zone label. RETURN TO MONO (SLAM + ANETHA)

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10 - £12

Monthly night from Soma Records, often with special guests.

March 2020 — Listings

The first show of the year for Edinburgh’s electronic noisemakers Future Get Down.

Mon 16 Mar

THE SKINNY

Sat 14 Mar

Sun 15 Mar

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

MONSTER HOSPITAL

Botch meets Beyonce DJ smash; a club night like no other.

SHAKA LOVES YOU PRESENTS: JOINTS ‘N’ JAMS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

Old school hip-hop and live percussion. SWG3 PRESENTS HANNAH WANTS

SWG3, FROM 22:00, £10 - £23.50

British DJ and producer hailing from Birmingham with serious credentials, bringing ‘dark and raw raves’ to her parties. SONGS YA BASS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 19:00, FREE

Marketed as ‘the club night for people who don’t really go clubbing anymore’, Songs Ya Bass takes in puntergenerated requests before finishing at the beautysleep-friendly hour of 11pm.

PHATIC COMMUNION

Three and a half hours of amorphous club percussion.

Tue 17 Mar

CLICKBAIT PRESENTS: BACK TO MINE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Tech house and R&B.

Wed 18 Mar RETRONIC

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Rock’n’roll, and 50s and 60s bangers.

Thu 19 Mar PRAY 4 LOVE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

All love songs + all bangers. HIJACK

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

LETS GO BACK

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, FREE

LGB celebrate their 20th birthday with a free party, and Bosco and Rob Mason playing acid house old and new.

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10 - £12

Vancouver-born DJ Jayda G plays all night long for Bigfoot’s Tea Party, dealing only in the most joyous selections around. TIGER & WOODS

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

The disco edit Kings, Tiger & Woods return to The Berkeley Suite.

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

THE LANCE VANCE DANCE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Exotic dreamy disco. NEIKA

SWG3, FROM 23:00, £12

Hardtek DJ and producer from Barcelona. JUICE

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 22:30, £6 - £8

Glasgow’s secret pop sensation is back and ready to squeeze out more pop hits than ever before.

HORSE MEAT DISCO

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £10

The Horse Meat Disco crew bring their usual mischief and disco mayhem.

Sun 22 Mar NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Funk, disco, boogie and house.

Mon 23 Mar

Accelerated orgiastic beats.

SWG3, FROM 21:00, £15 - £25

The massive Belfast-born electronic music and conference festival team up with SENSU to bring the full AVA experience to Glasgow. PUSH IT

STEREO, FROM 23:00, TBC

Glasgow-based club night playing nothing but R’n’B, hip-hop and pop by only female artists. EZUP

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Ezup residents Ferrie and Celino play house, disco and more all night long.

WEDNESDAYS

RARE, 23:00, £4-5

Regular Wednesday night at Subbie, formerly a successful residency in Aberdeen. SATURDAYS

SUBCULTURE, 23:00, £TBC

March 2020 — Listings

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

The Berkeley Suite TUESDAYS

MIDNIGHT BASS, 23:00, £3-5

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

WALK N SKANK, 23:00, £3-5

THURSDAYS

UNHOLY, 23:00, £2-4

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

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS, 22:30, £5-6

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

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS, 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. SUNDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH) HELLBENT, 23:00, £TBC

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

A weekly club night focused on reggae, dancehall and bass music.

SUNDAYS (SECOND OF THE MONTH)

Broadcast

Pop party anthems & classic cheese from DJ Nicola Walker.

WEDNESDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH)

KEEP KIND, 23:00, £4

House, deep house and electronic music courtesy of residents J•SH and BSTW.

Cathouse WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE WEDNESDAYS, 23:00, £4

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

FLASHBACK, 23:00, £TBC

SUNDAYS (THIRD OF THE MONTH)

CHEERS FOR THIRD SUNDAY, 23:00, £TBC

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

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 23:00, £6 - £15

A real reggae soundsystem session with one of the genre’s hottest properties.

Tue 24 Mar

OCTO TRAX

Soul, hip-hop and funk.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Wed 25 Mar SNACK W/ PEARL NECKLACE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

Queer perfomance and fabulous tunes.

EUTONY (HILLTOWN DISCO)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5

Dundee-based Hilltown Disco join VXYX for a night of heads down techno and electro.

Thu 26 Mar

SHAKA LOVES YOU PRESENTS: JOINTS ‘N’ JAMS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

Old school hip-hop and live percussion. RUSH

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Johnny5, Bash Man and Mi$$ Co$mix play techno breaks and acid all night long.

Disco and monumental groove.

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, TBC

Octo Trax is a fledgling label and Glasgow based multi-media outlet running monthly parties around Glasgow. SNEAKER SOCIAL CLUB (CLOUDS)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

Clouds join SSC head honcho Jamie Russell for a night of forward-thinking UK music. IAM: BOYS NOIZE (BRAIN DANCING)

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10 - £15

Berlin-based DJ and producer Alex Ridha (aka Boys Noize) takes to Scottish shores for a trademark set of inspired electronica. EPISODE 001: DJRUM (THE BURRELL CONNECTION) THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £10 £11.50

As an artist, Djrum has formed a reputation for his unique fusion of a range of genres ranging from jazz, hip hop and dubstep to ambient and techno.

CALVIN LOGUE PRESENTS OKTVE: T78 (DENVER BROOKS) ROOM 2, FROM 23:00, £10 - £15

Regular Glasgow club nights Sub Club

Ultra-cutting edge dark electro, hip-hop and postpunk.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, TBC

All-out decadence in the name of euphoria.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Incoherent madness for those with a death wish; the worst clubnight in the world.

DEATHKILL4000

GROOVERS ZOO PARTY

FREAK LIKE ME

Sat 21 Mar

FANTASTIC MAN

Fri 27 Mar

CHARLIE P

CRATER COVE

DON’T BE GUTTED

Fri 20 Mar

Italian trash disco. The best of the worst Eurotrash music; prepare to conga.

A night dedicated to worshipping at the altar of Taylor Swift. Non-stop Swifty all night: deep cuts, extended mixes, fan favourites and all the hits.

BIGFOOT’S TEA PARTY: JAYDA G

AVA GLASGOW X SENSU (MALL GRAB + DJ SEINFELD + HAAI + HAMMER + HOLLY LESTER + STEVIE COX + CRAIGIE KNOWES)

House, disco, funk and soul. THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, £7

Music from around the globe with Partial residents.

PARASITE

SUGO ITALO DISCO

SWIFTOGEDDON

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5

Transatlantic garage vibes from Lowree & Fourth Precinct.

ANWULI SOUND

STEREO, FROM 23:00, TBC

PARTIAL

SUNDAYS (LAST OF THE MONTH)

SLIDE IT IN, 23:00, £TBC

Classic rock through the ages from DJ Nicola Walker.

The Garage Glasgow MONDAYS

BARE MONDAYS, 23:00, £3-4

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

#TAG TUESDAYS, 23:00, £0-4

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

GLITTERED! WEDNESDAYS, 23:00, £0-4

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

ELEMENT, 23:00, £TBC

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

FRESH BEAT, 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.

Oktve is a new residency from Calvin Logue, inviting friends and artists for a night of deep grooves.

SATURDAYS

I LOVE GARAGE, 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. SUNDAYS

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

Oran Mor Resident DJ John McLean brings you the biggest tunes and best deals to make your weekend one to remember. SATURDAYS

SATURDAY AT THE CLUB ROOM, 23:00, £8

Resident DJs Neil Hood and Craig McHugh spin the Saturday night tunes.

Edinburgh Clubs Wed 04 Mar

HEATERS: MIND YER SELF

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Fundraising musical outfit Mind Yer Self return to Heaters. Good music for good causes.

Thu 05 Mar

23 DEGREES (STEVE STAMP + RANDALL)

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

23 Degrees returns to the Bongo following a monumental few shows in recent months. NEVER KISS A TORY WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

Labour party LGBT students throw a party in the Wee Red.

CAN YOU DIG IT (CHÉ WILSON) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £3

A new residency kicks off at Sneaky Pete’s with Liverpudlian DJ and producer Ché Wilson.

Fri 06 Mar HEADSET

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Headset features Skillis and friends playing garage, techno, house and bass downstairs, with old school hip-hop upstairs.

A massive line-up converges for the Spring edition of Maximum Pressure, with headliners Dr. Rubinstein and Jeff Mills.

