News and features
Interview: Harry Belafonte, singer
He fought for civil rights alongside Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Marlon Brando, Barack Obama’s mother reckons he’s the best-looking man on the planet and he has had hit records galore, but Harry Belafonte is suspicious of celebrities who write about their lives. So how come he has written a memoir and documentary about his own?
Album review: PiL; This is PiL
John Lydon sounds very relaxed on PiL’s first album in 20 years – as much as is possible while sounding like a deranged children’s entertainer
Fringe set for record despite Olympic clash
A RECORD number of shows are to be staged at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, despite a clash with the London Olympics.
Scottish Opera maestro agrees another year
Scottish Opera’s music director is to step down in 2013 after extending his contract by a single year to see out its 50th anniversary season.
Album reviews: Ultravox | Scissor Sisters | Classical | Jazz | Folk | World
The Scotsman’s team of music critics lend their ears to the latest releases...
Album reviews
Album review: Scissor Sisters
Has Jake Shears recovered his mojo after misplacing it so carelessly before Night Work, an album on which he seemed to forget what the day job was? In parts, yes he has, but Magic Hour still strays off message occasionally.
CD of the Week: Paul Buchanan - Mid Air
THE Proclaimers recently told The Scotsman that they have always been attracted to writing the same kind of song, one which embodies a poetic and melodic simplicity, because that way lies honesty and integrity.
Album reviews: Tom Jones | Cold Specks | Gaz Coombes | Classical | Jazz | Folk
THE Scotsman gives its verdict on the pick of this week’s longplayer releases
CD reviews: Paul Buchanan | John Mayer | Admiral Fallow | Folk | Jazz | Classical video
The voice of the Blue Nile emerges with his first solo album, a selection of short but certain songs which sound like the soundtrack to a melancholy black and white Sunday afternoon.
Album reviews: Morten Harket | The Gossip | Tenacious D | Classical | Jazz | Folk | World
The Scotsman’s team of music critics lend their ears to the latest releases
Gig reviews
Gig review: Kassidy, Edinburgh Pleasance Theatre
For a band who’ve had major label support for some time now, it has been a long road to public recognition for Glasgow rockers Kassidy, but the recent revelation that their singer Barrie-James O’Neill is dating the internationally-famed singer Lana Del Rey was merely gossip column affirmation that their work is close to earning them a seat at the top table.
Gig review: Guns ‘n’ Roses, Glasgow SECC
It’s hard not to speculate as to the contempt Axl Rose might hold his audience in. Not through anything he said or did during this latest Glasgow date from his band (actually the singer backed by a bunch of capable session men, Slash and co having long since parted ways with him), which certainly counted as an arena spectacular in the most literal sense.
Gig review: Keane, Glasgow Academy
EMPLOYING their usual blend of mild manners and stirring radio-friendly anthems, Keane have hit the top of the album chart for the fifth consecutive occasion with their latest MOR offering, Strangeland.
Gig review: Saint Etienne, Glasgow Oran Mor
For some, Saint Etienne are the quintessential London pop band, but their own pursuit of the perfect pop formula extends well beyond those city limits – the sounds, past and present, of New York, Ibiza and even Glasgow are evoked as much as swinging Camden or leafy Hampstead in their catalogue.
Gig review: Gary Numan, Glasgow ABC
Like the grinding machine music he makes, Gary Numan is as reliable as a German car or a Swiss watch. Beneath a surface that appears as synthetic and dehumanised as his finest contemporaries from the early years of mass-appeal electronica, however, beats a hot-blooded heart.
Classical reviews
Classic review: BBC SSO: Glass Premiere, City Halls, Glasgow
IT has taken ten years for Philip Glass’s Sixth Symphony Plutonium Ode to reach a British concert hall. Written originally to mark his 65th birthday, it finally received a UK premiere last night as part of this year’s ongoing celebrations of the American composer’s 75th birthday.
Classical review: Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Perth Concert Hall
BEING a child of the former East Berlin, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra is a band we are perhaps less familiar with than its famous West German counterpart, the Berlin Philharmonic.
Classical review: English Touring Opera: The Barber of Seville
ENGLISH Touring Opera’s new production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville has been doing the rounds since it opened in London a couple of months ago.
Classical review: Idil Biret, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
IT’S over 65 years since Idil Biret first started playing.
1 commentClassical review: RSNO: Au Revoir Stephane, Usher Hall, Edinburgh
IT WAS inevitable that Stéphane Denève would make a lasting statement at his final Edinburgh concert as musical director of the RSNO. He did it with a kilt, which, together with his wild, tousled reddish hair, marked him out as the honorary Scot he has become during his seven years in charge of the orchestra.
- Scottish independence: I don’t want ‘separatism’ says Sir Tom Farmer
- Craig Levein insists Scotland will recover from US thrashing
- Scotland’s weather: Scots enjoy record temperatures over weekend
- USA 5 - 1 Scotland: US take a sledgehammer to Scotland’s credibility
- Call for sleaze inquiry into peer’s expenses
- Scottish independence: I don’t want ‘separatism’ says Sir Tom Farmer
- Craig Levein insists Scotland will recover from US thrashing
- Scottish independence: Labour voters ‘will deliver independence’
- James McPake set for Coventry talks as Hibs wait in wings
- Rangers administration: End game nears for fallen icon
- Cigarettes to be given out
- Sniper celebrates with cigar after killing Taliban officer
- Dubai jet-set ready for first-class Scotland
- Obituary: Tom Scott, Loch Lomond legend and ‘laird’ of Inchmurrin Island who saved many lives on the loch
- Edinburgh marathon: Kenyan John Mutai edges thrilling capital race
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Weather for Edinburgh
Monday 28 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
