In Glasgow there’s a women-only whisky club. It was started by 29 year-old Geraldine Murphy after the Murphy family took over the Pot Still Bar three years ago. The traditional pub in Hope Street tends to have a male clientele and the assistant manager wanted women to be able to come in to the bar and feel happy asking staff about one of the largest selection of whiskies in Scotland.
Designing a new building for the Glasgow School of Art to sit alongside Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece must have felt like a huge responsibility for american architect Steven Holl. The Reid Building, named after Dame Seona Reid, who stood down as director of GSA last summer, provides a new home for the design school.
Let’s ease our way gently in to Monday morning shall we with this crowd pleasing Joni Mitchell cover by rising Scottish star Siobhan Wilson performing at Roddy Hart’s recent Roaming Roots Revue – a sell out Celtic Connections show Avocado Sweet was lucky enough to attend. The night was a paean to the wordy, gentle and summery sounds of the Laurel Canyon music scene of the 1970s – Joni Mitchell, Crosby Stills
There’s something of the Paris bistro about Guy’s in Glasgow’s merchant city. The decor, with its white wood panelling, wall hung china plates and modern art may be eclectic but it’s a welcome change from the many interior-designed eateries in the city. It’s also an interesting lesson in how important the shape of the location is to a restaurant’s atmosphere; the ‘busy neighbourhood bistro’ feel is largely down to the
Artist Doreen Le Marinel, chic and charming in person and the creator of these sophisticated, tender and deeply feminine works, seems quintessentially French. She hails however from Clydebank, moving to France with her French husband more than 20 years ago. Le Marinel, who is self taught, is inspired by the work of Klimt, Schiele and the sculpture of Camille Claude and exhibits regularly in Brittany where she now lives.
These 1960s plans for Irvine ‘New Town’ show the architects had the best intentions even if the results attracted controversy. Irvine was officially designated as a ‘New Town’ in 1966, the fifth and last to be developed in Scotland and the only ‘new town’ to be located on the coast. The other Scottish ‘New Towns’ were East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Cumbernauld and Livingston. Plans are afoot for Irvine. There is the
BalconyTV films bands from balconies around the world. The Black Cab Sessions films from black cabs. Fittingly for Scotland, Tenement TV is recorded in a tenement flat. In 2011, aged 23, Chae Houston, started filming bands from his flat in the west end of Glasgow with the help of his flatmates – cameraman Jamie Logie and Paul McJimpsey. At the start, Paul, who has a promotions company, used his contacts
The first Sunday Assembly outside London will take place in Glasgow on 31 March. The venue is still being finalised, but the speaker is Scottish comedian Susan Calman (bottom picture). The Sunday Assembly is an atheist church started by Sanderson Jones (pictured below) and Pippa Evans. Using comedy to attract an audience to church seems an obvious idea that hadn’t occurred to anyone until Jones and Evans came along. In
We are delighted to bring you an exclusive interview with Toby Paterson, one of Scotland’s most successful contemporary artists. Here he discusses the impact of place in public art. Artworks appear courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute. AS: Public art – is there any point? TP: In terms of the built environment, art is the prism through which everyday experience can be elevated beyond the utilitarian and the mundane.
Sonica, Glasgow first sonic arts ‘festival’ might be both flattered and bemused by Grazia magazine’s ‘brilliant but bonkers’ tag. But it does serves as a warning to those who are fairly traditional when it comes to visual art and sound. The brilliant bit is the radical nature and the theatricality of the performances. Lithuanian composer Juste Janulyte presents the Scottish premiere of her work Sandglasses (8 & 9 Nov, Tramway),