Knockengorroch hosts its annual club night, featuring the electric After Hours Quintet.

SWG3, FROM 20:00, £25

STEREO, FROM 23:00, TBC

Beautifully inclusive night of grime, rap, trap, hip-hop and future promoting a safe atmosphere for harassment-free hoofin’. THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

FRESH! FRIDAYS, 23:00, £6

Sonja Moonear is one of the most highly rated DJs in the underground minimal and tech house world, and regularly plays with the likes of Ricardo Villalobos, Zip and Sammy Dee.

MAXIMUM PRESSURE SPRING EDITION

Sat 28 Mar

PINK NOISE

FRIDAYS

ROOM 2, FROM 23:00, £10 - £18

KNOCKENGORROCH SPRING SESSION (AFTER HOURS QUINTET + PADDY STEER + DJ DOLPHIN BOY)

PEACH

SESH, 23:00, £3-4

DBT. WITH SONJA MOONEAR

A new platform for Glasgow’s bubbling underground. Expect live music, experimental electronica and immersive DJ sets coupled with bespoke live visuals to take you on an audiovisual trip.

ZAZIM SOUNDSYSTEM

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, £5

Zazim Soundsystem play the best in global club music, selecting from Afrobeats, Kuduro, Cumbia, dancehall, UK bass and more. ELISCO

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

La Cheetah’s resident disco night is soundtracked by residents Craig Moog and Fourth Precinct.

— 74 —

THE CAVES, FROM 22:30, £9

MISS WORLD X COALESCENCE: SYBIL SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £9

Miss World team up with Coalescence to bring founding member of London’s SIREN collective Sybil to Sneaks, playing all night long.

ROMARE (DJ CHEERS + HAND-MADE)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £14

Famed for his unique style of deep house, downtempo and future jazz, Romare is not only an outstanding producer, but a hugely exciting and eclectic DJ. MAIN INGREDIENT (JIMMY JAMMIN + LEE ‘STRONGBOW’ MARVIN + GAVIN ‘MIXIN’ FORT)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Three of the most handsome men in Edinburgh will be warming your cockles.

Sat 07 Mar SOULSVILLE

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £7

Soulsville brings its Bongo residency to Palms for the first of a bi-monthly party. Dress light, shoes optional.

A NIGHT OF PULP

JACUZZI GENERAL

A night dedicated to the music of Pulp. Lights, visuals and sounds from the Sheffield legends, plus the best in indie and alternative from the past to the present.

Back from a round the world hot tub testing adventure, The General is back at his spiritual home melting faces and blowing speakers. Towels recommended.

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

THE MIRROR DANCE PRESENTS K15

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £8

The Mirror Dance invite Eglo and Wild Oats artist K15 for his Scottish debut. Expect an evening of jazz, soulful house and broken beat. RIVIERA PARADISO (ANDREA MONTALTO) PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

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!

Mon 09 Mar GROOVELABS

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £3

Monthly residency with special guests by Edinburgh collective Groovers. GOOD COMPANY: MINIMAL EDITION

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4 - £8

Funk, soul, disco and house with DJ Spudcannon, Iced Gem and Louis Ravens.

Wed 11 Mar

HEATERS: PRIVET

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Heaters’ chief dancefloor motivator leads Sneaky’s off planet.

Thu 12 Mar

HOMETOWN SOUND SYSTEM: THURSDAY DUB CLUB

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Midweek monthly from the Hometown Promotion Soundsystem, celebrating reggae, rubadub, dancehall and roots.

HEYDAY (PROSUMER + LEEON) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, TBC

NTS presenter and exBerghain resident Prosumer presents Heyday – a queer frolic featuring Colombian guest Leeon and a special performance.

Fri 13 Mar

OVERGROUND 4TH BIRTHDAY: PINCH

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Overground celebrates its fourth birthday with Bristolbased maestro and Tectonic Records’ boss Pinch. MOXIE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

After hosting a multitude of guests for her On Loop parties at Sneaks, Moxie finally goes solo all night long. WEE DUB FESTIVAL

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 22:00, £7 - £46.45

Celebrating its 10th year, the UK’s only metropolitan reggae festival returns to the capital for another world class celebration of soundsystem culture. NIGHT TUBE: END OF THE LINE (MAXWELL OWIN + HASEEB IQBAL)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4 - £10

The Night Tube shuts down, but goes out in style with jazz-infused house and disco supplied by Maxwell Owin.

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Sat 14 Mar

MESSENGER SOUND SYSTEM

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Conscious roots and dub reggae rockin’ from the usual beefy Messenger soundsystem. TEESH

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £6

The longest boi in the game brings his sweaty party back to Palms again for a night of some more shtone cold bangers.

WEE DUB FESTIVAL (DUBKASM + EGOLESS (LIVE) + SINAI SOUND)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 22:00, £7 - £46.45

Celebrating its 10th year, the UK’s only metropolitan reggae festival returns to the capital for another world class celebration of soundsystem culture. HEY QT

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Edinburgh’s queer disco connoisseurs HEY QT is back at Paradise Palms for another evening of camp party tunes and kitsch disco. Paired well with a cocktail and a face of glitter.

Sun 15 Mar

WEE DUB FESTIVAL (CHANNEL ONE SOUNDSYSTEM + KIBIR LA AMLAK (LIVE) + MESSENGER SOUND SYSTEM) THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £7 - £46.45

Celebrating its 10th year, the UK’s only metropolitan reggae festival returns to the capital for another world class celebration of soundsystem culture.

Mon 16 Mar BRAZILIAN WAX: TREPANADO

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £7

Brazilian Wax are back at Sneaky’s, bringing, all the way from Brazil, the inspirational and influential DJ and label founder Trepanado.

Tue 17 Mar

BOILER ROOM: BASS & PERCS X MIDNIGHT BASS

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10 - £15

Boiler Room are taking the energy of their Bass & Percs sessions out of HQ and on the road.

CLUB_NACHT: SALLY C THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6 - £12

From Belfast to Berlin, Sally C has been shaping her sound over a number of years and steps into the booth for a three hour set at Club_Nacht’s latest bash.

Wed 18 Mar HEATERS: SHAPEWORK

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Knowledge meets knowhow, Shapework bring their formidable collections and talent to Heaters to throw down with Privet. AESCETIC PRACTICES (GILES + SOFIA) PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

A dark synth/post-punk focused night. Sofia Stergiou and The Nightlark join the dots between classic and contemporary sound.

THE SKINNY

Thu 19 Mar FUNKTION

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

New student-run night at The Bongo Club.

CHURCH PRESENTS: REDLIGHT (MUNKAI + NETWORK)

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £6 - £12

The Bristol-based DJ brings the eclectic party soundscapes, pitched somewhere between house, breakbeats and dubstep. BEATROOTS: ANDREA MONTALTO (ICED GEM + DUGGY DUBZ) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

The Beatroots crew return to the dancefloor, joined by the undisputed godfather of groove and Mr Mediterraneo himself Andrea Montalto. All proceeds go to charity. DESERT SOUND COLONY (HAPTIC)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6 - £10

60’s psychedelia and club influenced project. CULTUR (MAG)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Bringing the heat to the streets since 2018 but this time with tropical twist.

Fri 20 Mar

ELECTRIKAL (BENNY L) THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10 - £14

Soundsystem partystarters, part of a music and art collective specialising in all things bass.

XOXO

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Club night for all queers. R&B, 90s, 00s and any bangers in general.

HEADSET’S GAY GARAGE: GHOST PHONE (GREENMAN + SKILLIS + ELSIE T) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

One half of Bristol staple Kelly Twins, Ghost Phone is a new project focusing on vinyl releases and radio mixes spanning fresh sounds in R&B, garage, edits and more. PALIDRONE: TEKI LATEX (MISS WORLD)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6 - £10

French party legend and Sound Pellegrino cofounder Teki Latex makes his Edinburgh debut.

MISS WORLD (EMILY + FEENA + APHID + ICED GEM) PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

All female DJ collective based in Edinburgh. Sneaky Pete’s and EH-FM residents who are lighting the city up with their incredible music tastes and super fun parties.

Sat 21 Mar

MUMBO JUMBO + LUCKY 7

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £7

Funk, soul, beats and bumps from the Mumbo Jumbo gang and room two residents Lucky 7.

