Burrows brought The Britpop Hour to the 2025 Fringe, and it’s since been expanded with a ‘support act’ first half; this is prefaced with clips from his VHS collection with everything from MTV trailers, Shed Seven playing on Live and Kicking, and Chris Evans chatting to Blur’s Damon Albarn on the recently rebooted TGI Friday. Not all the clips have aged well, such as Gary Glitter presenting Top of the Pops!

Music as a source of comfort sits at the heart of the show; it’s helped Marc through difficult mental health periods, soundtracked early romantic adventures, and his relationship with his stepdaughter also steers into Britpop territory with her providing reviews of classic albums and even the artwork for the show’s ‘Three Wise Men’ of Britpop: Damon Albarn (described hilariously as ‘a sociology lecturer cosplaying as the Artful Dodger’), Liam Gallagher, and Jarvis Cocker.

There’s a few ‘deep cuts’ for hardcore indie fans but the material is mainly very accessible for those who didn’t live through the era as a teen (like the table of twenty-somethings making Marc feel old…) It’s by turns nerdy, funny, and joyful; we’re treated to a timeline of civilisation between the two important milestones- the birth of Christ and Taylor Swift’s Eras tour- and a chart classifying bands as Britpop depending on their styling being too slick or too bad. To illustrate Britpop borrowing heavily from the 60s/70s, Marc gets out his Union Jack guitar and expertly fuses Elastica with The Stranglers, Oasis with Bowie and so on. His research is exhaustive!

The genre emerges as frivolous nonsense (mostly the lyrics!) but also the antithesis to an insular, jingoistic attitude, with its hopeful optimism and sly dig at the foibles of British culture. A rousing singalong to Pulp’s Common People rounded off another excellent effort from Marc.

****

The Britpop Show is touring UK-wide- visit Marc’s website for more info.

When The Roop started out, a manager once told them that they were ‘too old’ to make it in the industry. Their determination to prove him wrong led to representing Lithuania in Eurovision in 2020/2021, opening for Ed Sheeran in 2024, and now embarking on their ‘EuROOPe’ tour. La Belle Angele was packed with a mixture of Eurovision fans, curious pop-lovers and many local Lithuanians, who were delighted when lead singer Vaidotas addressed them in their native language.

The trio are a slick outfit, with drummer Robertas and guitarist Mantas bringing the Nile Rodgers-tinged riffs and tight disco beats. Much of their discography is a compelling blend of Hot Chip and 80s funk, and it went down a storm at their first-ever Scottish gig. From the racy Let’s Get Naked to the Latin-tinged Chico Chica, Vaidotas’s voice tackled genre and tempo shifts with ease, moving from floor-fillers to acoustic ballads. They ended with Eurovision entries On Fire and Discotheque which got the crowd jumping; we were even taught the dance moves!

Halfway through, the band passed round a bag containing red cards with mottos on them which we were told would ‘speak to us’, perhaps not in that moment but maybe in a few days’ time. (Mine said ‘keep moving forward’, sound advice indeed.). It was an unusual but thoughtful gesture that I’ve never seen at a gig before. As they said themselves, The Roop’s motto is ‘don’t just exist, live’, and that’s not a bad message to take out into a spring Edinburgh night.

*****

The Roop’s fourth album Momentum is out now.

What is The Britpop Show, and why did you want to make a show about Britpop now?

The Britpop Show is a multimedia stand-up show that celebrates the Britpop era. I wanted to dive into the rivalries, these larger-than-life outsider personalities that became household names, the relentless hype and, obviously, the music. The incredible, era-defining music. I was 13 in 1994 when Britpop kicked off and 18 when it finally dies out, that era is absolutely imprinted on me. It shaped who I am.  

I think Britpop gets misunderstood and I wanted to dig into that. There’s a nostalgic element to the period, and obviously there’s a nostalgic element to the show, but I think there’s more going on than that. I wanted to look at why that music and those people caught imaginations in that specific moment, and what we can learn from that.

It’s an idea I’ve had for a while, and as all of my favourite albums started to turn 30, and Blur, then Pulp then Oasis got back together it felt like it was finally time to do it. The Britpop era still defines how we think about music and identity, and people really care about it – over a million people tried to get Oasis tickets last year!

If you had to explain Britpop to someone born after 2005, how would you describe it?
Imagine a time when indie bands were pop bands and pop bands tried to sound like indie bands. Imagine a time when 4% of the population of the country all tried to get tickets to the same gig. Imagine a time when two British guitar bands vying for the number one single in the same week is a lead story on The Six O’Clock News on BBC One. Imagine a time when young people, told for years during the Thatcher era, that they had nothing to look forward to and nothing to be proud of, deciding, en masse, that “no, we have a culture, we have a moment, we’re proud of the music that this stroppy little island can create and we’re going to celebrate it”. Imagine the best school summer holidays of your life and top it off with Pulp at Glastonbury. Then have a Watermelon Bacardi Breezer. Delicious! That was Britpop.

