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Bodice talk: Gwyneth Paltrow and Greta Scacchi in Emma
October
CHILDREN OF ALBION ROVERS is the first offspring for proud parents litmag Rebel Inc and Edinburgh publisher Canongate. and everyone is invited to watch the birth at Reading Lights. Glasgow‘s first festival of writing. Alan Warner (above) puts on the shirt as does — you guessed it — Irvine Welsh. The football/book connection continues as Kenny Dalglish breaks his customary silence with an autobiography before stunning the world with rumours that he‘s about tojoin the payroll of old rivals Rangers as chief scout. The caring side of Paul Gascoigne revealed in the C uning Edge television documentary on the player — although this clashed with later tabloid photos of Gazza‘s bruised wife Sheryl. Scotland featured twice on screen. in Lars Von Trier’s masterpiece Breaking The Waves and as a stand-in location for Hardy country in Jude. The gig scene took a healthy upswing as Suede. the Fugees and Ocean Colour Scene played live. while the Glasgow-based Ten Day Weekend put the spotlight on local bands Urusei Yatsura. Belle And Sebastian and Arab Strap. Northern Ballet Theatre sank their teeth into a sexy Dracula. Les Danai'des brought a huge cast to the Tramway and Glasgow celebrated ten years of the Sub Club.
Booked: lltmag Rebel Inc launches
Children Oi Albion Rovers
REVIEW OF 1996 FEATURE
September
EMMA the film precedes Iimma the television event by a few weeks. ensuring that Jane Austen and the Bronte bodice brigade swamp the publishing. theatre and cinema worlds in a manner that makes lrvine Welsh look positively lazy. A few other novelists manage a look-in. however: William Mcllvanney’s The Kiln hits the shelves (and subsequently wins the Saltire Award) and David Baddiel extends his laddish laughs from Fantasy Football League to his debut novel Time For Bed. The Blue Nile take up a three-night residency at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. the ‘Prince Rock Ballet‘ Billboards features dirty-dancing to songs by the squiggle from the pre-9()s and Robert Miles of ‘Children' fame DJs at the Tunnel. TAG tours a theatre production of Men Should Weep. which also could have been the response by the Catholic Church hierarchy when news broke of ‘bonking bishop‘ Roddy Wright‘s disappearance with a local woman. his previous love child. and his ‘coming clean‘ in the News ( )f The World.
Joseph McFadden: taking The Crow Road to success
November
THE CROW ROAD is a triumph for BBC Scotland as young Prentice McHoan unravels his bizarre family history. Following on from Small Faces. the serial makes a star of High Road heart-throb Joseph McFadden. but he‘s challenged in the Scottish actor stakes by Ewan McGregor who comes at us with a double whammy of The Pillow Book and Brassed Off. Andrew Neil returns to his homeland when appointed editor-in-chief of Scotsman Publications and. while we’re talking of the written word. Edinburgh writer Alan Spence wins the McVitie’s Prize for his collection of short stories Stone Garden. Scots also taste
victory on the green baize as Alan McManus. Stephen Hendry and John Higgins team up to win the Snooker World Cup. Phillipe Decouffle’s Decoder trounces all-comers as the weirdest dance event of the year with its synchronised flippers. although Tricky’s live show rivals it for moments of utter strangeness. Nothing is as it seems. particularly in Westminster where politicians blatantly ignore public opinion by only banning handguns over .22 calibre.
December
IRVINE WELSH completes his year as l996’s big personality. He takes up residency as Santa Claus in Jenners (at least until 1 April I997) in order to research his latest opus Weanspoiting. a bittersweet tale that promises to put the ‘radge’ in t-radg-ic. Everyone else begins to see spots before their eyes as Disney’s live action version of [0/ Dalmatians brings puppy love to cinemas. while Robert Lepage has a second go at staging his hi-tech Hamlet in Scotland as he brings Festival no-show Elsinore to the Tramway. Hillsborough proves to be the devastating television event of the year. packing political punch into its drama-doc format. and Runrig embark on a tour that combines small, far-flung venues with city gigs. And all that’s left is for I996 to go out with a
Seeing red: Irvine Welsh has taken the highs with the lows bang as Edinburgh hosts the biggest Hogmanay party in the world.
The List 13 Dec l996-9 Jan 1997 9