AGENDA
In an act of ‘irresponsible vandalism‘ the owners of the Salon Cinema in Glasgow‘s West End tore out the seating and closed the cinema last Tuesday, 13 October. The police were called when employees of the cinema refused to leave after being told that their jobs would go.
‘Hemoving the seats was irresponsible vandalism’
The cinema, a ‘8‘ Listed building of considerable historic interest, is the subject of a planning application to convert it into two badminton courts — due to be heard by the Glasgow council planning committee on Tuesday, 27 October. The committee will be asked to reject the application and recommend the building be upgraded to ‘A’ Listed status, which imposes even tougher controls on its use.
‘Removing the seats like that was irresponsible vandalism‘ said Mrs Winifred Robertson, convenor of the Save Our Salon campaign which has collected a 12,500 signature petition to retain the cinema in its original form. ‘I actually walked into the half-completed devastation and was shocked and angered at the destruction ofthe interior of a listed building.‘
The timing of the closure was even more of a surprise, coming on the second day of the local half-term holiday, with a very lucrative run of the blockbuster Disney cartoon Beauty and the Beast.
Glasgow Council have obtained an
Three of the Salon’s usherettes staging a sit-in on the tom-out seats after hearing thatthe cinema would close.
I
' the legal process.‘ according to a
; quarter of a million pounds they
interim interdict to prohibit CAC Leisure, who own and run the Salon, from doing anything further to the fabric of the building without their express consent. ‘The situation is out of the hands of the planning authority, it is now in the hands of
Council spokesperson. ‘The seating may also be the subject of an enforcement order, but that is something which we are just considering at the moment,‘ they added.
SOS have presented the council with a plan to purchase the Salon and run it as an arthouse cinema, also showing mainstream films. ‘We have listened to what the West End people want, which is a constantly changing programme,‘ said Mrs Robertson. The campaign is approaching local businesses and individuals in a bid to raise the
believe this proposal would need. , Many big names have already i signed up to the campaign. including I Iain Smith. the locally born producer of 1492: Conquest of Paradise. David Puttnam, Sean Connery and Billy Connolly. who says he once did his courting in the Salon‘s back seats. are also involved. CAC Leisure had no comment to make when contacted by The List. ‘We have closed the cinema down and are seeking legal advice‘ a spokesperson said. (Thom Dibdin)
' Anyone interested in supporting the Save Our Salon campaign should 5 contact them in writing c/o Neil
Baxter Associates. Gleniffer House, 21 Woodside Terrace, Glasgow G3 7X H .
I Screen one at the Cannon
Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow has been closed by fire. According to a spokesperson for the cinema, a cigarette end is believed to have
‘ caused the blaze, which burned out
the level one foyer. Although the auditorium and the projection equipment were not burned, there was extensive smoke damage and the screen is likely to closed for at least ten weeks.
V CLIPPINGS
I Spokes: Proving yet again that nobody‘s perfect, The List‘s 1992 Student Guide printed an out-of-date phone number in the Travel Section for Spokes, the Lothian Cycle Campaign. The correct number is 031 313 2114, and the organisation is based at St Martin’s Church, 232 Dalry Road, Edinburgh EH112JG. Our apologies to Spokes and anyone else for whom this mistake caused difficulties. It does, however, give us a chance to draw to your attention Spokes’ extremely useful and detailed Edinburgh cycling map, which uses an easy to follow set of colours and symbols to indicate quiet roads, official paths, cobbled roads, steep hills, hazardous junctions and other handy pieces of information for the city cyclist. The map is available from the address above (£2.50) or from various bike and book shops. As a special offer, it is available at a mere £2 at a public meeting the organisation are holding at the Friends Meeting House, Victoria Terrace on Tue 3 Nov at 7.30pm.
I London Film Festival: The 36th London Film Festival gets underway on Thursday 5 November with Kenneth Branagh‘s Peter’s Friends, which featured as this month's List Student Preview at the Cameo, Edinburgh. Between this and the closing gala screening of Blade Runner— The Director's Cut come a
Suburban Girl. Four films which ' pickedpp awards at the EIFF also
SHRIGLEY
few movies with Scottish connections. Margaret Tait‘s Blue Black Permanent tells of the female members of three generations of one family and was shot in Edinburgh and Orkney; it premiered at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, as did Stefan Schwartz’s Soft Tap Hard Shoulder, which stars Scots aetor Peter Capaldi. Alongside these films under the British Cinema banner is God on the Rocks in which Bill Paterson — interviewed on page 8 of this issue — plays an inter-war lay preacher. Jon Love‘s Glasgow-set short The Chanter is part of a programme of new short films called Brief Encounters, while BBC Scotland’s Director‘s Place series continues with Susan Seidelman‘s return to the outskirts of Philadelphia in Confessions of a
appear on the programme: British features Wild West and Leon The Pig Farmer, China's first independent feature Mama and Tim Webb’s Post Office McLaren Award-winning animation short A Is ForAutism. Further details are available on 071 928 2695.
I Schools Theatre Tour: Two thousand pupils at 30 secondary schools across Scotland will spend October and November exploring the New Europe with Theatre Workshop‘s Theatre-In-Education company. The Ten Year Footprint, written by Andy Mackie and directed by Andy Cannon, looks at the Europe of today, its colonial past and its relationship with the wider world, and will be one part of a day-long session of workshops and performances at each school. The tour aims to encourage the pupils to celebrate the variety of languages and cultures of Europe, and ends — significantly enough — on the eve of the European Summit in Edinburgh.
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The List 23 October; 5 November 992 5