The show isn’t just about the music, it’s about what Britpop represented culturally. Why does that era still resonate?
The ’90s were unique. We were in this strange grace period. That period was roughly 1993 (the first Suede album) to 1998 (Pulp’s This Is Hardcore), after the fall of the Berlin Wall but before 9/11. The Cold War was over. The War on Terror hadn’t begun. The British economy was climbing out of recession. After 20 years the Tories were on their way out.  For the first time in ages, it felt like Britain was allowed to celebrate itself.

Into that strange, optimistic gap came a wave of bands who were loud, local, funny, stylish, and utterly convinced they belonged on Top of the Pops.

Britpop was patriotic, but not in the scary, nationalistic way it can feel now, at least not at first. It was celebratory. Suddenly, being British felt cool again. Watching the Union Jack go from something that draped around the shoulders of racists to being emblazoned on Geri Halliwell’s dress and Noel Gallagher’s guitar, and indeed back again, is fascinating. That shift says so much about identity, politics and culture.

You talk in the show about how the music we love as teenagers stays with us forever. Where did that idea come from?
Part of it came from my home life. I recently acquired a teenage step daughter, and seeing her obsess over anime and Doctor Who makes me think a lot about what I was like at that age. I remember going to a family party and before we went in, in the car, my mum turning to me and saying “Marc, remember not everyone wants to talk to you about Jarvis Cocker and Star Wars.”. That’s exactly what my step daughter is like!

It really hit me how the things we fall in love with as teenagers shape us permanently. The music you love between 12 and 18 becomes your base code. You’ll never fall in love with music like that again. The show is really about why that sticks with us and what it says about who we were then, and who we are now.

You’ve said before that Britpop’s real legacy isn’t the songs, but the attitude behind them. What do you mean by that?
The real legacy of Britpop isn’t the music – although the best of it is still glorious. It’s the attitude. The sheer brass neck of it all. That refusal to be told you can’t do something because of where you’re from or what you sound like.

There was this insistence that working-class culture, and that’s very much my background, wasn’t something to be patronised or pitied, but celebrated and elevated. That message feels relevant in 2026 because it’s slipped away since 1996. In an age of algorithms and streaming playlists, when the path to musical success feels more corporate and opaquer than ever, there’s something beautifully punk rock about bands who blagged their way to world domination through sheer force of will.

Britpop seems to be everywhere again. Is that revival part of what The Britpop Show is responding to?
Absolutely. Suddenly everyone’s talking about the mid-90s like it was a golden age  rather than the era that also gave us Mr Blobby and the BSE crisis. There are Britpop radio stations, huge reunion tours, number one albums, including Robbie Williams’ which is literally titled ‘Britpop’.

The show isn’t just asking us to remember it fondly, though. It’s about who we were then and who we’ve become now. Why that music still hits us so hard, and what it says about us that we keep coming back to it.

Can you tell us 5 Songs that influenced the show?

Pulp – Common People (my favourite song of all time) Bar none. It’s so unique and angry and witty and it’s an incredible pop tune. If I had to listen to just one song for the rest of my life, this would be it. It’s got a very special place in the show.

Blur – This Is A Low – An absolute masterpiece. Melancholy and yearning and weird and extremely British. It was inspired by a tea towel – it doesn’t get more British than that.

Menswear – Daydreamer. ‘Daydreamer’ has ONE CHORD in it and a bassline filched entirely off a Wire song. It has no right to go this hard.

Sleeper – What Do I Do Now – In 1995 there were 428 men in indie bands in London alone. How many women? I counted them. 11. They punched way above their weight though, “make up like glue, she danced around the room to the sound of her corduroy flares” is rhymed with “he looks at it all, stifles a yawn, she tries not to look like she cares”. No-one else was writing like that. Louise Wener was a storytelling genius.

Oasis – Rock N’Roll Star – a full throttle, barnstorming, face-punching statement of intent, never bettered by Oasis. Possibly never bettered by anyone, in that context. They didn’t play it at Knebworth. Madness.

And finally, what are you most looking forward to about bringing the show to Edinburgh?
Edinburgh is always special to me. The Britpop Show was born here, at the Fringe last year where it got great reviews under the name The Britpop Hour (I’ve expanded it for the tour!). But that’s not the most interesting Britpop connection by a long chalk. Edinburgh has a genuinely world-changing claim on the Britpop era, and it’s one most people don’t know about … In the late ‘70s Bob Last and Hilary Morrison started a record label called Fast Product from the bedroom of their tenement flat near Edinburgh College of Art. It predated Factory Records in Manchester, predated Creation Records in Glasgow, predated pretty much everything. Fast Product put out records by The Mekons, Gang of Four, The Scars, and the Human League’s first single. It was arguably the first proper indie label in Britain. Without Fast Product, there’s no Creation. Without Creation, Alan McGee doesn’t sign Oasis at King Tut’s. Without that, there is no Britpop. So there’s a direct line from an Edinburgh bedroom to Knebworth. The city also gave us my beloved Idlewild, who formed here in 1995 and while they’re not quite Britpop, I’m not missing a chance to shout them out.

The Britpop Show is at The Stand Edinburgh on the 28th April, then The Stand Glasgow on the 29th.

