Coffee-Table Notes

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow Four stars Beware, old-school European passport holders attempting to travel to mythical Shakespearian versions of neighbouring countries in the near future. As John McGeachie’s Syracusian abroad Egeon discovers from the start when he goes in search of his two lost boys in director Andy McGregor’s wildly irreverent take on one of the bard’s earliest rom-coms, little Ephesus is a local town for local people. In a show performed with unabashed glee by second-year BA Acting students, this doesn’t stop Speir Sadivo’s piano playing Duke vamping like a maestro before granting him a twenty-four hour pass to see who or what he can dig up. Egeon’s two little boys, meanwhile, both called Antipholus, and each with servants named Dromio in tow, are clearly peas from the same pod.   As depicted by James Ripple and Adam Butler as the Antipholuses and Mabel Thomas and Yolanda Mitchell as the Dromios, their identikit hipster looks causes all manner o

The announcement last week that KT Tunstall will host the Assembly Rooms’ Music Hall stage alongside fellow traveller Pictish Trail and local singer-songwriter Alannah Moar as part of this Saturday’s Burns&Beyond Culture Trail is a welcome addition to the four-hour compendium of Edinburgh city centre events. Presented by the capital’s long-standing promoters, Unique Events, the addition of Blue Rose Code, aka singer-songwriter Ross Wilson, will see Wilson bring a full band and string section to Greyfriars Kirk. The presence of such major artists in Burns&Beyond’s three-week celebration of Robert Burns that also sees in Edinburgh Chinese New Year gives the programme a deservedly higher profile. Beyond any notions of starriness, however, one of the key things about the Culture Trail is its localism. This is apparent across all stages that make up the Culture Trail, be it in the Gilded Balloon’s comedy line-up or the Chinese lanterns hanging in St Giles’ Cathedral, as wel

Tom Alexander Entertainer, accordionist Born: June 25, 1934;  Died: January 9, 2020. Tom Alexander, who has died aged 85, will forever be known as one half of The Alexander Brothers, the musical double act formed with his brother Jack and which became a Scottish institution. Drawing from traditional folk and country, the duo added a tartan showbiz twist that tapped into a crowd-pleasing hybrid of music hall kitsch and American country influences.  With Jack singing and Tom on accordion, The Alexander Brothers signed to Pye Records, where they were put into the musical care of song-writer and producer Tony Hatch, who would later become known for songs such as Downtown, a hit for Petula Clark. Hatch’s magic worked its charms on his new charges pretty quickly, with the Alexander Brothers’ debut album, Highland Fling (1961), being the first of several best-sellers. Their 1964 version of Nobody’s Child became a bona fide pop hit and was reported to have sold more copies i