ROSSZ RECORDS INVITES: RADIANT AURA FACULTY (RENATA)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Rossz Records invites Radiant Aura Faculty from Toronto, Canada for his Edinburgh debut. R.A.F. draws from every corner of dance music for a “genrefluid” style. JGP

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Taking a break from burger reviewing, Jacuzzi General might bring a friend along with him to play some dead nice music! Prepare to burn holes in yer shoes.

Mon 23 Mar

OLD BLUE LAST X VICE PARTY SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £3

Old Blue Last and Vice Beer are throwing a big old party in Sneaky’s. Weekday warriors come thru!

Wed 25 Mar

HEATERS: BARBARA BOEING + DONALD DUST

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Bright sounds and smileinducing style, Brazilian selector Barbara Boeing lands at Sneaks for a threehour set.

Thu 26 Mar

NIGHT TUBE X PURE HONEY: LAUREN RALPH

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

Two of Edinburgh’s most exciting nights come together to present something new and bring head honcho of the rap collective Blue Room Mafia Lauren Ralph up from Birmingham.

Fri 27 Mar SSL

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Sound System Legacies explores the legacy of dub, reggae, roots music and sound system culture on more contemporary club and dance music styles. NSA: LAUER

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £12

Lauer makes his NSA debut. TEESH (DJ CHEERS)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

The longest boi in the game brings his sweaty party back to Palms again for a night of some more shtone cold bangers.

Sat 28 Mar PULSE

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Slamming techno from guests and Pulse residents Darrell Harding and Sean Laird.

TUESDAYS

HECTORS, 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. THURSDAYS

UNDERGROUND SOCIETY, 23:00, £TBC

Expect music from across the spectrum at Cab Vol's weekly midweek party, every Thursday. FRIDAYS

FLY CLUB, 23:00, £TBC

SATURDAYS

PLEASURE, 23:00, £TBC

Regular Saturday night at Cab Vol, with residents and occasional special guests.

The Bongo Club TUESDAYS

MIDNIGHT BASS, 23:00, £3-5

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

Sneaky Pete’s TUESDAYS

POPULAR MUSIC, 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.

HEATERS, 23:00, £TBC

Heaters resident CShaman presents a month of ambiguous local showdowns, purveying the multifarious mischief that characterises Sneaky’s midweek party haven. SATURDAYS (LAST OF THE MONTH) SOUL JAM, 23:00, £5-7

Weekly no holds barred, down and dirty bikram disco, destroying Wednesday mornings since 2009. SUNDAYS

COALITION, 23:00, £FREE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

Wee Red Bar SATURDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH) HEART OF GLASS, 23:00, £4-6

Glamourous, glittery, flamboyant, feathery, ostentatious and rock 'n' roll, Heart of Glass plays only the best music from the 70s and beyond.

SATURDAYS (SECOND OF THE MONTH) CITRUS SATURDAY, 23:00, £5

The Liquid Room THURSDAYS

SILK THURSDAYS, 22:30, £1-5

Weekly Thursday chart, house, R'n'B and indie night with DJ Big Al. FRIDAYS

PROPAGANDA, 22:30, £4-6

Clubber's favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. SATURDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH) REWIND, 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.

Medlar brings his hot and spicy Nigerian-inspired live show with Fela Kuti’s former musical director Dele Sosimi on the synthetic ivories. PARADISE LIONOIL (PERCY MAIN + PRIVET)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Head honcho Percy Main is joined by Privet for a night in honour of the late great Zanzibar. It’s Miller time!

Mon 30 Mar TENBIT

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £3

Heavyweight techno from the local Tenbit crew.

Dundee Clubs Fri 06 Mar

Disco, techno, house and jungle.

Dundee’s only monthly jungle and drum’n’bass night, rolling slabs of heavyweight breaks, beats and basslines galore provided by resident DJs and special guests.

AFROBEATS, FROM 22:00, £3.50 - £5

ALL GOOD PRESENTS: PARTIBOI69

SATURDAYS

BUBBLEGUM, 22:00, £0-4

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

SECRET SUNDAY, 22:00, £FREE

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

The Jazz Bar MONDAYS

GLAMOUR AND THE BAYBES, 23:30, £3-4

Two of the UK’s most exciting comedians are filming their specials live at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival.

Fat grooves, jazzy excursions, soulful vocals and bags of pocket from guitarist Aki Remally’s soul-funk four-piece band.

TUESDAYS

TRASH TUESDAY, 22:00, £FREE

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

THURSDAYS

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

HI-SOCIETY THURSDAY, 22:00, £FREE

Student anthems and bangerz. FRIDAYS

FLIP FRIDAY, 22:00, £0-4

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and noveltystuffed. Perrrfect.

Glasgow Comedy

THE 101ST AIRBORNE, 23:30, £3-4

MIXED UP MONDAY, 22:00, £FREE

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

Doof your way through some serious hard and fast ghetto, techno and house with the undisputed CEO of Stingboi Productions and Unprotected Records.

Oran Mor

TUESDAYS

MONDAYS

FAT SAM’S, FROM 23:00, £6.69 - £15.69

Six-piece funk with ripping horns and massive vocals that grab you by the soul and drop you on the dance floor.

The Hive

Henry’s Cellar Bar

Baz and Dave spin out some belters under a strictly vinyl-only policy.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

Sat 07 Mar

COOKIE WEDNESDAY, 22:00, £FREE

DR NO'S SKA CLUB, 23:00, £5-6

SOUL JAM: MEDLAR AND DELE SOSIMI

TUNAGE (FROGBEATS)

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Expect the usual Citrus blend of indie mixed with some soul classics and maybe a few 80s hits.

SATURDAYS (SECOND OF THE MONTH)

French artist Julian Jeweil, who specialises in a melodic breed of techno plays The Liquid Room.

WEDNESDAYS

SWAMPFOG, 23:30, £3-4

Swampfog are a sevenpiece funk outfit from Edinburgh, spiritually via New Orleans.

FERN BRADY: POWER & CHAOS / ALFIE BROWN: IMAGINATION 15 MAR, 8:30PM, £10 - £12

SOFIE HAGEN

21 MAR, 7:00PM, £14

A show about the things you forget, the things you remember, and the things you wish you could forget. But also, there’s a bit about bums.

THURSDAYS

The Blue Arrow

Aki Remally (guitar) and Jonny White (sax) front this funk five-piece band hitting you with deep funk rhythms, crazy jams and insane musicianship.

20 MAR, 7:30PM, £6

FUTURE HEROES, 23:30, £3-4

SUNDAYS

THE SUNDAY SINNERS, 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.

HELEN BAUER: THE GOOD TIT

Sweet angel stand-up comedian Helen Bauer presents a work in progress show of her new thoughts and feelings on pretty much everything. GLENN MOORE: WORK IN PROGRESS 20 MAR, 9:30PM, £6

Perrier Award nominee Glenn Moore works up a new hour of jokes.

— 75 —

Comedy EVELYN MOK GETS IT 2GETHER INFRONT OF A LIVE CROWD 21 MAR, 3:30PM, £6

The award-winning Swedish comedian presents her honest and self-referential comedy, as she explores herself, mental health, her love for food and how she fits into the world. SOPHIE DUKER: HAG 21 MAR, 7:30PM, £6

Expect a tale of old hags, sexy stepmothers, deadly sins and magic pussy... maybe. It’s a work-inprogress. A COMEDY NIGHT THAT PASSES THE BECHDEL TEST

21 MAR, 9:30PM, £4 - £6

Best friends and certified alternative comedy goofballs Lauren Stone and Liberty Hodes bring their celebratory and faintly chaotic show to Glasgow, for a holiday. MAT EWINS’ TEST SCREENING

22 MAR, 5:30PM, £6

As seen on Live From the BBC and Harry Hill’s Clubnite, Ewins shows some mad new videos, and old favourites. TOM PARRY: PARRYOKE

22 MAR, 7:30PM, £8

Tom Parry is back with a brand new hour celebrating life, love and going tops off.

The Flying Duck ON THE FLY

22 MAR, 6:30PM, £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 CLAP

15 MAR, 6:30PM, FREE

Improv comedy night.

THE GLASGOW SHORT FORM IMPROV JAM 2 MAR, 7:00PM, FREE

Monthly short form improv comedy night. THE BITCHDEL TEST: THE LATEST SOAP OPERA 12 MAR, 7:30PM, £4 - £5

The Bitchdel Test presents a hilarious new episode of The Latest Soap Opera filled with dramatic twists and turns. FIJI AND A WEEGIE: TWO’S LINE IS IT ANYWAY

19 MAR, 7:30PM, £4 - £5

Join two of Glasgow’s finest improvisers for an hour of unscripted fun! Fiji and a Weegie bring you a hilarious show, filled with ridiculous characters and jokes. TROJAN HEARSE: DEAD FUNNY

26 MAR, 7:30PM, £4 - £5

Trojan Hearse are putting the fun back into funeral with an hour of unscripted comedy.

