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Selected highlights of the fortnight ahead

Sphere, Pyramid, Cube

is a recent wood sculpture by English artist David Nash, whose

Bill Bailey

was hotly tipped in certain quarters (including here at List Towers) to pick up the Perrier Award for comedy, for which he was nominated at the 1996 Edinburgh Festival. He was trumped by dishevelled Dylan Moran, but battles on undeterred. Now he’s back on a tour of one-night stands, suitcase and guitar in hand (and some sort of keyboard instrument trailing not far behind). His formative influences were The Sex Pistols, Mozart and Morecambe and Wise; so his publicists' claim that 'like the philos0pher Wittgenstein, his theories are nonsensical yet challenging‘ may well hold some water. lndisputable are the following statements. He does songs. He has long hair. He’s funny.

Bill Bailey plays the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 7 Mar; Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Sun 2 Mar; Old To/booth, Stirling, Wed 5 Mar; and East K i/bride Arts Centre, Thurs 6 Mar.

2 'I’IIEIJST 21 Feb-6 Mar 1997

geometric forms are not as precise as they initially appear. Nash, who works in elm, oak, pine, beech and ash, prefers using wind-felled trees to buying processed wood, and allows the irregularities of the material to undermine the accuracy of his straight edges. Line Of Cut is a new show featuring several of the 51-year-old artist's sculptures, which comes to Edinburgh wrth Elements Of Drawing, an exhibition of his drawings in charcoal, graphite, pastel, earth and mud.

Line Of Cut and Elements Of Drawing are at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 22 Feb—Sat 5 April.

The Wadaiko Ichiro Drummers

first made themselves heard in Scotland at the 1994 Edinburgh Festival. Their astonishing sound involves hitting drums (some huge, some tiny) very hard for a long time, and is therefore hard to ignore. Based on lSOO-year-old, highly arduous Japanese techniques blended with African and Western influences the rhythms are also remarkably subtle. The twelve-strong group, led by 33-year-old composer/arranger Ichiro lnoue, have toured the world, though they’re still unacknowledged at home. Perhaps that’s a mark of true genius.

The Wadaiko Ichiro Drummers play at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Tue 4 and Edinburgh Festival Theatre on Sun 9 Mar.