i
i demise or should we
Is British television’s love
affair with American 5 shows hastening its own
1 accept that colonisation of 1
our airwaves is inevitable and simply sit back to
i enjoy the imports? Do ' Bad Girls really exist or is
it just a marketing device with a hint of raunch?
LETTERS
Nowt queer about folk
I read your I994 preview with interest — a good idea for us culturally clued-up types. I thought. However I was disappointed to find that. although you covered festivals as diverse as the Puppet and Animation Festival at the Netherbow and the Isle of Bute Jazz
1 Festival. there was absolutely no
f mention ofthe numerous folk festivals that will take place throughout the
central belt of Scotland in 1994.
A few years ago a Scottish Arts
2 Council survey found that the 58 folk
festivals throughout Scotland contributed about £10 million to the
i country‘s economy. Doesn't that show that they are worth including in your
in-depth guide to the year ahead in the arts? I find this omission particularly ironic because it coincides with the huge success of the Celtic Connections series of concerts at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall — a series that the manager admits would not be run for classical music because there wouldn’t be the audience. And when did you last see a two-week rock festival in
, Glasgow? 50 how about taking your
Oscars are virtually guaranteed but is Age of Innocence a creditable adaptation of a literary classic? Tell us what you think and a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila could be your reward.
BeerhaH
lf Ronnie Davidson (The List 218) is looking for an 800 capacity venue for concerts in Edinburgh he has only to turn right from his house in East Preston Street and walk 400 yards down the road to the Queen's Hall. Bands appearing at the hall during February include Suede. Tori Amos. Dougie Maclean and The Rankin Family.
We will be delighted to sell Mr Davidson lots of beer on his next visit. Simon (‘rookall General Manager The Queen‘s Hall Clerk Street Edinburgh
coverage of folk music a bit more seriously in the future?
Isabel Fletcher
Broughton Street
Edinburgh
.u, JOSE "“ OUERVO Mea culpa. as they used to say in
Rome. There was a system failure in tlte giga-byte mainframe which works
: tirelessly compiling the preview listings i (oh alright then. it's a bloke with an
Amstrad) which resulted in the entire
folk programme being left offthe list. It
was a sin ofomission rather than
New Year bruise up
Re: Alison McKenzie‘s letter (The List 218). I don’t know which area of the planet she was on. on 3| December I993. but it certainly wasn’t the Mound in Edinburgh. l was there. and from what I could see 99 per cent ofthe beings there were disgustingly drunk and the streets were considerably littered with beer cans and bottles! I was almost crushed to death when I fell (trying to get out of the crush!); battered by flying beer cans (crushed. of course); bruised by someone falling offa traffic light and soaked by an over-exuberant reveller popping his champagne cork. No one around me actually knew when midnight arrived and I went home wishing l‘d stayed in Glasgow. Next year I'll stay at home. It’s safer!
L. Taylor
Clifford Street
Glasgow
Cultural exchange
Re the current debate about all the capital’s art treasures being shunted off on the Super Sprinter to Glasgow. May
I suggest a more equitable system of
loan swaps between the two cities so that Scotland‘s cultural valuables get a
regular airing. and everybody gets to
see thetn?
It works something like this. For January we give the Glaswegians Muriel Gray and they lend us Paul
; McStay (fair exchange. I'd say). ; February they get lrvine Welsh. we get
commission for which we apologise but j
don't go running away wit/1 the idea that we've got a downer on folk (see our coverage of Celtic Connections). Rest assured that the major-folk events. including the Edinburgh Folk Festival from 2—] 1 April. will be previewed. together with full listings ofgigs and residencies. Anyhow. thanksfor your letter and take a bottle oftequilafor your trouble. Visit our Edinburgh office. where Jose Cuervo awaits.
’ Waverley. where I‘ll be waiting to pick ‘
one of those blokes who shouts ‘Times‘ outside Queen Street station. March
sees all those daft bits of concrete in the t i Address your letters to The List Letters 3
Botanic Garden heading west. and Peter McDougall shacking up in the New Town (that‘ll piss him off). Come April. and we’ll lend you Sheena MacDonald if you‘ll let us have a quick go of Katy Murphy. And so on.
lt'll work a treat. I’m telling you. and to kick off the scheme why not despatch a bottle of Jose Cuervo from your Glasgow office through to
it up. [)0 I win or what?
Gary Nelson Brighton Street
Edinburgh
It 's a neat idea. Gary. which in many
' ways is far ahead ofits tinte. but no
tequila I 'm afraid.
NEXT ISSUE OUT THURSDAY 10 FEBRUARY
Robert De Niro's waiting: for our in-depth profile of the Marquis of Method as he releases his directorial debut A Bronx Tale.
Gallery glasnost
It would be easy to characterise the overflowing public meeting at Edinburgh Art College about the proposed gallery of Scottish Art as mere protectionism. But the numbers that showed up to hear the case against and, to some extent. for. shows the strength of feeling that this issue has aroused. I suspect the majority of people who attended had never tnade a public protest in their lives — a stiff letter to The Scotsman would likely be the extent oftheir militancy. So this was not a rent-a-mob drummed up to make a noise against the establishment; would it not have been good manners for the trustees to send a representative to explain the board’s decision? Timothy Clifford is an executive paid to carry out the trustees' policy decisions but asking him to defend a process he was not fully involved in hardly seems fair. Board members should remember that as trustees of a publicly-owned art collection they should not only strive to do their best for the collections on our behalf. but also be seen to be acting in our best interests. There was always going to be disagreement about the outcome of their deliberations but a more open approach might have helped all but their sternest critics accept the outcome as being for the greater good. As it is they have produced what. at best. could best be described as a public relations disaster.
Paul Stuart
Crow Road
i Glasgow
at:
l4 High Street Edinburgh Elll lTE
Of
Old Athenaeum Theatre I79 Buchanan Street Glasgow GI ZJZ
. or 5 Fax them to: ()3l 557 8500
W’ will not print yourjit/l address or plume number but you must include them. Deadline is the I’riday before
; publication. Keep them pithy. as T overlong letters may be cut. The best
letter next issue will win a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila and a natty baseball cap.
M People (left): Classic pop from the Manchester combo promising more than ‘One Night In Heaven‘.
Turn 0] The Screw: Scottish Opera‘s ambitious new project.
PLUS: .S'chind/ers List, III The Nattte ()fT/te Fat/let: Cypress Hill. more from New Moves, hit the decks with The List guide to buying hi-fi. and pop fopsters Suede.
ORDER YOUR COPY NOW!
92 The List 28 January-ll) February I994
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