BACK LIST
The Hypochondriak I Maylesl
O GOING GOING. . . Book soon for The Hypochondriak. King‘s. Glasgow, Mon 18—Sat 23 May. Dalian Acrobat Troupe or China King's, 5-9 May. David Hayman‘s production ofThe Gorhals Story with 7:84 Scotland, Citizens‘ Theatre. Wed 6—Sat 23 May. Wildcat‘s The Steamie 5—23 May Community Venues, jazz sax from John Harle‘s Berliner Band 17 May Mitchell Theatre and Sarah Jane Morris in The Sleep 4—8 May, Mitchell Theatre.
Kids
0 KIDS STUFF Four days of fun Just lor Kids are planned at the SECC, Glasgow 22—25 May. There will be films, competitions. a magic workshop and a chance to meet TV characters like Glen Michael who will be holding his well-known children’s roadshow during the exhibition, which is the first of its kind to be held in the UK. The
' ' h WALK ON 1'
EAST LIFE
Alan Taylor discovers all
walks of life on Leith Walk.
I was waiting for a night bus at the top of the Walk last week when a quartet of young bucks who‘d been out on a rut came along. Dressed, in the freezing wind, for bit parts in Miami Vice (one sported a pair of sunglasses), they unzipped as if on cue and tried to pee into a litter bin from an ocky ten or so feet away. I’ve never seen Tubbs and Crockett try that, or for that matter, Cagney and Lacey. When one finally splashed the target the others crooned ‘ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT‘, not in the manner of a darts commentator but in parody of the Flying Pickets. Properly staged, perhaps by the Cambridge Footlights, I’m sure it would go down well at the Fringe,
COMING SOON
Scottish Sports Council will also be running a special What’s Your Sport programme to encourage children to come and have a go at a number of different sports. For all children between 2 and 12 years.
Rock
0 ROCK NOTES At the SECC. Glasgow Peter Gabriel 23 June. Tickets from Playhouse. Edinburgh or Peter Gabriel Box Office, RS Tickets, PO Box 4RS, London WlA 4RS (£12. £13 plus 50p booking fee). State standing/seated). Beastie Boys Fri 29 May, Barrowland, Glasgow. Suzanne Vega 2 J unc. Pavilion Theatre. Glasgow. Paul Brady 7 May, Queen‘s Hall. Edinburgh.
Events
0 MAY FIRST begins a weekend of cabaret. music. films and events 1—3 May, including a March and May Day Rally on Sat 2 May. Speakers include Duncan Campbell of Zircon fame. Assemble Sat 2 May 10.30am King's Stables Road. Full details for all events from Edinburgh Trades Council. 12 Picardy Place, 556 3006. O GOING TO THE BALL Scottish Opera‘s Silver Jubilee Ball Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Sat 20 June. Tickets allocated according to availability. Apply to: The Silver Jubilee Ball Secretary, 14 Woodside Crescent, Glasgow, 041 332 6041.
Classical Music
0 SEVILLE LIST Rossini's Barber OI Seville will star Robert Dean as Figaro and Patrick Power as Count Almavira in Robert David Macdonald‘s new translation, 7, 9, 10, 22 May and 4 June, Theatre Royal, Glasgow and 25 June. King's Theatre, Edinburgh.
0 PIPES MUSIC 8—13 June is Edinburgh Organ Week with French organ music at the following venues: St Stephen‘s Church, St Vincent Street; St Mary’s
but it would need a venue with good drainage. On its first night, however, it sank without trace. No one in the bus shelter paid a blind bit of notice, not even the Salvation Army chap who looked exhausted after flogging War Cry round the pubs.
But it takes a lot to impress Leithers. Of all Edinburgh‘s thronging thoroughfares Leith Walk seems to me to have adapted to change best, probably because most of the people who actually live there can‘t afford to change into anything else. I mean, when was the last time you saw someone from Leith in the Waterfront or the Shore? No, the character of the place is still intact. There’s no chain stores and own-brand anonymity. You won’t find a Wimpy or a St Michael here, let alone Next. Instead there are Chinese supermarkets, Valvona & Crolla’s deli, an Italian bakers selling hot bullet-shaped rolls and Pakistani drapers whose overcrowded premises belie their self-styled status
The BarberotSeville
Cathedral, Palmerston Place: St Andrew‘s and St George‘s, George Street. Run in association with the French Institute.
Theatre
0 FRENCH GRANDEUR from Nada-Theatre Ecarlate a highly inventive and much acclaimed company from France with Grandir. Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh Fri 8 May (performed in French. but with very little prose it is easy to understand). Tickets from French Institute, 13 Randolph Crescent or on door.
Dance
0 HIGH POINT Scottish Ballet‘s next production will be Tales of Holtman. Offenbach‘s classic directed by Peter Darrell. Theatre Royal, Glasgow 26—30 May.
as ‘emporiums’.
Here, too, are bars and cafes, restaurants and shops and services for sailors in port overnight or at home on leave; masseurs, an adult video library, tattooers and, until it was closed down, Edinburgh's only sex shop. Going from one end to the other is like crossing the world several times and on a corporation bus it can take just about as long. But through the windows there’s better entertainment every day than you‘ll see at Filmhouse in a year. Women in saris, bent double in the gale and incongruous with carrier bags heavy with sweet potatoes, pigtails flying like uncontrollable kites. Men with undesigner stubble cross the tropics and manage to drink all day. Kids playing truant gaze for hours at the monotonous route of a model train or giggle at bums inscribed for ever ‘I love Mum’, in blue and red.
When I worked in McDonald Road, no more than a projectile vomit from the Walk, I spent
Spon
0 YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS? Yes. John McEnroe is reported to be 80% certain ofplaying the pre-Wimbledon grass court championship at Craiglockhart. Edinburgh. With Ivan Lendl playing too. the event will be lifted to new importance and looks like overshadowing London's pre-strawberry and cream Stella Artois. The (Traiglockhart tournament with take place between 6 and l4June. For ticket booking coupon send s.a.e. to the Scottish Lawn Tennis Association. 12 Melville Crescent. Edinburgh.
Next Issue
0 MAYFEST AS DIARY a day-by-day guide. and Sarah Jane Morris as Rose. in the world premiere of The Sleep.
Saturday afternoons in the Windsor Buffet where there's still running water for whisky ifyou can put up with STV‘soverspill dissecting what went wrong at Hogmanay. Between closing time and the football results I would visit half-a-dozen sh0ps to buy about as many items; bread. cheese. wine (cheap and resinous), coffee and books from McNaughtan’s basement where I first found Thurber who gave good advice I‘ve often ignored. I wish the bookshop opened late like Waterstone‘s for where better is there to kill time for a bus? That particular night I had a long wait and by the time it came, the Flying Pickets had flown, the woman in front of me needed an ambulance and the couple behind. a bed. By the time we got to Skivvy‘s, the pub with the most ridiculous beer garden in the universe. the woman was on her way to the Infirmary. the bloke had got thirsty or taken cold feet and the girl was looking at me and wondering how she might cut her losses.
The List 17 — 30 April 51