Alan Cumming didn’t always like to recall his foray into TV comedy, which lasted just one series in 1995 but had a generation exclaiming ‘oh dearie me’ around the country. Now, the time is right for a glittery, fabulous comeback. The original cast return; joining Alan as Sebastian Flight are Forbes Masson as Steve McCracken, Siobhan Redmond as the formidable Shona Spurtle and Patrick Ryecart as Captain Hilary Duff. There’s fresh new staff on the Air Scotia team too, as the airline faces a takeover and an even worse fate: being rebranded as British!

Much like the TV show, it’s very cheeky: there’s lots of fourth wall-breaking, topical references and a few nods to Alan’s other ventures, such as The Traitors US and hosting the BAFTAs. The songs are as camp and risqué as you might expect, from Scotland’s forgotten Eurovision entry Pif Paf Pof to The Pre and Inflight Fandango with its ‘you fuh coff, eh, or are you for tea?’ beverage-based refrain. There’s never any malice in the humour, though, just a knowing wink to the audience.

It’s hard for Alan and Forbes not to corpse in places, so hammy is the acting; one death scene in particular had the audience in stitches. A suspiciously Brigadoon-like guest house provides a chaotic climax in between surreal interludes with the Captain, such as trying to beam himself up from a vending machine while dressed as Spock. The chaos is presided over by an ebullient Cumming, and the younger cast more than match his energy!

Sebastian and Steve reflect on how they’ve grown old and might not fit in anymore, especially with their Gen-Z colleague Kylie (Rachael Kendall Brown) who’s never heard of Creamola or Aztec bars, or Mylie (Kyle Gardiner) who defies gender norms. At the same time, things have been brought up to date somewhat; Shona finds love in an unexpected place, and Air Scotia feels like a more inclusive place these days. The clash of ages and attitudes plays out well, and the matinee audience left with a spring in their step and the Air Scotia corporate anthem in their brains.

*****

The High Life is on tour throughout Scotland until 23^rd May.

It was an eclectic mix of shorts: Iain Dunnachie’s slapstick An Evening Sail, public information film Winter In Scotland, and Jean L Grey’s experimental film Witch Craft, with soundtracks specially composed by the YMI Falkirk Junior and Senior Trad bands, and Denny High’s Connor Campbell, Katie Clark, Bethany Ford, Stafaniya Martsul, and Nathan Winters.

The young musicians really brought the material to life, composing very different responses to the content. An Evening Sail, featuring one man’s maritime mishaps, is cheerfully accompanied by violin and accordion, and Winter In Scotland’s scenes of rainy days, farm life and snowball fights sparkles with bodhran and small pipes leading a jaunty reel. Witch Craft, which won the British Empire film prize judged by Alfred Hitchcock, uses textured glass, ink and toy figurines to create a surreal tale. Naturally, its soundtrack from Denny High students was also leftfield with jazzy percussion, double bass and guitar.

There was a fascinating Q&A with the students afterwards where they revealed their inspirations and techniques, everything from rock music to the ‘Devil’s interval’, the impressionist movement, and the joy of rain being ‘the Scottish normal’. To bring this show together while also studying for SQA exams is quite the feat!

This annual archive dive showcases the local young musical talent brilliantly, and I can’t wait for the 2027 edition.

New Found Sound is available to watch on demand via HippFest At Home from 30 March until 6 April

L’Estrange Fawcett’s take on Noel Pemberton Billing’s play, directed by Maurice Elvey, imagines a world divided into the United States of Europe and the Atlantic League, manoeuvred into a war by terrorists funded by arms dealers. Evelyn, daughter of the Peace League ‘Vicar in chief’, is forced to reassess her relationship with Michael, commander of the European air force, as the world teeters on the brink of destruction.

Visually it’s fantastic; there’s detailed model shots complete with airships and an Art Deco aesthetic to the interiors. Reflecting the fears of the time, the characters are worried about aerial bombardments, something that would become a sad reality in WWII. Indeed, High Treason is prescient in many ways; it imagines a Channel Tunnel, a European union and even Zoom calls complete with technical hitches. It’s a shame we never got nightclubs with a ‘phantom orchestra’ and live fencing matches, though!

The rebels’ bravery is a real highlight; Evelyn’s revolt in the aerodrome with her fellow women singing the peace song, accompanied with aplomb by Mike Nolan, was a powerful scene that stuck with me after I’d left the Hippodrome.

High Treason is a grimly topical exploration of how far people will go for their beliefs.

The trio of films stars Eille Norwood as Sherlock, the longest-running actor to play the role until Jonny Lee Miller in Elementary and one with Conan Doyle’s seal of approval. Spanning the sleuth’s literary adventures, we began with Scandal in Bohemia featuring a masked monarch, an incriminating photo and a scandalous actress always one step ahead of Holmes. The Golden Pince-Nez tackled a grisly murder and an old man with a secret; we finally got to see Sherlock playing his violin and hear it ‘live’ in the cinema. A Final Problem relocated the famous Reichenbach Falls fight with Moriarty to the more budget-friendly Cheddar Gorge, but that doesn’t diminish the excitement.

Accompanied by Günter Buchwald on violin and piano, it was a real treat to hear his skills- sometimes on both instruments at once! Eille has a commanding screen presence as Sherlock, while Hubert Willis is a great Watson, always surprised at his colleague’s deductions.

Silent Sherlock is an enjoyable, accessible introduction to Conan Doyle’s detective.

