Something For The Weekend: Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Saoirse Ronan, Will Sharpe, and more
In our latest round-up of the finest cultural happenings across the central belt, we're doling out a dose of horror, turning back the years to the heyday of dance music, delving into Rivals, and much more
AROUND TOWN
From the spooky to the downright scary, the Edinburgh Horror Festival (until Sunday 3 November) returns this Halloween with a programme of events featuring gothic tales, freaky magic, macabre cabaret and more. The Banshee Labyrinth and Lauriston Castle play host.
Scotland’s hottest fireworks event, the Fawkes Festival (Sunday 3 November) combines a dazzling, choreographed display with fairground rides, food and drink, a bonfire, and entertainment from The Red Hot Chilli Pipers and theatre/LED drumming troupe Spark! Catch it at Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Centre.
And it’ll be a fireworks-free zone over at Cambo Gardens this weekend. Instead, they will be marking The Day Of Samhain (Saturday 2 November) by celebrating the traditions of Samhain and Day Of The Dead with fire, drumming, nature craft, Mexican food, and face painting.
MUSIC
Best known for anthemic tracks ‘Insomnia’ and ‘God Is A DJ’, English electronic legends Faithless (Friday 1 November) are back on the road to celebrate their upcoming album, Champion Sound. Catch them when they swing by Edinburgh’s O2 Academy. Support comes from Antony Szmierek.
Over at Glasgow’s The Old Fruitmarket, Amazing Silent Disco (Saturday 2 November) combines retro vibes with spectacular historical surroundings. Show off your moves on the giant dancefloor and switch between 80s, 90s and 00s tunes.
And it’s won rave reviews from the critics and been a big hit with listeners, now see rock legends Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds (Sunday 3 November) perform their 18th studio album, Wild God, live in the epic setting of Glasgow’s OVO Hydro.
STAGE
Now showing at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre is Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz (until Saturday 2 November), the award-winning debut play from Nathan Queeley-Dennis. This love letter to Birmingham explores Black masculinity through Beyoncé lyrics, raves and the relationship between a man and his barber.
Over at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, The Night Sky Show (Sunday 3 November) takes you on a journey across the cosmos through impressive big screen visuals. It’s the brainchild of astronomer and author Adrian West, aka VirtualAstro.
Offering an unfiltered take on life’s trials, Grace Campbell Is On Heat (Sunday 3 November) has the rising stand-up share some of her messy moments and pay tribute to the friends who have seen her through it all. Catch her at Perth Theatre.
SCREEN
Sean Baker (The Florida Project) returns with Anora, another sensitive and funny-as-hell story about sex work. Mikey Madison (Better Things) plays the titular stripper who gets swept off her feet by a rich Russian punter (Mark Eidelshtein) before his family get wind.
The great Steve McQueen offers his own inimitable take on WWII in Blitz, which follows a little boy on his perilous journey across London as his worried mother searches for him. Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson and Paul Weller feature, while Elliott Heffernan plays the young protagonist.
Taking place at the French Institute and Summerhall, the Edinburgh Short Film Festival (until Sunday 10 November) screens the best short films from Scotland and around the world, with plenty of prize-winners among them and an awards show of their own.
PODCASTS
Just in time for Halloween, The White Lotus’s Will Sharpe is the host of Extrasensory which tells a true-life spooky story of reincarnation and family secrets in 1950s England.
On a lighter, more lascivious note, if you’ve been enjoying Disney+’s rollicking adaptation of the Jilly Cooper classic then Rivals: The Official Podcast should provide you with plenty to get your teeth into. Pandora Sykes hosts, with interviews with the cast and creators, including Danny Dyer, Alex Hassell and Emily Atack.
In History’s Greatest Conspiracy Theories, BBC journalist Rob Attar and a selection of historians delve into some crackpot and less crackpot conspiracies, from whether the moon landing was faked to whether Shakespeare penned his own plays, to see if there’s any truth behind them.
VISUAL ART
The National Gallery’s Modern One in Edinburgh is the setting for the first ever retrospective from Everlyn Nicodemus (until Sunday 25 May) featuring drawings, collages, paintings and textiles from the past 40 years, alongside new works created specially for this show.
Meanwhile, kicking off at Glasgow’s Tramway this weekend is Leanne Ross – Dirty Dancing Flowers (Saturday 2 November – Sunday 23 March), a solo exhibition from the Scottish artist featuring a new body of work across a variety of media.
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