The Glee Club

LLOYD GRIFFITH: NOT JUST A PRETTY FACE 22 MAR, 7:00PM, £12 - £14

It’s been a busy few years for Grimsby’s favourite (for now, anyway) comedian/ choirboy, but he’s back with a new show.

The Hug and Pint MERYL O’ROURKE: VANILLA

13 MAR, 8:30PM, £6

The New World Order writer questions what her kids are being sold, and if any of it makes sense. SUNIL PATEL: WORK IN PROGRESS 14 MAR, 5:30PM, £6

Sunil Patel potters about on stage with some new jokes. GARRETT MILLERICK: 20/20 14 MAR, 10:00PM, £6

Back with his third show, Garrett Millerick is aiming for “something like Rocky III”. THE GLASGOW COMEDY SUBCRAWL 28 MAR, 4:00PM, £20

Starting in the city centre and finishing in the West End, this is a unique opportunity to discover Glasgow in a new way. THOMAS CRAVEN: ATTENTION!

28 MAR, 8:30PM, £5.50

Thomas Craven’s mystical Welsh upbringing led him on a comedic journey to Scotland where he must standup to get your attention. RAHEIL AHMAD: BAD MUSLIM 28 MAR, 10:00PM, £7.70 - £9.90

Being Muslim in society today is hard. Especially when it comes to juggling your Scottish identity, being a carer for family, and the cultural and social expectations loaded onto you as a young man.

The King’s Theatre

SUSIE MCCABE: BORN BELIEVER 28 MAR, 7:30PM, £22.90

In her 40th year, Susie McCabe has decided to leave cynicism behind to be an all-new positive Susie (optimistic at best, positive at pushing it). JANEY GODLEY’S SOUP POT TOUR

22-25 MAR, 7:30PM, £22.90

Check out some hilarious patter from Big Tereeza in Torremolinos, Boris and his bawjaws and see Nicola up on the big screen with all the latest patter.

The Old Hairdressers

MICKY OVERMAN IS COOL, FUNNY AND VERY INTERESTING (WIP) 28 MAR, 6:00PM, £5

A work-in-progress show from a comedian whose sharp social commentary is always accompanied by some incredible silliness. JOE SUTHERLAND: WERK IN PROGRESS 28 MAR, 7:30PM, £5

Work-in-progress from Joe Sutherland, as seen on Roast Battle, Stand-up Sketch Show and Sky’s Urban Myths.

SCOTT GIBSON: WORK IN PROGRESS 29 MAR, 6:00PM, £9

The big, bearded Glaswegian returns to the Glasgow International Comedy Festival with another storytelling show. RICH WILSON: FACE DOWN, NOISES OF (WIP) 29 MAR, 7:30PM, £9

The brand new comedy show by legendary comedian Rich Wilson.

The SSE Hydro STEVE MARTIN AND MARTIN SHORT

9 MAR, 6:30PM, £51.10 - £73.80

The comedy icons bring their critically-acclaimed tour, The Funniest Show in Town at the Moment, to Glasgow for the first time.

TREVOR NOAH: LOUD & CLEAR 20 MAR, 6:30PM, £35.20 - £113.50

The most successful comedian in Africa, and host of the Emmy award-winning The Daily Show, Trevor Noah comes to Glasgow.

The Stand Glasgow BRIGHT CLUB

9 MAR, 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. FRANKIE BOYLE: WORK IN PROGRESS 23-30 MAR, TIMES VARY, £12 - £15

A work in progress from the fantastic Frankie Boyle. THE FESTIVAL CLUB

14-28 MAR, 10:30PM, £17.50

Late night comedy at its best at The Stand Comedy Club, because who really wants an early night anyway? AMERICA STANDS UP 28 MAR, 7:30PM, £13 - £15

Be the first to see some of the biggest stars from across the pond in this superb showcase of American comedy talent.

THE BEST OF RED RAW 17-24 MAR, 9:00PM, £5

Red Raw is The Stand’s long-running new comedy showcase, regarded as the best open mic night in the UK where you can catch up to ten new acts – some treading the boards for the very first time. SCRAM

18 MAR, 9:30PM, £9 - £10

A night of sketch and stand-up from the Glaswegian comedy collective featuring Stephen Buchanan, Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, Rachel Graham, Marc Jennings and Rosco Mcclelland. SPONTANEOUS POTTER

23 MAR, 9:30PM, £8 - £10

A brand new Harry Potter play from some of Edinburgh’s most top notch improv wizards. PATRICK MONAHAN: STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM, NOW I’M HERE 22 MAR, 7:30PM, £12 - £14

Smart and funny observations on a new-found, middle-class lifestyle with ski holidays, through the prism of poor, immigrant, living-in-a-caravan roots. KERRY GODLIMAN: BOSH 24-25 MAR, TIMES VARY, £14 - £16

Kerry Godliman’s back on tour after what she thought would be a little ‘she’ time. No chance. Her bosh-like nature will never let her rest. MARK NELSON: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST 13 MAR, 8:30PM, £13.50

The award-winning stand-up returns, offering his unique take on today’s world.

March 2020 — Listings

Edinburgh and Glasgowstraddling night, with a powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent.

WEDNESDAYS

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £10 - £15

SPRING FLING

Regular Edinburgh club nights Cabaret Voltaire

TONTO TECHNO PRESENTS JULIAN JEWEIL

THE SKINNY

Regular Glasgow comedy nights The Amsterdam

MONDAYS (SECOND OF THE MONTH)

IMPROV KILLED MY MONDAY, 19:30, £2-3

A regular evening of unscripted comedy, featuring Improv Killed My Dog and special guest performers.

Blackfriars

TUESDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH) GLASGOW HAROLD NIGHT, 20:00, FREE

Glasgow Improv Theatre's flagship improv comedy show, featuring house team COUCH.

TUESDAYS (THIRD OF THE MONTH) LIGHT BULB, 20:00, FREE

An offbeat comedy show featuring stand-up, sketch, characters and improv.

The Stand Glasgow

MONDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH) MONDAY NIGHT IMPROV, 20:30, £3

Comedian improv battle. TUESDAYS

RED RAW, 20:30, £3

Legendary new material night with up to 10 acts.

WEDNESDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH) COMEDIAN RAP BATTLES, 20:30, £4-6

The country's best comedians battle it out, hosted by Neil The Wee Man Bratchpiece.

SATURDAYS

THE SATURDAY SHOW, 21:00, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians. SUNDAYS

MICHAEL REDMOND'S SUNDAY SERVICE, 20:30, £5-6

The Stand’s popular Sunday show has resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond at the helm.

The Glee Club FRIDAYS

FRIDAY NIGHT COMEDY, 19:00, £8-20

THE THURSDAY SHOW, 20:30, £5-10

The perfect way to end the working week, with four superb stand-up comedians.

FRIDAYS

SATURDAY NIGHT COMEDY, 19:00, £823.95

THURSDAYS

Start the weekend early with five comedians.

SATURDAYS

THE FRIDAY SHOW, 20:30, £6-12

An evening of awardwinning comedy, with four superb stand-up comedians that will keep you laughing until Monday.

The big weekend show with five comedians.

Regular Edinburgh comedy nights The Stand Edinburgh MONDAYS

RED RAW, 20:30, £3

Legendary new material night with up to 10 acts.

TUESDAYS (SECOND OF THE MONTH) BONA FIDE, 20:30, £5-6

New comedy show with a different theme every month, hosted by Jay Lafferty.

WEDNESDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH) SHAMBLES, 20:30, £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. WEDNESDAYS (THIRD OF THE MONTH)

March 2020 — Listings

THE END OF THE WORLD SHOW, 20:30, £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? THURSDAYS

THE THURSDAY SHOW, 21:00, £5-10

Start the weekend early with five comedians. THURSDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH) THE CABARET OF DANGEROUS IDEAS, 17:30, £5

Join The Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas and challenge your preconceptions on hot button issues. FRIDAYS

THE FRIDAY SHOW, 21:00, £6-12

The big weekend show with five comedians. SATURDAYS

THE SATURDAY SHOW, 21:00, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians. SUNDAYS

STU & GARRY'S FREE IMPROV SHOW, 13:30, £FREE

Improvised comedy at its very best every Sunday.

