Reviews & features: Issue 662

House Cabaret

Getting up close and personal has never been easier with a personalised performance from your house. Host your very own cabaret at your own venue with your own friends. For one night only, a small troupe of dedicated cabaret artists arrives at your…

Edinburgh Book Fringe - Elaine Henry interview

The owner of Word Power Books answers five questions

Why did you set up the Edinburgh Book Fringe in the first place? To give local writers, small publishers and writers outwith the mainstream the sort of voice or platform they wouldn’t get access to during the festival period. Can you describe the…

Hi Fives for Diversity

Celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity

It’s the kids’ last chance to take part in Our Dynamic Earth’s International Year of Biodiversity celebrations this week, with activities all over the centre. High five the Community Tree, learn about how Arctic animals have adapted to their harsh…

Profusion of painting at 2010 Edinburgh Art Festival

Richard Wright, Joan Mitchell and Julie Roberts head up painting programme

Painting has inspired some epic declarations over the years. In the 1960s Donald Judd declared the medium dead. In 2005 Young British Artist Damien Hirst advised people that they were more important than paintings. And this year, in light of the…

Gyles Brandreth - middle-aged, ex-MP, author, and Fringe show stalwart

British author-cum-broadcaster-cum-Fringe show stalwart Gyles Brandreth talks about the highs and lows of his festival fortunes. "Edinburgh is a parallel universe. We do things differently here. I was a middle-aged, ex-MP with a tragic comb-over and…

Taste returns to Edinburgh's reopened Liquid Room

The Liquid Room's Sunday regulars are back

Here are some reasons to attend the 16-year-old Taste club night at the Liquid Room as the club re-opens in the middle of the of the Edinburgh Festivals

David Benson's Unfinished Business

Award-winning performer David Benson talks to Steve Cramer about a powerful new piece of theatre that explores the Lockerbie tragedy from the point of view of a grieving parent Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic froth at the mouth about the…

Headspin festival date to be its last

DJ Yoda date marks end of 12 years of clubbing

As Headspin comes to an end, DJ/promoter Allan Dunbar talks to Henry Northmore about their final date and why they’ve booked DJ Yoda to play their last night.

Edinburgh Festivals’ Cavalcade

With floats from all aspects of the Edinburgh Festivals, as well as community groups and commercial ventures and the entire cast of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, the cavalcade returns to Holyrood Park to kick-start yer official Edinburgh Crazy Season.

Farm Boy wins this week's best bribe by sending a miniature tractor

This week’s best bribe was this charming miniature 1922 Fordson Tractor, sent by the folk behind Michael Morpurgo’s Farm Boy (adapted by Daniel Buckroyd). The play is a sequel to War Horse, which focused on a young boy and his horse on a journey through…

Quartet of notable U.S. comics stand-up for America

Jennifer Coolidge, Bo Burnham, Caroline Rhea and Charlyne Yi hit Fringe 2010

Jennifer Coolidge is having trouble describing her own stand-up show. She asks a friend who is within shouting distance for help. ‘Michael?’ she calls, in a sugary purr. ‘I have Scotland on the line. What’s my show like?’ After a pause an answer booms…

Fringe 2010 cabaret offerings are as colourful as ever

Smoke & Mirrors, Alan Cumming and The Crack

From pared down to jazz-hands up, this year’s variety and cabaret offerings are as colourful as ever. Anna Millar meets the makers to find out why we just can’t get enough It’s a certain man who can shimmy from club door whore to straight-talking…

Fringe show Willy Wonka Explained tracks down the original Veruca Salt

Matthew Hardy and Julie Dawn bring a pinch of Salt to Edinburgh

Everyone reaches a low point in their lives, when it feels natural to seek solace in objects that remind us of happier, perhaps more innocent times. When Matthew Hardy was dumped by two girlfriends (years and continents apart), he couldn’t stop sticking…

Toby Williams brings Dr George Ryegold back to Fringe

Applying surgery to a subtle character creation

For someone who has suffered crippling stage fright, it seems extraordinary that we have even heard of Dr George Ryegold. Having heard from his agent that a parting of the ways might have to come, Toby Williams (the actor behind the maverick medic) told…

Kids show Tall Storrie & Wee Godley at this year's Fringe

The Glasgow comedy queen Jane Godley answer 5 questions

Glasgow comedy queen Janey Godley has pushed all her blue material aside to team up with daughter Ashley Storrie for their kids show Tall Storrie & Wee Godley. She tells us why we should go along. Give five reasons why people should come and see…

Tuck into the Fringe - five shows you can watch while you eat

See it all without missing a meal

We have compiled a list of shows that you can watch while also being served some delicious shows. Don't miss your dinner without also seeing a show!

Five new faces in British comedy to watch in Edinburgh

A quintet of bright and shiny debutants from the UK

Joe Rowntree Hindsight is a great thing, but who knows where this guy would be now had his planned collaboration with Laura Solon in 2005 arrived in Edinburgh. She only went and won the Perrier on her tod and half a decade later, he’s making his…

Festival Briefing 2010

Some things we think might help you at this year's festivals

Here's a short briefing about some things to look forward to during the Book Festival, the Fringe, in Music events, and Shopping opportunities in Edinburgh

Addy Van Der Borgh brings Advanced Mumbo Jumbo to Fringe

Five words and their more honest definitions

‘The pen is mightier than the sword’ is not strictly true, especially in a fight, but there is some truth in it. Words, as we know, can be very powerful, especially when put together in the right order. Here are five words and their more honest and thus…

Lady Carol - Malady

We asked the singing, ukelele playing, dark-humorist five questions

This ukelele lady has an inky-black sense of humour, and can turn the sweetest of love songs into a creepy stalker anthem. Just, please, keep her away from bright light and cakes. Five words you’d use to describe your show Sad songs, silly…

Mitchell Museum at the Edge Festival

Jangly, indie-pop by Weegie flatmates

Mitchell Museum, so legend has it, live, write and record together in a flat in the centre of Glasgow, Monkees-style. ‘It’s true,’ reveals their singer, Cammy MacFarlane. ‘It’s on Sauchiehall Street, just above Nice ‘n’ Sleazy. Well, above and to the…

Lach’s Antihoot - anti-folk night imported from NYC

Birthplace of Beck, Regina Spekto and Jeffrey Lewis comes to Fringe

‘The Antihoot is the heartbeat of the anti-folk revolution,’ explains its infamous founder, Lach. ‘It produced US acts like Regina Spektor, Beck and Jeffrey Lewis, and inspired UK practitioners like Kate Nash and Laura Marling.’ It also prompted…

Villagers at the Edge Festival

Tender, poetic pop, now with added Mercury nomination

‘I usually have a picture or a colour in my head as I’m making a song,’ says Dublin’s Conor O’Brien – the dulcet bard and multi-instrumentalist behind Villagers’ picturesque rock. And so it was with Becoming a Jackal (Domino), the dramatic…

NeWt play Led Zeppelin at the Jazz Bar

Hyper-imaginative and unconvential jazz trio

What Is It? A hyper-imaginative and unconventional jazz trio formed by Australian trombonist Chris Greive, Aberdonian guitarist Graeme Stephens and American drummer Chris Wallace, all Edinburgh residents. Who are these guys? Three of the best…

Edinburgh Mela 2010

An international and ceremonial start to the Festivals

These days the Mela is just as much of a ceremonial start to Edinburgh’s Festivals as the (often far less exciting) Fringe Cavalcade. This year, alongside Bollywood dance shows, multi-artform companies from China, traditional Sufi music from Rizwan…