Rasmus Breistein’s epic was the first to use professional actors and crew, and is considered the first major breakthrough for Norwegian cinema. Fante-Anne takes us into the rustic world of childhood friends Anne and Haldor, whose adult romance is hampered by prejudice and snobbery. While Haldor is portrayed as a meek, obedient boy, Anne is wild, impulsive, always persuading her friend to get into trouble; as a gypsy she’s viewed as an outsider and repeatedly told she doesn’t belong on the Storlein farm.

Aasta Nielsen is an intense, fierce Anne, while Einar Tveito exudes a quiet dignity as rival love interest Jon. As might be expected of a landmark Norwegian film, it showcases the breathtaking beauty of the mountains and fjords, the cosy wood cabins, and the traditional outfits of the farm workers.

The live soundtrack was provided by Dina Konradsen on vocals, electronic mixing and harmonica, and Jo Einar Hansen on vocals and Hardanger fiddle. The blend of folk melodies and nightclub beats works really well, especially in the outdoor dancing scene and the thrilling climax.

Fante-Anne was an exhilarating start to HippFest, and if this is the calibre of exports from Tromsø International Film Festival I look forward to the next offering.

Fante-Anne is available to watch on demand via HippFest At Home from 30 March until 6 April.

How did you get into silent film soundtracks?

DK: I was part of an artistic development fund for an electronic music festival in Tromsø that collaborates with the local film festival [Tromsø International Film Festival]. Every participant can get involved with a silent film, and they were interested in my folk background. I’ve been working with Jo Einar for a while so I asked him to join me, and the rest is history!

What drew you to Fante-Anne?

DK: I was familiar with the director; he’s produced many national romantic films including Brudeferden i Hardanger, which TIFF had screened recently. I chose Fante-Anne because of its visual style – it’s very pretty! – and the story is quite fun and a bit feminist.

Anne, the protagonist, is an outsider. How does that feed into your approach?

DK: Our music is very ‘outsider’ being electronic, so there’s a contradiction set up. Mainly, our approach is catching the ‘vibe’ of the film, combining folk and electronic and trying to make dance music out of these contrasting genres, and making it available and accessible to anyone.

Your sound is very old-meets-new – is traditional folk in Norway experiencing a revival?

JEH: It’s becoming increasingly popular recently; previously, it involved events with a band or a solo Hardanger fiddle player. Now it’s more experimental – there’s an electronic music connection along with the fiddle music. So it’s growing in Norway, both in how it sounds and the size of the crowds.

What can we expect from your soundtrack?

DK: Parts are improvised and parts are more planned!

JEH: The original National Library version’s soundtrack was grander, but we’re bringing a more experimental style along with the fiddle and more folky melodies. The connection is still there to ‘national romantic’ but it’s not so obvious. We didn’t use any of the original music in our composition.

DK: The director would play his Hardanger fiddle live; sadly there’s no surviving recordings but I wish there were! We don’t use the Hardanger fiddle, but there are scenes whose visuals suit a super-traditional folk sound, and others that have a purely electronic vibe. When we started this project, we watched the film with no soundtrack as we didn’t want to be influenced by the original soundtrack.

Tell me more about the Folkemølje – it sounds a little like a ceilidh!

DK: It started in an Oslo club to try bringing folk dancing to the contemporary nightclub and the city, and mix the traditional with the new. After I moved to Tromsø in 2023, I missed folk dancing; I used to do it all the time studying my folk music degree. I was talking to a friend about how I wished we had the Oslo club in Tromsø, and she said we should just start it here. I called Jo Einar, we got people together to brainstorm, and it’s been growing every year. We always do a crash course at the Folkemølje; most people here aren’t familiar with the folk dances so we try to introduce them, and make it fun and easy for everyone to join in. We want to bring folk out to the clubs so that it catches on beyond folk dance groups. The Folkemølje was part of the film screening in Tromsø, and I really wanted to incorporate that at HippFest too.

Do you have any other projects after HippFest?

JEH: As well as the Folkemølje, Dina and I do festivals around Norway, and our plan is to do more Folkemølje in Scotland…

The Folkemølje are on Facebook and Instagram. Fante-Anne is screening at HippFest’s Opening Night on 18 March at 7pm, followed by the Folkemølje at 9:15pm.

‘It’s good to be an auld geeky in Auld Reekie’, Peter Capaldi declares to a sold-out crowd, as he launches into Is It Today. Normally more accustomed to playing the twelfth Doctor Who or the sweary Malcolm Tucker in The Thick Of It, Capaldi is picking up where he left off 40 years ago, when he fronted punk band The Dreamboys featuring fellow TV star Craig Ferguson on drums. Now with two albums under his belt, 2019’s St Christopher and 2025’s Sweet Illusions – the latter produced by The Blow Monkeys’ Dr. Robert – he’s embarked on a UK tour of smaller venues. As he explains, he’s 67 with a heart condition so no time like the present…

A warm family atmosphere permeates the show; another Capaldi helms the mixing deck, and Peter himself designed the T-shirts on sale. Revisiting the euphoria, crushes, depression and punky rebellion of his youth, his setlist straddles such diverse genres as Bowie-esque glam rock, Simple Minds-style synthpop, Nick Cave gothic gloom, crooning Sinatra ballads and even a country twinge in The Great Magnificence. Peter has boundless energy and charisma in buckets, whether performing a guitar solo or striking a pose.

