PREVIEW OF 2001
SPORT
The Grand National (7 Apr, Arntree) and the Scottish Grand National (21 Apr, Ayr Racecourse) are the hrghlrghts of the horseracrng calendar, whrle Scotland’s Amerrcan Football stars krck start therr NFL Europe League season wrth a home match, Scottish Claymores v Frankfurt Galaxy (21 Apr, Hampden Park)
The snooker season draws to a close wrth the Regal Scottish Open (8-715 Apr, AECC) and the Embassy World Championship l21 Apr 7 May, Sheff:e|dl There's hrgh-octane actron rn [)urnfrres for the Scottish Rally (9-lO Jun) and our rnvolvement rn the er Natrons champrOnshrp contrnues Wrth
Scotland v Ireland (7 Apr, Murrayfreld).
As the domestrc football seaSOn draws to a conclusron at the begrnnrng of Aprrl, Crarg Brown's men turn out for a frrendly, Poland v Scotland (25 Apr), and the cup acitron heats up north and south of the border for the Scottish Cup Final (26 May, Hampden Park) and the FA Cup Final ()2 May).
Sportrng shorts thrs season rnclude motor racrng, Scottish Formula Ford
Festival Racing Weekend (3—4 Jun, Knockhrll), cyclrng at the Grand Prix Of Edinburgh (23 24 Jun, Meadowbank Velodrome, Edrnburgh), squash at the Scottish Open (28 Jun- 1 Jul, Bells Sports Centre, Perth) and rudo’s Scottish Open (9 Jun, Meadowbank Sports Centre).
TELEVISION
The Brrtrsh TV phenomenon that was Big Brother rs expected to rnvade Our homes agarn wrth a new set of ’c'haracters’ arrnrng to emulate crazy Crarg (Channel 4) whrle the ghosts of Meg Mortrmer, Benny and MISS Drane may haunt the new cast of the revamped Crossroads (Scottrsh, Apr). Richard Wilson has hardly had trme to grreve for Vrctor Meldrew but he rs back as a Brrtrsh banker, rntrrgurngly named Bruce Morton, rn Hrgh Stakes (Scottrsh, Apr). Wee Scottrsh heart- throb Joe McFadden returns to the small screen wrth two new dramas, alongsrde John Thaw and Sarah Lancashire rn The Glass (Scottrsh) and besrde Douglas Hodge and Amita Dhiri rn The Law (Scottrsh) Sanleev Bhaskar also has a dual purpose wrth a second serres of small potatoes (Channel 4, May) whrle he lets off to
26 THE “81' 5—18 Jan 200)
Indra for a specral Goodness Gracious Me (BBC2, Aprr The natron eagerly antrcrpates the thrrd serres of The League Of Gentlemen (BBCZl whrle a new batch of surreal locals are unleashed rn Residents (BBCZ, Apr»
THEATRE
Expect The Royal Court's productron of Conor McPherson’s The Werr (May) at the Edrnburgh Krng’s Theatre, whrle over at Glasgow's Tron there’ll be more acclarrned lrrsh wrrtrng Wlll) Martin MacDonagh’s The Beauty Queen Of Leenane (Apr), clrrerted by Iain Heggie (Mull Theatre wrll also stage the same play throughout the summer) It'll be a busy perrod for Heggre, whose errng My Mother’s Arse rs expected to premrere around thrs trme, possrny rn Edrnburgh.
Theatre Babel wrll be brrngrng the grrm John Ford tragedy Trs’ Prty She's A Whore, a dark tale of rncest, wrth much gore and sprllrng of spleen David Harrower's adaptatron of Buchner’s Woyzeck (1-19 May) at Edrnburgh’s Royal Lyceum c0u|d also requrre some fortrtude. And there’s no tellrng what dark corners Forbes
Masson wrll reveal rn hrs new musrcal Mrnc'e? to be staged by Dundee Rep (Zia-I9 May)
Glasgow’s Tramway rs the place to head rn Aprrl for rts short season Beyond The Stars rn whrch art meets scrence. Most excrtrng rs the return of Quebec0rs theatre guru Robert Lepage, sard to be back on form wrth Far Srde Of The Moon (19—21 Apr) about man’s obsessron wrth space exploratron. That's followed by award- wrnnrng choreographer Akram Khan’s Loose r'n F/r'ght/Fr’x/Rush (26—28 Apr), and IOU Theatre workrng rn tandem wrth Scottrsh artrsts on Cure, a dark look at the art of medrcrne.