SUNDAYS

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN, 20:30, £5-6

Chilled Sunday night comedy to see out the weekend.

SUNDAYS (LAST OF THE MONTH)

JOJO SUTHERLAND AND SUSAN MORRISON: FANNY'S AHOY!, 17:30, £4-5

Set sail with the awardwinning grand dames of Scottish comedy.

Monkey Barrel Comedy Club

MONDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH) FREE FOR ALL, 19:00, £FREE

THURSDAYS (FIRST AND THIRD OF THE MONTH)

SPONTANEOUS POTTER, 20:00, £5

A brand new Harry Potter play from some of Edinburgh's most top notch improv wizards. THURSDAYS (SECOND AND LAST OF THE MONTH)

SPONTANEOUS SHERLOCK, 20:00, £5

An entirely improvised Sherlock Holmes comedy play from Scotland's hottest improv troupe. FRIDAYS

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY'S BIG FRIDAY SHOW, 19:00, £10-12

Edinburgh's only genuine open mic comedy night.

Monkey Barrel's flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.

PETER PANCAKES, 19:30, £FREE

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY'S BIG SATURDAY SHOW, 19:00, £14

MONDAYS (SECOND OF THE MONTH)

Phil O’Shea brings a handpicked selection of riotous lols to Monkey Barrel on the second Monday of the month.

MONDAYS (LAST OF THE MONTH) COMEDIAN SHOWDOWN, 19:00, £0-3

Two teams of comedians compete against each other through several rounds of humiliation, hilarity and hardship. TUESDAYS

PROJECT X, 19:00, £0-3

Monkey Barrel welcome the weird, the wacky and the downright hilarious to the stage. TUESDAYS (FIRST OF THE MONTH) THE EDINBURGH REVUE, 19:00, £0-2

The University of Edinburgh's Comedy Society, who put on sketch and stand-up comedy shows every two weeks. WEDNESDAYS

TOP BANANA, 19:00, £0-3

Catch the stars of tomorrow today in Monkey Barrel's new act night every Wednesday.

SATURDAYS

Monkey Barrel's flagship night of premier stand-up comedy. SUNDAYS

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY'S BIG SUNDAY SHOW, 19:00, £5

Monkey Barrel's flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.

Guilded Balloon Basement

THURSDAYS (SECOND OF THE MONTH) BELTER COMEDY, 20:00, £6

Bringing you the best and brightest of the comedy scene, showcasing brand new gags alongside tried and tested material. FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS

THE COMEDY SHOW, 20:00, £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.

DARREN CONNELL: CHUCKLETOWN 13-14 MAR, TIMES VARY, £12

Rubber-faced comedian and star of Scot Squad, Darren Connell returns with a brand new show about life in Glasgow. CHRIS FORBES: COME AWAY IN 14 MAR, 8:30PM, £10 - £12

Star of BBC Scotland’s Scot Squad, The Farm and The Other Murray Brother, Chris Forbes returns with a brand new show. THE BEST OF IRISH COMEDY 2020

15 MAR, 8:30PM, £13 - £15

Excellent value Celtic showcase, featuring four top comics for the price of one. COMEDIAN RAP BATTLES: NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS 16 MAR, 9:30PM, £8

The Wee Man presents a night of comedians facing off in bouts of hip-hop wits. DONALD ALEXANDER: YIKES! 17 MAR, 7:00PM, £9 - £10

The slender man of Scottish comedy, Donald Alexander is delighted to be performing at The Stand. PAUL SINHA: HAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE 19 MAR, 7:30PM, £11 - £13

Paul Sinha has lived his life content in the understanding that stability and emotional happiness were lovely ideas but not really for him. ASHLEY STORRIE

19-21 MAR, TIMES VARY, £11 - £13

Host of BBC Scotland’s Up For It and BBC Radio Scotland’s Friday nights, Ashley Storrie returns with another hour of her trademark warmth and wit.

GARETH WAUGH: JUST ME…? 20 MAR, 8:00PM, £12.50

Gareth Waugh has decided to come clean and share his innermost embarrassing stories in a brand new show. VLADIMIR MCTAVISH: 60 MINUTES TO SAVE THE WORLD 22 MAR, 9:30PM, £9 - £10

Global warming, fake news, Brexit, Trump, Britain in shambles, climate change, terrorism and the state of Scottish football are all covered in this show. MC HAMMERSMITH: 1 MAN 8 MILE 25 MAR, 9:00PM, £9 - £10

MC Hammersmith – aka Will Naameh, the tall, posh, skinny one from Spontaneous Potter and Men With Coconuts – is a freestyle rapper straight outta middle class white west London. NEIL DELAMERE: WORK IN PROGRESS

26 MAR, 7:30PM, £10 - £12

Star of BBC’s the Blame Game and Breaking the News, and radio’s Fighting Talk and the Newsquiz, Neil Delamere presents this work-in-progress show. MARC JENNINGS: HERE, BUT 26-28 MAR, TIMES VARY, £8 - £10

Join rising Scottish comedy star Marc Jennings for a brand new show following his sold-out debut at the Edinburgh Festival.

JAMIE MACDONALD: 2020 VISION FRINGE PREVIEW

27 MAR, 8:00PM, £10 - £12

The first chance to see Jamie MacDonald’s brand new Fringe show 2020 Vision months in advance, without having to go to Edinburgh. RAYMOND MEARNS: LIVE IN GLASGOW 2020

27 MAR, 10:30PM, £10 - £12

Raymond Mearns performs an extended solo stand-up comedy show every year in Glasgow and it always sell’s out weeks in advance, so get your tickets early. DAVID KAY: COOKED TOMATOES 29 MAR, 7:30PM, £10 - £12

David Kay is one of the hidden gems of the Scottish comedy circuit – quirky, surreal, unexpected, laconic and awesome.

DAMIAN CLARK: LIVE LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW (BUT THERE’S DEFINITELY A TOMORROW) 29 MAR, 9:30PM, £9 - £10

As seen on the Comedy Channel’s Damo Does Edinburgh and Comedy Central’s Seann Walsh World, the Aussie hurricane brings his brand new show to The Stand.

Tron Theatre

JARLATH REGAN: NOTIONS 11

1 MAR, 5:00PM, £8

As seen on Comedy Central’s Standup Central, Tonight at the Palladium and as heard on BBC Radio 4 and The Guilty Feminist podcast. SAM AVERY: TODDLERGEDDON

10-11 MAR, 8:30PM, £18

Join award-winning comedian and bestselling author Sam Avery (aka The Learner Parent) for an evening of hilarious stand-up, brand new for 2020. JAMALI MADDIX: STRIP CLUB EINSTEIN 15 MAR, 8:30PM, £11 - £13

Critically-acclaimed comedian and host of Vice’s Hate Thy Neighbour and Channel 4’s Adventures in Futureland, Jamali Maddix is heading out on tour again. KERRY GODLIMAN: BOSH 24-25 MAR, TIMES VARY, £14 - £16

Kerry Godliman’s back on tour after what she thought would be a little ‘she’ time. No chance. Her bosh-like nature will never let her rest. BENEFIT IN AID OF WOMEN 50:50

31 MAR, 8:30PM, £4

Comedy benefit show in aid of Women 50:50, Scotland’s campaign for equal representation for women in our councils, parliaments and on public boards.

DANE BAPTISTE: THE CHOCOLATE CHIP 27 MAR, 9:00PM, £14

One of the nation’s most exciting stand-up stars as he presents another brilliantly hilarious and boldly provocative show.

Edinburgh Comedy Gilded Balloon Basement THE COMEDY SHOW: NEW SH*T

12 MAR, 8:00PM, £2.50

The Comedy Show’s wee sister, where old pros and new talent try out fresh material for free.

SCOTT GIBSON AND PALS TRY NEW JOKES 4 MAR, 7:30PM, £10

Comedian Scott Gibson and pals road test new material, half-baked ideas, and ramble on about a story or two.

The Stand Edinburgh

MIDWEEK COMEDY CABARET

25 MAR, 8:30PM, £4 - £5

Midweek comedy showcase.

