Coffee-Table Notes

When a man wearing a black woolen face-mask and a dirty raincoat with not much underneath takes the stage to let rip with a series of homo-erotic confessionals set to a dirty synth-pop back-drop, one could be forgiven for suspecting the vice squad might be paying a call soon. The truth is, when Special Love break cover to play live next week for the first time in a decade, their onanistically inclined vignettes will probably sound as charmingly old-school as the MySpace page which is one of the few means of hearing their few rough recordings which have survived the band itself. Special Love existed for one year only in 2005, when the pseudonymous duo of Johnny Dave and Charlie George came together to fuse their lusty tales of after-hours voyeurism and other solitary fantasies. As tongue in cheek as their schtick was during live shows tailor-made for alternative cabaret nights of yore, Special Love nevertheless mixed the squelch of The Normal's Warm Leatherette and Nag, Nag, Nag

When Golden Teacher played an Edinburgh show on General Election night this year, it felt like the 1980s in more ways than one. While the big screen relaying live TV coverage in the bar area of the city's Mash House venue kept freezing, even technical gremlins couldn't hold off the Conservative Party's inexplicable majority which might just have doomed us to austerity forever after. In stark contrast, the live room next door was awash to a darkly joyous stew of percussion-heavy psych voodoo club sounds that proved to be irresistible to dance-floor revellers seeking sanctuary from the gloom. As fractured as the times, Golden Teacher live seemed to be tugging in several directions at once. It was as if Giorgio Moroder and Brian Eno had moulded a back-drop of fourth world funk and deep-set techno libation into an increasingly euphoric mix that ushered in the rhythmic tease of Grace Jones circa 1981 and mid 1980s Cabaret Voltaire. In light of the disaster that was being pl

For several years now, something quietly subversive has been happening at Edinburgh's Hogmanay, the capital's high-profile festival now spread over several days and nights to see out the old year and usher in the new. While the Concert in the Gardens, this year headlined by Biffy Clyro, may receive much of the attention, it is the Scot:Lands event on New Year's Day where things start to look really interesting. Set across eleven stages in the capital's old town, Scot:Lands draws together some of the country's most interesting artists working across all forms. A plethora of musicians, poets, visual artists, dancers and performance artists will present a variety of bespoke presentations curated by a nationwide array of small-scale arts organisations and venues. These range from video and film installations to a five hour contemporary dance improvisation to a spoken-word extravaganza. On the musical side, audiences of more than an estimated 10,000 who register wil

In 1570, when Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis wrote his astonishing forty-voice motet, Spem in Alium (Hope in any other), , he probably didn't foresee the piece's transcendent propensities being co-opted by novelist E.L. James for her best-selling twenty-first century 'erotic romance', Fifty Shades of Grey. While such mass acceptance mercifully failed to dim the composition's splendour in the way Ravel's Bolero was kitschified following its use in Blake Edwards' 1979 rom-com, 10, it nevertheless saw recordings of Spem in Alium shoot to the top of the classical charts. If Tallis was turning in his grave during the Fifty Shades hoo-har, he can rest more than easy regarding Michael Begg's infinitely more seasonal sounding 'arrangement and erosion' of an already majestic work. Rather than use voices, Begg utilises slowed-down strings and sepulchral sounding drones for a treatment that enhances the beauty of Tallis' original, even as it s

Edinburgh Playhouse Four stars A giant pink lipstick stands centre-stage with proudly phallic intent at the opening of Stephan Elliot and Allan Scott's camp musical take on Elliot's 1994 film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The equally garish map of Australia that stands behind it marks out the route which our cross-dressing, gender-bending hero/ines will follow over the next two and a half hours in their magic bus. A coloured lightshow turns the Playhouse into a gay disco writ large as it ushers us into the backstage world of Tick, aka Mitzi, Adam, better known as Felicia, and Les Girls veteran Bernadette. While getting a glimpse of Jason Donovan in his pants as Tick before he dons feather boa and wig to lip-synch with artful abandon is enough for some, there is the small matter of Tick's six year old son and the promise of a job on the other side of the country. This is the only plot-based excuse required in Simon Phillips' production to

Priscilla Queen of the Desert and the Turner Prize may not be the most obvious of bedfellows. Anyone wishing to find the connection between the latest run of the campest of musicals and this year's cutting edge contemporary art competition, however, need only look to Gavin Mitchell. Tonight, the actor best known to TV audiences as Boaby the Barman in hit sit-com Still Game will be onstage in Priscilla at Edinburgh Playhouse. For these dates only, Mitchell will be playing opposite Jason Donovan in the relatively low-key role of Bob, the mechanic picked up by the bus-load of drag queens in Stephan Elliot and Allan Scott's long-running stage musical version of Elliot's hit 1994 film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Last Monday night at Tramway in Glasgow, however, it was Mitchell's dulcet tones that could be heard introducing former Sonic Youth vocalist, bass player and artistic polymath Kim Gordon. Gordon may have been announcing the Turner aw

When spoken-word mash-up maestros Neu! Reekie! open up the doors of Edinburgh's Central Hall this Thursday tea-time for their latest extravaganza, the melee of poets, novelists, pop stars, film-makers, artists and other ne'er do wells taking part will not only signal the full-on arrival of the festive season. They will also mark a five-year rollercoaster ride for Neu! Reekie! and its ring-masters, Michael Pedersen and Kevin Williamson. Together with an army of collaborators and contributors, this double-act has helped change the landscape in terms of a now burgeoning appetite for what used to be called alternative cabaret, even as the night has its roots in pop poetry scenes of yore. With a bill headlined by Irvine Welsh and Liz Lochhead, and featuring musical sets from hip-hop troupe, Hector Bizerk, and New Pop fabulists, WHITE, the singularly named #NeuReekiesXmasKracker looks set to be a variety show to savour. The night will also see one-off collaborations between Emma