There’s a wry humour, too, to songs like Bin Night, an ode to the greatest middle-aged satisfying task. At one point he reminds us that we’ve effectively come on a night out with our grandfather, albeit one in an immaculate sparkly suit flanked by a band in equally sparkly tracksuits!

Capaldi brings proceedings to a rousing end with covers of All The Young Dudes, Don’t Look Back In Anger and Friday I’m In Love, with a spot of Macbeth quoting for good measure. He might have finished his journey through space and time, but his new musical voyage is off to a cracking start.

****

Peter Capaldi’s second album, Sweet Illusions, is out now on Last Night From Glasgow.

Hosted at the magnificent Bo’Ness Hippodrome, a pre-Art Deco cinema dating back to 1912, the 2026 selection spans Scandinavian drama, British sci-fi, Japanese melodrama, and two of Scotland’s most beloved authors. HippFest opens with Rasmus Breistein’s Fante-Anne, a classic that kickstarted Norwegian romantic cinema, with live music from Tromsø Silent Film Days’ Dina Konradsen and Jo Einar Jansen that promises a blend of traditional folk and modern electronica. The screening will be followed by a Folkemølje in Linlithgow that promises to be a lively mix of dance tutorials and a high-energy club night!

Robert Louis Stephenson and Arthur Conan Doyle are well-represented by the first screen adaptation of Kidnapped and a Sherlock Holmes triple-bill starring Eille Norwood; the home-grown talent continues with High Treason, imagining a UK on the brink of war in an Art-Deco-tinged future. As touched on by HippFest Director Alison Strauss at the launch, silent film remains topical in an age of anti-immigration sentiment and persecuting the ‘other’, so Nat Ross’s look at the 1920’s American immigrant experience in April Fool is very timely. The Crowd brings the festival to a close, directed by King Vidor and tackling the struggle to achieve the American dream.

There’s a wealth of returning events, including the favourite Jeely Jar screening, offering 2-for-1 tickets for those who bring a clean jam jar. The heritage Bo’Ness railway also offers Platform Reels, an open-air screening with food provided, and this year it tackles a favourite Edinburgh topic: trams. New Found Sound brings the best local young musicians together to accompany shorts from the archive, and the decadent Friday Night Gala celebrates flappers with Colleen Moore in Why Be Good?, followed by a champagne-fuelled afterparty.

As with previous years, those who can’t make it to a screening have the chance to watch selected films from the comfort of their sofa, with a 7-day extended viewing window on streaming platform Vimeo. HippFest 2026 promises to be a great way to see in the spring.

HippFest runs from 18-22 March. Tickets are available now.

Saini has reimagined the flavours of Christmas through modern Indian cuisine. It’s a menu designed “for diners who want more than the standard seasonal roast, something full of unexpected flavour”.

At first glance, the limited-edition menu could go two ways. The purist may raise their eyebrows at the fusion of ingredients, whereas the experimentalist will be intrigued. Dishes include masala crab cakes with pickled veg and tandoori mayo, spiced herb-crusted lamb chops with coriander dip, garlic and chilli sprouts, honey chilli-glazed carrots and roasted coconut cabbage. Mains include roasted turkey in a makhani sauce, braised lamb shank with garlic-crushed potatoes, haddock loin served in a fragrant meen moilee sauce and a paneer pinwheel with butter masala. Desserts range from Christmas pudding with champagne sorbet to sticky toffee cheesecake and tablet ice cream, to carrot halwa served with gulab jamun.

Our main courses were something of a strategic decision: turkey because, well, it’s Christmas; it has to be done, and the paneer because – in my experience – it’s often underestimated, but when cooked well, is one of my favourites. Sure enough, the paneer masala shone: crumbed balls of cheese in a flavourful, creamy sauce. Chef Mandeep swore it was simple to make, and listening to the steps, I almost believed him…but ‘deceptively simple’ was what came to mind. The turkey – thickly carved slices – was perfectly cooked (we all know dry turkey is a common complaint at Christmas!) and the tomato-based sauce very subtle. If you’re a spice lover, you might find it too mild alongside the other dishes, but I suppose that’s the balance/gamble of a Indian-Christmas menu.

We ate the mains along with Brussels sprouts, potatoes, and naan. As with the starters, these dishes were very generous, so much so, I shamelessly took home the leftover turkey and paneer, which were enjoyed by my (usually suspicious of new restaurants) fifteen-year- old.

Too full to do justice to dessert, we tasted the champagne sorbet and toffee cheesecake, which were fine, but in all honestly, if we’d had room, we would have chosen traditional Indian sweets from the a la carte menu.

Originally from India, Mandeep Saini comes from The Gleneagles Hotel and The Berkeley in London. The Bombay Bistro has been open for two months in Bruntsfield, and on the basis of our visit, I’d say a very welcome addition. The setting and décor is elegant, the service very efficient and wonderfully friendly.

This is a restaurant I’m already looking forward to revisiting.

The full menu is £45 per person, but items are also individually priced.

