Edinburgh
Rick Redbeard, Electric Circus, EdinburghWednesday, 13 March 2013
Rick Redbeard has a pirate’s name and a voice like deep, dark water. Behind the colourful alter ego stands (or, as was the case last night, sits) Rick Anthony, singer of The Phantom Band, the Scottish six-piece whose two albums – Checkmate Savage... Read more... |
Richard Thompson, Usher Hall, EdinburghFriday, 01 March 2013
There is a problem with every single Richard Thompson concert and it is one of omission. With a songbook to rival the best in the business, every triumphant rendition of one song comes tinged with the knowledge that some other gem has been elbowed... Read more... |
The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society, Traverse Theatre, EdinburghSaturday, 08 December 2012
What is truth? Is it fixed or fluid, personal or universal? Does it require hard evidence or merely faith? These are the areas of interest poked and prodded in this co-production between the Traverse and Peepolykus, the company which previously... Read more... |
Cinderella, Royal Lyceum, EdinburghMonday, 03 December 2012
The idea of making the princely hero of Cinderella a preening, vacuous lead character from some BBC Three-style reality show is a good one. These days the notion of a smart, self-respecting young woman limiting her horizons by playing accessory to a... Read more... |
Rodriguez, Usher Hall, EdinburghMonday, 26 November 2012
We surely all know the story of Sixto Rodriguez by now. The Detroit-born singer-songwriter made two fine albums in the early 1970s, Cold Fact and Coming from Reality, before swiftly vanishing. As he descended into obscurity his music slowly rose to... Read more... |
CD: Steve Adey - The Tower of SilenceThursday, 22 November 2012
English singer-songwriter Steve Adey has taken six years to follow up his excellent debut album, All Things Real, and at first it’s hard to tell why. These 10 songs, simply constructed, are executed without any great fuss or ornament, but slowly... Read more... |
Lau, Queen's Hall, EdinburghWednesday, 07 November 2012
It’s all becoming a bit “water is wet“, isn’t it, saying how brilliant Lau are. But what else to do? Their name means “natural light” in Orcadian, which seems about right, except their vaulting, endlessly innovative take on contemporary chamber folk... Read more... |
Jack Dee, Edinburgh PlayhouseTuesday, 30 October 2012
“When I was a teenager even I had a period when apparently I was quite morose,” Jack Dee tells the Edinburgh crowd, his hangdog features projecting various extremes of existential agony. “But, hey, I got through it." This may be Dee’s first standup... Read more... |
The Guid Sisters, Royal Lyceum, EdinburghWednesday, 26 September 2012
The 1989 production at the Tron in Glasgow of Bill Findlay and Martin Bowman’s translation of Les Belles-Soeurs, the 1965 play by Québécois writer Michel Tremblay, has become a landmark event in Scottish theatre. This new co-production between the... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: James Acaster/David Trent/Daniel Simonsen/Ben TargetSaturday, 25 August 2012
James Acaster: Prompt, Pleasance Courtyard *** James Acaster has certainly been studying his craft since he made his Fringe debut with an unmemorable show last year, and it shows in Prompt. Lots of comedy tropes are utilised, some of them to... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Tony LawFriday, 24 August 2012
Tony Law: Maximum Noonsense, The Stand Tony Law, Canadian by way of Trinidad and Tobago, has been kicking around the comedy circuit for several years with a style of madcap humour that many have delighted in but others have found self-... Read more... |
Angela Carter: Inside the Bloody ChamberFriday, 24 August 2012
Eighteen months before her death from lung cancer at the age of 51, Angela Carter talked to Jenni Murray on Woman’s Hour. She had just edited The Virago Book of Fairy Tales (1990), a rich stew of stories – Eskimo, Swahili, Armenian – which she had... Read more... |