FRANKIE BOYLE: WORK IN PROGRESS 23-30 MAR, TIMES VARY, £12 - £15

A work in progress from the fantastic Frankie Boyle. THE STAND ACADEMY COMEDY COURSE

21 MAR, 10:00AM, £125

The legendary Stand Comedy Club welcomes you to our brand-new 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 22 MAR, 4:30PM, £3

The Stand Academy folks take to the stage.

— 76 —

Glasgow Theatre CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art SHORT ATTENTION SPAN THEATRE 2020 13-14 MAR, 7:30PM, £8 - £10

Short Attention Span Theatre returns to the CCA with a specially curated collection of short theatre from Chris McQueer, Catriona Duggan, Angie Strachan, Lorenzo Novani and Karen Barclay.

Pearce Institute

INTO THE NEW 2020 16-19 MAR, 5:00PM, £2 - £3

A festival of bold, new contemporary performance by graduating artists on the Contemporary Performance Practice programme at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Theatre Royal

AN INSPECTOR CALLS 24-28 MAR, 7:30PM, £13 - £55

Stephen Daldry’s multiaward-winning production of J.B. Priestley’s classic thriller. Matinee performances also available. DIAL M FOR MURDER 3-7 MAR, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

Frederick Knott’s intense and darkly gripping thriller, famously filmed by Alfred Hitchcock. Matinee performances also available.

Tramway

MRS PUNTILA AND HER MAN MATTI

25 MAR-11 APR, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

Brecht’s classic master and servant comedy is given a gender-switched adaptation by award-winning novelist and playwright Denise Mina. Matinee performances also available.

Theatre Tron Theatre WITHIN SIGHT

5-21 MAR, 8:00PM, PRICES VARY

Ellen Renton’s new spoken word theatre show is a onewoman performance based on her personal experience of living with albinism, and confronts everyday ableism. MAIM

6-18 MAR, 8:00PM, PRICES VARY

MAIM is a love song to the land and language of Mull, a burst of panic in the face of extinction, because the time to take action is running out.

THE METAMORPHOSIS 10-21 MAR, 7:45PM, £9 - £17

Franz Kafka’s iconic, tragicomic novella is brought vividly to life in this international co-production, adapted and directed by Vanishing Point’s Matthew Lenton. Matinee performances also available. JESUS L’OREAL: STILL NAILING IT! 24 MAR, 9:00PM, £10 - £12

Your sassy, dyslexic King of the Shoes descends in a cloud of Febreeze to celebrate the launch of his new fitness and well-being video, Get The Jordan Look. RUNNER

25 MAR, 9:00PM, £10 - £12

Chris McQueer takes a look at social media celebrity culture with the story of Scotland’s most famous influencer, Agnes Aratoria.

Edinburgh Theatre

Festival Theatre

BALLETBOYZ

8 MAR, 7:30PM, £17 £29.50

BalletBoyz is back, celebrating its 20th Anniversary with this brand new show.

EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE 3-7 MAR, 7:30PM, £29.50 - £49.50

The smash-hit musical telling the story of Jamie New, a 16-year-old boy who doesn’t quite fit in, attempting to overcome prejudice and bullying. Matinee performances also available. SCOTTISH OPERA: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

31 MAR-4 APR, 7:15PM, £21 - £70

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a story of illusion, mischief and transformation, celebrating the creative and often destructive power of love.

Gilded Balloon Basement SHORT ATTENTION SPAN THEATRE

11 MAR, 7:30PM, £4 - £6

An evening of short plays written and performed by emerging writers specifically for that event.

King’s Theatre Edinburgh THE HABIT OF ART

31 MAR-4 APR, 7:30PM, £19 - £36

Exploring friendship, rivalry and heartache this multi-layered masterpiece examines the joy, pain and emotional cost of creativity. Matinee performances also available.

Royal Lyceum Assembly Roxy Theatre HAY FEVER

WIND RESISTANCE

Spend an evening with the wealthy, self-obsessed and eccentric Bliss family. Each has invited a guest to spend the weekend at their country house – unbeknownst to the others.

Karine Polwart’s first foray into the world of theatre, inspired by the autumn migration of pink-footed geese from Greenland to a peat marsh near her home.

25 MAR, 7:30PM, £12

CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA

3 MAR, 7:30PM, £7.50 - £15

This film noir style production of Mascagni’s opera Cavalleria Rusticana is director Jen McGregor’s debut with Edinburgh Studio Opera, and will be conducted by Will Conway. PEPPER & HONEY

13 MAR, 7:30PM, £8 - £10

Croatian-born Ana’s arrived in the UK determined to make it home. As Grandma bakes traditional Croatian pepper biscuits, will this be enough to be reunited with her granddaughter? LA CASA DE BERNARDA ALBA

20 MAR, 7:30PM, £6 - £7

This production of Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca’s play La casa de Bernarda Alba is produced by Brigada Lincoln Spanish Theatre Company. ENDLING

28 MAR, 7:30PM, £10 - £12

Rob Heaslip’s Endling reimagines mourning rituals through dance, vocals, music and design.

25-28 MAR, 7:30PM, £28

MRS PUNTILA AND HER MAN MATTI 2-21 MAR, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

Brecht’s classic master and servant comedy is given a gender-switched adaptation by award-winning novelist and playwright Denise Mina. Matinee performances also available. PLAYING WITH TALES: SPRING LANTERN RIDDLES AND THE MALE QUEEN 15 MAR, 3:00PM, £5

Playing with Tales takes two classic Chinese texts and introduces a modern, Scottish slant.

Summerhall DAWN

24 MAR, 7:00PM, £8 - £10

A one woman rap musical about a hairdresser who saves the world from nuclear apocalypse.

The Edinburgh Playhouse DISNEY’S THE LION KING

1 MAR-18 APR, 7:30PM, £20 - £115

Stage adaptation of the favourited Disney film, bolstered by suitably dazzling staging and elaborate costumes, masks and puppets. Matinee performances also available.

THE SKINNY

Shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award, seeds tells the story of two mothers united in sorrow, sharing the hardship of protecting their sons. WE ARE IN TIME

3-4 MAR, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

Unfurling through song, words and a visionary live score, We Are In Time follows the extraordinary journey of two strangers, one giving life, the other receiving it. WITHIN SIGHT

5-21 MAR, 8:00PM, PRICES VARY

Fourteen dancers. Four distinct, exhilarating works. See where dance is now and where it may go next.

THE IASSIDD EXHIBITION

Seven performers aim to recreate on stage, in real time, one of the first zombie movies ever made, shot-forshot before our very eyes, undertaking the seemingly impossible.

Project Ability are delighted to share the work of five artists who, as a group, present an example of some of the amazing art being created by artists with a disability living in Scotland.

13-14 MAR, TIMES VARY, £10 - £20

Glasgow Art CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art

11-14 MAR, TIMES VARY, £5 - £27

1-22 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

A revelatory storytelling cycle about love, life, friendship, death – and the ridiculous, sublime muddles of everyday existence. MAIM

6-18 MAR, 8:00PM, PRICES VARY

MAIM is a love song to the land and language of Mull, a burst of panic in the face of extinction, because the time to take action is running out. THE DEPARTMENT OF DISTRACTIONS 19-20 MAR, 7:30PM, £5 - £15

Third Angel brings you a conspiracy-theory documentary-exposé detective story for the 21st century that asks: What aren’t you looking at? NT CONNECTIONS 2020

24-28 MAR, 7:00PM, £5

The National Theatre Connections festival is a celebration of young people, theatremaking and the importance of access to the arts. THE INFERNAL SERPENT

31 MAR-4 APR, TIMES VARY, £13.50

The Infernal Serpent puts a devilishly modern twist on an old story to consider why, and how, we protest.

Usher Hall

14 MAR, 8:00PM, £35.75 - £82.50

RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sasha Velour’s first onequeen theatre tour is an effortless blend of drag, visual art and magic.

Dundee Theatre Dundee Rep SMILE

1-7 MAR, 7:30PM, £10 - £25

A new piece based on the life of legendary footballer, Jim McLean, revealing the complexities and contradictions of this totally unique individual. Matinee performances also available. LOOPING: SCOTLAND OVERDUB 25-28 MAR, TIMES VARY, £10 - £17

A dance, party and politics experience where everyone is welcome.

SHUVINAI ASHOONA: HOLDING ON TO UNIVERSES

Known for her colourful pencil drawings, Shuvinai Ashoona portrays a range of scenes from remembered familial rituals and traditions to mystical, imagined events. ROSS FLEMING: FLEMING’S LEMONS

6-29 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

A participatory-installation which compares the lives of Gaëtan Dugas, mistakenly known as Patient Zero, and Daryll Rowe, arrested for intentionally transmitting the HIV virus to others, and discusses predatory sexual behaviour in the queer community.