The Bombay Bistro, 14-17 Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh.

Visit Jupiter Artland this winter and you enter a festive wonderland. For the first time the award-winning sculpture park just outside Edinburgh, is remaining open for the winter season with the 120-acre park embracing Christmas with an offering of art, landscape and festive tradition.

As you enter the park snow gently falls and the visitor is welcomed through several fir archways to a Festive Village, open daily until December 14^th. It is a magical, atmospheric start to a fun day out for all ages.

Children can see Santa in his grotto, make Christmas decorations with the elves in their Elf Workshop and see a live Nativity scene (at the weekend) in the Dove Cot, complete with Roxy the sheep, who was enjoying her star turn when this reviewer visited. Family friendly Christmas movies are shown twice daily at 12pm and 3pm (bookable).

At the weekend there is also a twice-daily choir performance. During the week you can try wreath making using foraged materials, whilst partaking in a little mulled wine and mince pies.

At the S’mores village, warm up by the firepit, where you can enjoy hot chocolate and gooey marshmallows, or indulge in a seasonal Afternoon Tea (pre-book) at Café Party, which also serves brunch, a menu of winter warmer lunches, salads, sharing platters, grazing plates and sweet treats.  

At the weekend the Christmas Fair takes place in the new Glasshouse space and Lower Steadings, where you can buy unique Christmas gifts from independent makers, including ceramics, pottery, clothing, bags and cushion covers, candles, jewellery, and wreath and table displays by an Architectural Florist.

Replete with refreshments and festive shopping, then explore the exhibitions programme through which three renowned artists draw upon the earth, folklore, mythology, love and both the human and nature around us. Works include The Earth Exhales by Goerg Wilson, making her first Uk institution presentation, Florence Peake’s newly commissioned To Love and to Cherish, a new floor painting in the Glasshouse and The Spell or The Dream by Tai Shani, a multi-faceted work inviting audiences to dream of new horizons.

If you fancy walking off your festive indulgences, then explore the park which features well-known works of art by Tracey Emin, Anya Gallachio, Phyllida Barlow, Ian Hamilton-Finlay and others.

Jupiter Artland is at The Steadings, Bonnington House, Wilkieston, Edinburgh EH278BY. www.jupiterartland.org  /@jupiter.artland / @JupiterArtland

Christmas at Jupiter is 6-14^th December. Tickets: Adult £11.80; Child (4-16), Student, Blue Badge/carer £7.50. Children under three go free.

Included in ticket:

• Festive Village entry including access to the 120 acres of sculpture park (daily)
• Christmas Fair entry (at weekend)
• Choir performances (twice a day at weekend)

The Botanics Lights return to the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, for the 2025 season. The trail will illuminate the beauty and resilience of nature during winter.

The light and sound installations – plus Santa’s Grotto – explore the theme of transformation and renewal, all paying homage to the natural cycles of change that sustain the planet. New installations for 2025 include:

Five large, self-illuminated water lily flowers floating along the surface of the Pond. As their incandescent petals reflect off the water, these flowers serve as a reminder of growth and transformation.

The seeds – internally lit, stand-alone white sculptures are equally impressive during the day as they are when illuminated at night and are powerful symbols of restoration and new beginnings.

The familiar and well-loved Christmas Cathedral returns for another year

Designed to complement the Garden’s landscape, with 98% of the lights being energy-efficient LEDs, the trail combines art, sustainability and storytelling in the uniquely atmospheric setting of one of Edinburgh’s most iconic tourist destinations.

As well as being a visual treat, the trail plays a vital role in supporting the Garden’s important work to tackle the biodiversity crisis and climate emergency. Ticket sales will help fund crucial plant research, conservation and education programmes, helping to build a positive future for plants, people and the planet

Running for 36 nights on selected evenings from 20 November to 30 December.

Book Week Scotland is now in its 14th year. It’s run by Scottish Book Trust and is supported by Creative Scotland. The annual celebration of books and reading has an extensive programme of events across Scotland which encourages community involvement, and which covers Scots and Gaelic, arts, poetry, and music.

There is a strong sense of partnership in the ethos of BWS, and one such event is that held in Pentland Community Centre, Oxgangs. The OxPen Writers have put together their own anthology of writing: ‘Bananas on Toast”: Stories of Food and Friendship, inviting other local writers and writing groups to participate alongside.

Readers pictured are Norma-Ann Coleman, Olga Wojtas, Romy Ritchie, Liz Power, Kathleen Munroe and Sandy Bennett-Haber.

 Other writers who contributed to the anthology are: Deirdre Duncan, Irene Livingstone, Joan MacDonald, Hilary Birch, Elaine Harris, Kate Peel, Amanda Roy, Christine Jackson, Kate Blackadder, Sheila Corrigan and Donald MacDonald.

Every year, Scottish Book Trust asks people to share stories as part of the ‘Scotland’s Stories’ writing opportunity and feature all the stories on the SBT website. They then include a selection in a free book for Book Week Scotland. This year it’s called Scotland’s Stories: Friendship across Scotland.

Back by popular demand, Edinburgh Zoo’s Giant Lanterns have returned with a splash – an underwater theme of marine creatures.

