Edinburgh
EIFF: 19 world premieres, 150 filmsWednesday, 30 May 2012The Edinburgh International Film Festival organisers have left it till after Cannes to announce their own programme for next month. It’s not all about the numbers, but for the record the 121 news films at the EIFF will come from 52 countries,... Read more... |
Dara O Briain, The Playhouse, EdinburghFriday, 25 May 2012
The fact that the latest in a long line of Dara O Briain DVDs is already on sale on Amazon is pretty impressive considering that he hasn’t recorded it yet. I know this because the second show of his four-night run at the Playhouse happened to be the... Read more... |
Graham Coxon, Liquid Room, EdinburghTuesday, 17 April 2012
Funny how things turn out. As Damon Albarn has morphed from Blur’s Fred Perry-sporting jackanapes into the thinking man’s musical adventurer, flitting from opera to Malian music to cartoon conceptualist, Graham Coxon has opted to pursue the low key... Read more... |
Simone Felice, Electric Circus, EdinburghThursday, 12 April 2012
Nothing tests an artist’s mettle more severely than having to negotiate a full-blown case of tech-horror. Half way through the third number last night, a particularly sweet version of “Summer Morning Rain“, an ear-scorching sonic car crash brought... Read more... |
Edinburgh International Festival 2012Tuesday, 03 April 2012
The Edinburgh International Festival runs this year from 9 August to 2 September, with an energetically global look. Forty-seven nations - around a third of the world's countries - are represented in a conscious reflection of the focus of the London... Read more... |
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, 2012-13 SeasonThursday, 22 March 2012The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) has announced its 2012-13 season. Donald Runnicles opens his fourth season as chief conductor with the first act of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, launching the orchestra... Read more... |
Royal Scottish National Orchestra 2012-13 SeasonTuesday, 20 March 2012Peter Oundjian - succeeding Stéphane Denève as Music Director - leads the new artistic team at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for the 2012-13 Season. The new Principal Guest Conductor is Thomas Søndergård. The season... Read more... |
The Black Keys, Corn Exchange, EdinburghSunday, 05 February 2012
I last saw Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney’s primitive garage blues duo a little under four years ago, touring their sixth album Attack & Release. Truth be told, I found them slightly heavy going. Big riffs, big drums, back-of-a-beer mat lyrics and... Read more... |
2011: Siren Songs, Top Tales, and Farewell to the MavericksFriday, 30 December 2011
We have, thankfully, long since moved beyond the point where there's any need to delineate or categorise works of art according to gender. However, looking back at 2011 it's hard to escape the conclusion that the most compelling music emerged from... Read more... |
Beauty and the Beast, Royal Lyceum, EdinburghTuesday, 13 December 2011
This year's seasonal production from the Lyceum is one of those shows that feels more like an uninspired stocking filler than a big, beautiful, beribboned gift. Neither magically Christmassy (it begins on Halloween, and the only substance falling... Read more... |
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, EdinburghFriday, 09 December 2011
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has been transformed with a £7.6 million facelift. As a first-timer I confess I don’t have a clue what it looked like before, but I am assured it was dark and gloomy and had the air of a building cast aside in... Read more... |
KT Tunstall: the fine art of downsizingSunday, 13 November 2011
Spinal Tap’s hapless manager had a great phrase for it. “Their appeal,” he said, “is becoming more selective.” There are other words which cover more or less the same waterfront: “stripped back”, “scaled down”, “raw”, “intimate”. All tend to be... Read more... |