Glasgow Print Studio

ALASDAIR GRAY: OMNIUM GATHERUM 1 MAR-12 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE

Originally planned as a retrospective, this exhibition will now be a memorial following the sad passing of Alasdair Gray at the end of 2019. FEATURED ARTIST: RICHARD MARSDEN

6-29 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

GSA Graduate Richard Marsden is a printmaker interested in formalistic compositions which derive from an interest in architecture and colour. GRAPHIC IMPACT: OUR LIVES IN PRINT

6-29 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition of archive prints by women artists between the 1970s and 2010s and new works designed by the studio’s Print Panel.

GoMA

HAL FISCHER, GAY SEMIOTICS AND OTHER WORKS

1 MAR-30 MAY, 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.

Platform

BOBBY STEELL: MY CREATIVE JOURNEY

1-29 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition focusing on the work of Glasgow-based artist Bobby Steell, featuring drawings and paintings that have been created both at home and at Platform.

3 MAR-9 APR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

South Block

BRITTNEY WENHAM: POLY CHROMA 2-24 MAR, 9:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A solo exhibition by Brittney Wenham, an American artist living and working in Glasgow, which explores sensory experiences and the self through striking abstract forms.

Street Level Photoworks

OSCAR MARZAROLI 1 MAR-5 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE

Oscar Marzaroli’s photographs and films of Glasgow from the 1950s through to the 1980s captured a period of enormous change with images of people going about their lives in the city, at work and at leisure.

The Briggait

LOUISE RITCHIE AND ROSALIND LAWLESS: MATERIAL STORIES

9-30 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

Playful material inventions that include painting, printmaking and sculpture are at the heart of this collaborative exhibition.

The Glasgow Art Club

FRANCE-LISE MCGURN: IN EMOTIA

1-29 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

The title, In Emotia, refers to a state of being, simultaneously emotional and in motion. McGurn’s figurative painting and wall drawings evoke bodies and limbs overlapping and interacting in ambivalent spaces. HARDEEP PANDHAL: CONFESSIONS OF A THUG: PAKIVELI

1-22 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

A multimedia exhibition, which takes its name from the 1839 novel Confessions of a Thug and its subtitle, Pakiveli, refers to one of the artist’s rap monikers, adapted from an alias of the late rapper 2Pac, Makiveli.

Transmission Gallery WHAT’S AHEAD, WHAT’S KNOWN

1-28 MAR, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Transmission is reimagining what an alternative to a white institution could look like, bringing together work by five different artists of colour.

Edinburgh Art City Art Centre THE ITALIAN CONNECTION

1 MAR-24 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Italian Connection explores the enduring bond between Scotland and Italy, celebrating the ability of art to transcend geographical borders.

153 YEARS OF PORTRAITURE IN THE GAC COLLECTION

Collective Gallery

This exhibition celebrates the Glasgow Art Club being a venue for the Scottish Portrait Awards 2019 by featuring objects from every era of the Club.

1-29 MAR, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

2-28 MAR, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

The Lighthouse

BRUCE HAMILTON: FURNITURE MAKERS

1-22 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition showcasing work by Bruce Hamilton, with new pieces bringing some of Mackintosh’s rarer designs to life. TWO QUARRIES

1 MAR-26 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE

Photographer Michael Peterson presents photgraphs depicting two quarries, one in his native Shetland and a second in Moray. CONNECTIONS | CONNESSIONI

1 MAR-17 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE

A dazzling international display of contemporary jewellery, from the UK’s Association for Contemporary Jewellery and its Italian sister organisation, l’Associazione Gioiello Contemporaneo.

SULAÏMAN MAJALI: SARACEN GO HOME

Taking its title from racist graffiti sprayed on a mosque in Cumbernauld in 2016, this installation from Glasgowbased artist Sulaïman Majali draws on historical narratives around Collective’s site to explore diasporic states. JULIJONAS URBONAS: PLANET OF PEOPLE 1 MAR-8 MAY, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

Planet of People is an artistic and scientific feasibility study of an artificial planet made entirely from human bodies.

Dovecot Studios

ARTS AND CRAFTS SCOTLAND: IN THE SPIRIT OF MORRIS

2 MAR-25 APR, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE

Step inside Scotland’s Arts & Crafts architecture gems with this series of stunning photographs from the Historic Environment Scotland photographic archive.

Edinburgh Printmakers

ACTINIC: PHOTOGRAPHY IN PRINT

3-21 MAR, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Edinburgh Printmakers and The ACTINIC Festival present an exhibition of photographic printmaking by Scottish-based artists that celebrates the techniques of Actinism in the context of contemporary visual arts practice.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

LUCY WAYMAN: CLOVEHITCH

2 MAR-30 MAY, 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. THINKING LIKE A MOUNTAIN

2 MAR-24 APR, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

The first collaborative exchange between Eleanor McCullough and Giulia Gentili highlights three central dualities at the heart of both their work: the natural and synthetic, object and image, and actual and virtual.

Ingleby Gallery MARINE HUGONNIER: TRAVEL POSTERS 4-28 MAR, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Across film, photography and a variety of other mediums, Marine Hugonnier engages with an ongoing questioning of image making and understanding.

National Museum of Scotland

PARASITES: BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL

1 MAR-19 APR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

This interactive familyfriendly exhibition will explore the fight to eliminate five tropical diseases and the role of research taking place in Scotland to do this. TYRANNOSAURS

1 MAR-4 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £6 - £12

3-21 MAR, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

An installation of new contemporary print works by Canadian artist Alexandra Haeseker illustrating botanical and entomological themes.

MOUNT STRANGE AND THE TEMPLE OF FAME

The RSA Annual Exhibition is a focal point of the RSA programme and showcases work from RSA Academicians the length and breadth of Scotland.

In this curated exhibition, four major female artists investigate and uncover managed histories, strange landscapes and the power of myth-making and folklore.

28 MAR-3 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

NOW: KATIE PATERSON, CIARA PHILLIPS AND OTHERS

1 MAR-31 MAY, 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. PICTURE HOOKS 2019

1 MAR-31 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

The highly-acclaimed exhibition returns for the fourth time to showcase the work of award-winning children’s illustrators alongside that of emerging illustrators. PAULA REGO: OBEDIENCE AND DEFIANCE

1 MAR-19 APR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £6.50 £11.50

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.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery THE REMAKING OF SCOTLAND | NATION, MIGRATION, GLOBALISATION 17601860 1 MAR-21 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition exploring the lives and careers of the Scots behind the period of dramatic change between 1760 and 1860.

Scottish Storytelling Centre

Explore the tyrannosaur family tree with life-size cast skeletons, rare fossils and incredible models.

EXHIBITION: QUIET PLACES, FEEDING THE IMAGINATION

Open Eye Gallery

Inspired by Scotland’s landscapes, seas and trees, this exhibition explores the magical qualities of light, patterns and colour, as part of a collaborative process with contributed poems, weavings and stories.

DIANE RENDLE: VOICES CARRIED ON THE WIND

6-30 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

Born and raised in East Africa, Diane Rendle’s work is representative of diversity within culture. This, combined with a love of travel, creates work inspired by the vibrancy of foreign lands. SHEILA MCINNES: GREET THE SKY

6-28 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

This showcase of recent paintings will highlight the wonderfully naïve approach to Sheila McInnes’ work, to which she has become known for.

Royal Scottish Academy RSA

ALEXANDRA HAESEKER: THE BOTANIST’S DAUGHTER

RSA ANNUAL EXHIBITION 2020

RSA NEW CONTEMPORARIES 2020

1-11 MAR, TIMES VARY, £0 - £6

Now in its twelfth year, this carefully curated exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see some of Scotland’s finest emerging talent under one roof, showcasing 63 graduates selected from the 2019 degree shows.

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6-28 MAR, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Stills

WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM THE AMBERSIDE COLLECTION 1-8 MAR, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

A selection of photographs from The AmberSide Collection, a unique archive that continues to grow out of the documentary production, commissioning, exhibition and touring work of Newcastle-based Amber Film & Photography Collective.

Summerhall

WILL KNIGHT: SOME OF SUMMERHALL – A SURVEY IN DRAWINGS 1-8 MAR, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

With this exhibition, Summerhall will join the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh, Dumfries House in Ayrshire and Renfield St. Stephens Church in having their ‘portrait’ drawn by Will Knight.