Last staged in 2019, 22,000 tickets have already been sold, helping conservation of rare species, including Scotland’s own flapper skate. Visitors have sixty nights to wrap up and head outside for an uplifting, colourful and fun evening packed with numerous photo opportunities (including a couple of “put yourself in the picture” illuminations).

Some 600 lanterns big and small have been handmade in China (the same province that is home to the giant pandas, transported to the Zoo’s hillside location and strategically placed in a looping route through some of the animal enclosures. As Ben Supple, the Zoo’s Deputy CEO, explained: “The animals are where they need to be – cosied up and a lot will be sleeping. They are used to people.” An exception has been made for one of the newest arrivals, Domino the cheetah, with the trail avoiding her enclosure until she settles in.

Visitors may spot the odd animal – I saw flamingos, otters and goats, busy with nocturnal activities – however they’ll find it hard to take their eyes off the glowing lanterns depicting all kinds of sea creatures. Flapper skates, giant whales, sea turtles, orcas, multicoloured fish (Finding Nemo anyone?), dolphins and even a couple of mermaids perched on columns in an underwater Atlantis.

Everyone will have a favourite. It could be the giant walk-through whale, or the penguins on ice, a tiny tropical fish or quavering pink jellyfish. The highlight for me was a rocky animal enclosure cleverly transformed into the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth, complete with a stunning lighthouse, gannets with their striking colour schemes, cheeky puffins and a seal popping its head up as if to join the curious visitors to see what was going on.

Towards the end of the trail, I discovered a welcome pit stop where I was invited to toast my own marshmallows and warm up with a cup of mulled wine. Much needed after the torrents of rainwater that evening forming rivers down the slopes adding to the underwater theme.

The Giant Lanterns are good value for money (I spent 2 hours wandering the trail snapping away at the extremely photogenic creations) and it is a fantastic way to get out on a winter’s evening and entertain the kids with a unique experience.

The event runs until 22 February 2026 and ticket prices vary from off peak, standard and peak. A standard adult is £21.50, child £16 and under 3s go free.

More information can be found here https://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/events-experiences/events/edinburgh-zoos-giant-lanterns

There’s an incongruence in all of this that hits you head on, as you enter the Custom House, and it remains a full-on clash of past, present and future; of faith, tradition and technology, even when it (sort of) begins to make sense.

Artist, Trevor Jones, is at the centre of an immersive experience that combines oil painting, sculpture, stained-glass work, and graffiti, with artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), facial recognition, and blockchain (traceability through transactions). It’s an exhibition where ancient and sacred symbolism meets contemporary surveillance. From religious dogma to state surveillance and corporate data mining – once God was watching us, then Big Brother, now digital technology – the role of the divine has been repurposed.

Huge AI animated paintings involve (in real time) an artificial intelligence entity called LOGOS, the eyes of which follow you, recognise you, and call you by name. These hang alongside The Sacaramemes, seven oil paintings that watch you as you watch them… As such, the installation explores the shifting balance of control from the divine to the human to the machine, and what this means for faith and for rebellion – which is where the graffiti comes in. What are the losses, and the gains, and what does this mean for the future, Trevor Jones asks, when AI, rather than God has the answers.

This 3D show is both multi-sensory and an assault on the senses; perhaps the only thing missing is the sense of smell (incense, the artist reports, isn’t allowed because of the likelihood of setting off smoke alarms; there’s something ironic about that), and it’s gripping. It is not an attack on tradition, rather it’s an observation, and a consideration of the future. Not least, it confronts the role of AI in creativity and innovation.

Trevor Jones’ immersive exhibition is reacting to a world where attention spans are short, and people – absorbed by, and dependent upon, their mobile phones – are taking less and less time out to appreciate the world around them. EXPOS3D invites visitors to download an app, set up a profile, and experience the exhibition via their smartphone. Scanning the paintings and seeing an animation with augmented reality or scanning the QR code to get more information – either way provokes thought and ultimately brings the viewer back to the artwork. There’s even an immersive award system whereby you collect points to unlock digital and physical gifts.

The artist is originally from Canada. Since studying at the Edinburgh College of Art, Trevor Jones has become internationally acclaimed for fusing classical oil painting with emerging technologies to explore power, perception, and human agency in the digital age. EXPOS3D is the unique extension of this phenomenon.

The exhibition is running at the Custom House, Leith until Saturday 18^th October. Free but ticketed.

Bonnie’s life has been defined by words: the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ones, caught between her bad Scots and worse English, and in Fraser Scott’s compelling one-woman play she tells her story to an audience for the first time since a solo talk in primary school…

In a fast-paced show, Bonnie takes us from the awkward school years where class differences with her friends become very clear, to the liberating time of university where Bonnie broadens her horizons and examines her biases. It’s by turns cringeworthy and highly relatable to much of the audience, judging by the reactions to an accidental ‘f-bomb as punctuation’ at dinner with her boyfriend’s very middle-class family. The way the ‘right’ words matter in different company is a major theme – who would think their friends were posh for calling a dressing gown a housecoat?

