Coffee-Table Notes

Bill Drummond has been making a spectacle of himself for almost half a century. In a myth-making anti-career with assorted ideas and accomplices in tow, he has subverted the mainstream in ways which the mainstream didn't expect, notice or understand, but which changed forever anyway. Bill Drummond is still The Man. Some might call him a national treasure. He'd hate that. This was written for the press release to promote Bill Drummond's appearance as part of Neu! Reekie!'s Where Are We Now? Edina event that took place at Leith St Andrew's Church, Edinburgh on April 28 th 2017. The release went out on March 7 th 2017, and also featured words from Hannah McGill, Leo Condie, Rab Choudhry and Davie Miller. Also on the bill on the night were poet Clare Pollard, Callum Easter, 404 Ink / Nasty Women's Laura Jones and Heather McDaid, animators Iain Gardner and Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson, plus What We Have Done, a new film by Bonnie Prince Bob...

Big Gold Dream is the everyday story of how a group of disaffected youth in search of the only fun in town went on to change the world. High on theory and with only cheek, cheek-bones and cheap guitars to get them through between dole cheques, they took a set of hand-me-down reference points plundered from second-hand books, late night TV and subtitled films, created a scene and transformed it into ART. As was typical of the times, entryism was in and subversion was from within, but like all great movements, it was never going to last. Except everything you hear today, tomorrow and knocked into the middle of next week started here. Indie-Disco, Art-Rock and Difficult Fun are all in the mix. Big Gold Dream is as much about Now as Then. Sound and Vision are everything. Welcome to the Future. This is Big Gold Dream. This is Pop! January 2017 This was written for the back cover of the DVD release of Big Gold Dream, Grant McPhee's documentary history...

Watching Blow Off live is a thrilling experience. A.J. Taudevin's relentless piece of self-styled guerilla-gig-theatre rips open the psyche of a feminist activist to lay bare the emotional and psychological drive which has pushed her to the limit to take on the patriarchy that has been doing the pushing. Accompanied onstage by a live soundtrack performed by composer/musician Kim Moore, aka Wolf, and Susan Bear and Julie Eisenstein, aka nouveau-punk duo Tuff Love, Blow Off is given a fearless momentum, with the music driving Taudevin on, backing her up every every explosive step of the way. With this in mind, it is essential that Blow Off is heard in its own right as much as it is seen. Soundtrack albums of musical theatre shows are nothing new. It is only logical that an audience member who has enjoyed a show will want to take home some kind of permanent record of their experience, be it a copy of the play itself or an album. But such a record becomes more than a mere souveni...