1-15 MAR, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

THE PLACE I CALL HOME 1-8 MAR, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Photographic exhibition featuring 15 artists exploring life in the Arab world and the Arab presence in the UK.

Talbot Rice Gallery PINE’S EYE

2 MAR-9 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE

Through masks, mannequins and magic, Pine’s Eye offers alternative perspectives for how we understand ourselves in the face of environmental crisis.

A LOVE LETTER TO DUNDEE: JOSEPH MCKENZIE PHOTOGRAPHS 19641987 21-31 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

In the latest of their changing annual displays, The McManus returns to Dundee of the 1960s-1980s, with photographer Joseph McKenzie’s stunning black and white photographs. TIME AND TIDE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE TAY 27-31 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

This exhibition looks at the influence the Tay has had on the city of Dundee, and how the growth of the city, particularly along the waterfront has affected the Tay, its wildlife and the people who live here.

V&A Dundee MAEVE REDMOND

1 MAR-15 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Dundee Art Cooper Gallery

A IS FOR AVANTGARDE, Z IS FOR ZERO 20 MAR-18 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE

A retrospective exhibition that uses the gallery space as a means to refract the work of influential theorists and filmmakers Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen through the prism of art.

DCA: Dundee Contemporary Arts SEIZED BY THE LEFT HAND

1-22 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

This international group exhibition takes as its starting point some of the ideas contained within American writer Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness.

Matthew Gallery

DJCAD THEN AND NOW

4-10 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition curated by Cooper Gallery’s Student Curatorial Team celebrating the past 10 years of Duncan of Jordanstone.

The McManus

LINKS WITH THE PAST

1-15 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

A partnership project between The McManus and the University of Edinburgh’s Unit for Forensic Anthropology Research has uncovered new details about a Pictish man’s life and death, which are revealed in a new display.

A compelling piece of graphic design that unpacks the wider context around a 19th century trade catalogue by cast iron manufacturers Walter MacFarlane & Co. CIARA PHILLIPS

1 MAR-15 SEP, 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. SCOTTISH DESIGN GALLERIES

1 MAR-15 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Explore the everyday relevance of design and how it improves our lives, experience the processes that underpin it and discover little-known stories of Scottish design with international impact.

SEWING BOX FOR THE FUTURE

1 MAR-24 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

By focusing on three areas: care, repair and customisation, Sewing Box for the Future aims to show how we can tackle the crisis of waste in the fashion industry. FAUX SHOP

1 MAR-24 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Faux Shop focuses on the beautiful, yet seemingly unremarkable shop window displays of the 20th century, filled with items from Atelier E.B’s fashion collection Jasperwear.

WASPS Studios

TUMIN & PRENDERGAST: SURREAL ESTATES

26 MAR-2 APR, 12:00PM – 4:00PM, FREE

Using the house as a metaphor for the human condition, this exhibition explores and conveys a shared preoccupation with all kinds of power relationships.

March 2020 — Listings

SASHA VELOUR: SMOKE AND MIRRORS

Project Ability

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: REMIX

Ellen Renton’s new spoken word theatre show is a onewoman performance based on her personal experience of living with albinism, and confronts everyday ableism. SONGS OF FRIENDSHIP

Art

Tramway

Crossword Solutions

20-21 MAR, 8:00PM, £5 - £15

11 MAR, 7:30PM, £8 - £11

Across 3. PISS IN A CUP 9. JOINT 10. JOHNNY MARR 11. SKYE 12. ARENA 13. SLAB 15. NUPTIAL 17. HERE WE FUCKING GO 23. ACQUIRE 25. PEAK 26. LEAKS 28. CUPS 29. INSULATION 31. HENNA 32. EISTEDDFOD

SEEDS

VERVE: MIXED BILL

Down 1. ROSKILDE 2. ONCE 4. IMO 5. SUNTAN 6. NE-YO 7. CHARGING 8. PORTALOO 10. JA RULE 14. BEE 16. PPI 17. HEADLINE 18. REQUESTS 19. WII 20. KRAKEN 21. NAP 22. GLAMPING 24. ELATED 27. FLEE 28. CREW 30. OOO

Traverse Theatre

THE SKINNY

Caitlin Moran’s hilarious coming-of-age memoir How to Build a Girl is soon to hit the big screen, with Booksmart’s Beanie Feldstein playing the Moran surrogate. Read on to discover Moran’s fave Beatle and a secret about bums

Photo: Mark Harrison

The Skinny On...

The Skinny On... Caitlin Moran

What’s your favourite place to visit and why? Wales. Lush valleys and moss and rain and the power of a good cagoule, and a flask of tea up a hill, squatting under a tree with a very powerful Ordnance Survey Map. It’s where I stop wanting anything other than where I am.

When did you last cry? Ten minutes ago – DJ Andrew Weatherall died yesterday, and I’m listening to one of his old radio shows. In the middle of a mix, he said, “I don’t want to be mawkish, but when I die, I’d like them to play this when they lower me into the ground,” and he played Dennis Wilson. Weatherall was just a good, clever, joyous man – he had the best collections of everything: records, books, ideas, friends. “Dust the ornaments on the mantlepiece of your mind,” he’d say, playing yet another tune you’d never heard before that sounded like it came from a parallel, and better, universe than this. Sleep well, King of men.

Favourite food and why? I’ve Tweeted about many, many things in my time – ALL THE THINGS, in fact – but one of the most popular was when I realised an eternal truth: nine times out of ten, all I want to eat is a piece of bread and butter. Good bread – the Angel Bakery in Abergavenny make a sourdough which is WITCHCRAFT – and enough cold butter that you leave a cliff-face of teeth-marks in it when you bite.

March 2020 — Chat

Favourite colour and why? Red. Our kitchen is red, my shoes are red, my hair was red for years. It’s the colour that says “LET’S STAY UP ALL NIGHT TALKING.”

What are you most scared of? It used to be baldness, but RuPaul’s Drag Race has convinced me wigs might be even better than hair.

Who was your hero growing up? Charlotte Brontë. She wrote about plain, poor girls who had amazing interior lives, and triumphed just by keeping on and speaking the truth. I related. Whose work inspires you now? So many! Caroline Criado Perez is a constant – she’s a practical feminist. Sees a problem, and fixes it with common sense and diligence. Noticed that TV and radio shows generally only book male experts? She formed The Women’s Room: a list of female experts producers could call on. Feel the world is oddly physically uncomfortable for women? She spent four years researching ‘invisible women’ – finding the data on how cars, medicines, bricks, phones and transport are designed for men’s bodies and lives, not women’s. Every single person in power should read that book. She has done the world a genuine service.

Who’s the worst? I can’t slag off anyone else’s book – even if it’s a towering pile of horse manure. Someone sat a long time on a chair writing it, and my lower back twinges in sympathy with them.

When did you last vomit and why? Last month. I finally realised I can’t eat oysters with champagne. The results are explosive. What three people would you invite to your dinner party and what are you cooking? My best friends Lauren Laverne, Sali Hughes, Nadia Shireen, John Niven and Hugo Rifkind. They’re the regulars. Food will be some Ottolenghi vegetarian thing I’ll spend all day pottering around cooking whilst listening to the Dear Joan and Jericha podcast. What’s your all-time favourite album? Abbey Road. The sheer force of will Paul McCartney employed holding an imploding Beatles together, and stitching fragments of songs together to make Side 2. The Beatles story is

my Bible. It’s the template I understand and measure the world by. Paul’s the best, obviously. What’s the worst film you’ve ever seen? I am irrationally angered by The Shawshank Redemption. A man digs a tunnel with a spoon. Well done. What book would you take to a desert island? The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. The funniest book ever written. As you get older, your sympathies shift from first Adrian, to his feminist mum, to his can-do grandmother.

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Tell us a secret? Everyone has spots on their bum. Which celebrity could you take in a fight? Literally none. I’m a lover, not a fighter. I’d like to think I could shag any celebrity? They all secretly want my sweet ass. If you could be reincarnated as an animal, which animal would it be? Dog. Specifically, our dog. No creature is more worshipped for doing fuck-all other than snuggle or trot jauntily. How to Build a Girl UK premiere followed by a Q&A with Caitlin Moran, 8 Mar, GFT

THE SKINNY

Art

March 2020 — Review

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March 2020 — Chat

The Skinny On...

THE SKINNY

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