Olivia Caw plays a colourful range of characters effectively using the microphones surrounding the set, including her retired poem-writing dad and English flatmates. Bonnie is often ashamed of how she speaks and how it’s judged and at times fetishised; she reminds us of how decades ago the Scottish Education Department declared that Scots ‘is not the language of ‘educated’ people anywhere’. There’s moments where Bonnie feels somewhat unqualified as a Scots speaker, such as being unable to explain Auld Lang Syne to her American student friends, but returning to her small hometown is a more claustrophobic experience than she expects…

There’s a few moments of audience participation, including a very therapeutic swearing session and a festive singalong, and it’s hard not to be caught up by Bonnie’s cheeky charm. We left into the dreich night of Storm Amy feeling as mighty as Bonnie’s imaginary royal statue tribute to her Scots greatness.

Common Tongue is a lively, thought-provoking treat for any Scots-speakers, amateur or otherwise, who feel like ‘outwith’ is an underrated word.

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Common Tongue is touring in Peebles, Greenock, Cumbernauld, St Andrews, Dumfries and Paisley until 18 October. For more information visit the website.

A quick poll of my colleagues and friends revealed that, at best, they had heard of him but couldn’t describe his art more than “is he the guy who makes things out of leaves?”

And yes, he does, but so much more too – stones, petals, ferns, sheep’s wool, tree trunks, branches, reeds, snow, ice, clay and barbed wire, often documenting nature as it changes through seasons and years. He even enlists the help of sheep to make his artwork, with humorous and thought-provoking results.

Andy Goldsworthy – Fifty Years, is a fascinating insight into the career of an artist I feel has been making and creating for as long as I’ve been visiting galleries. His work was on my daughter’s school curriculum at primary level, my partner learned about him whilst teacher training, and my good friend’s sister (an artist) worked with him on this major retrospective.

Featuring over 200 works, this exhibition includes major installations made in response to the iconic Royal Scottish Academy building, as well as drawings, photographs, films, sketchbooks and archival items dating back to the mid-1970s and spanning fifty years.

Visitors are greeted by Wool Runner, which follows the outline of a wool carpet runner which used to be on the stairs at the building entrance. This time the wool is a little less processed. The result is a bold and unsettling first impression and it gives a good flavour of what’s to come – expect the unexpected.

Stones collected from graveyards in Dumfries and Galloway, displaced by burials, make a sombre artwork, particularly with dimmed lighting and colourless stones.

Fence has a similar effect – at first glance it looks tactile, soft and colourful, until you realise it’s made of barbed wire – a comment on the times that Goldsworthy’s artistic endeavours were not too welcome!

Later we see a film of him working his way slowly and painfully thought a hedge – man almost becoming lost in the tangle of twigs – which, to a passer-by, must have caused curiosity and head scratching.

Bull reeds reaching high to the ceiling of one gallery in a circle offer a chance for visitors to stand in the middle and look up – created in the hope that the grimy skylight might be cleaned to let in more light!

Fallen Elm is an ongoing project started in 2009 with Goldsworthy using a fallen tree near his home for multiple creative opportunities. Over 90 photographs are shown of the tree with different natural adornments – a fissure looks like a lightening strike, but on closer inspection is a crack outlined with bright gold and yellow leaves; a wiggly line of pink ribbon turns out to be fox glove petals.

The standout for me was Oak Passage, created this year from branches of fallen trees damaged during storm Èowyn, and making a giant path through one of the galleries. Each branch is carefully positioned to lean against another – there are no visible restraints used. With two striking artworks on the walls at either end, it makes a highly visual and photogenic piece which visitors can walk through.

The oak branches sit on the gallery’s treated and polished oak floors, reminded us that it too was once a might oak tree.

What I liked about this exhibition is the blend of old and new – some site specific newly created artworks mixed with photos and videos of his early work, often experimental – helping us understand how he has become the artist he is today.

Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years is on at the National Galleries Scotland exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy building, entry through Princes Street, until 2 November 2025. Tickets £5-£19.

The 2025 theme, Lights of the North, brings together storytellers from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Germany. The myths and legends of these countries often have much in common with Scottish folklore; this will be explored by international guest storytellers such as Anna-Maria Toivonen, Georgiana Keable Jerstad, Mimesis Heidi Dahlsveen, Hjörleifur Stefánsson, Jerker Fahlström, and Suse Weisse.

There’s a strong Scottish thread running through events too as Vikings and trolls rub shoulders with selkies and Cailleach. The late Martyn Bennett is honoured with an exploration of the Traveller stories influencing his final work, while comedian Marjolein Robertson takes us to Shetland for winter tales, and the selkie myth will be queered by Fringe First winner Niall Moorjani and Ailsa Dixon.

In addition, there will be over 60 Go Local events around the country, plus workshops, children’s events, and an art exhibition at the Storytelling Centre by Hester Asplund.

At the launch we were treated to Riikka Palonen and musician Richard Clarke weaving a celestial tale of a bear’s origins, with the traditional Finnish kantele accompanying mournful folk songs. Riikka added: “The stories I will be telling are rooted in the celestial origins of our northern mythology – tales born of the stars – and just as the starlight brings its glow to the darkening nights, I hope my tales can also cast a little light and wonder, if even for a short while.”

The Scottish International Storytelling Festival runs from 22 October- 1 November at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and other venues in Edinburgh.