For famrly audrences, Stephen Greenhorn has wrrtten Krng Matt (Apr—Jul) for TAG and the MacRobert, an adventure story abOut a boy who takes over hrs father's krngdom and puts the grown-ups rn therr place. Also on tOur wrll be ln-Company wrth rts well-recerved productron of Krapp’s Last Tape starrrng Russell Hunter. Up rn St Andrews, the Byre Theatre rs bankrng on a launch rn May of rts new burldrng, constructed from scratch on rts orrgrnal srte wrth the help of Lottery money.
ART
The Jerwood Painting Prize Exhibition comes to Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art (6 Jul -~l4 Oct) The Prr/e, establrshed rn 1993 by the Jerwood FOundatron, celebrates contemporary parntrngs Past wrnners rnclude Crargre Artchrson, Gary Hume and Patrrck Caulfreld.
Dublrn-born artrst Sean Scully brrngs hrs rnstantly recognrsable strrped and chequered abstract parntrngs to Edrnburgh's Ingleby Gallery (1 Aug—I 5 Sep) and Patricia McDonald shows her unrque aerral photographs at the
Talbot che Gallery rn Edrnburgh (Aug/Sep). Serizawa Keisuke (1895-1984) at the Royal Museum, Edrnburgh (ll Aug—4 Nov) rs the frrst European exhrbrtron of Kersuke's work for a quarter of a century, formrng part of a season of exhrbrtrons Japan 2007, whrch runs from May untrl Mar 2002.
Dundee Contemporary Arts hosts the fourth and frnal serres of Scottrsh art srnce 1945, wrth Scottish Art: The 19905 (Sep-Nov) runnrng concurrently at the Aberdeen Art Gallery. And Edrnburgh's Collectrve Gallery krcks off rts New Work Scotland Programme (Sep—Dec) whrch showcases the work of Scotland's emergrng artrsts.
BOOKS
He may have been slated to submrssron wrth F/lth but Irvine Welsh rs set to unleash hrs brggest work to date, rn sales as well as pages, wrth Glue (Jul), whrle srmrlarly grrm terrrtory rs covered rn the same month wrth the frrst work of frctron from Hugh Collins, entrtled A ere/y Story Amerrcan Cult crrme faves Anthony Bourdain (Aug) and George P. Pelecanos (Sep) brrng us new blood- drenched pages, whrle brggest sequel of the perrod rs Stephen Hawking’s The Unrverse In A Nutshell (Sep) whrch
follows up some book he had rn the 80s Fun autobroqrapln of the season \‘.‘rll be Can )ou See l". hat lt ls )et ‘ b\ Rolf Harris (Sep), \shrle some of the brggest names rn ('ery drfferent genres produce new \\0ll\ Raymond Briggs (Sep), John Irving (fill and Nadine Gordimer «Sep)
CLUBS
The summer season erl be domrnated by resrdenc res rn Ibiza and Ayia Napa and by festrvals closer to home Once agarn, the Slam fellas are set to rock T in the Park and although they're playrng therr cards close to then chests, Pete Tong has already been confrrmed as domg a mrd-afternoon set Creamfields and Homelands are also possrble dance festrvals for Scotland over the summer and the International Club Festival (Aug) wrll fly the flag for clubbrng rn Edrnburgh As the summer draws to a close, you can look forward to the 10th annrversary celebratrons of Glasgow’s favourrte label Soma (Sep) The occasron wrll be marked by a very specral four-date tour featurrnq those frrsky FTGITChK-‘S, Daft Punk
EVENTS
There’ll be the annual chance to look behrnd the scenes at some of the crtres’ frnest and most rnterestrng burldrngs as they open therr doors to the publrc for one day only for Doors Open Day (Sep) rn Glasgow and Edrnburgh Then transport planners, actrvrsts and polrtrcrans descend on central Scotland for VeIo-city 2001 (l7——21 Sep), the world’s brggest cycle plannrng conference Usrng Edrnburgh as a practrcal example, the conference wrll attempt to promote cyclrng as a safe and envrronmentally frrendly mode of transport
FESTIVALS
We mrght not get the longest of summers, but we cram the lrttle we do get wrth a non-stop parade of festrvals. Frrst up rs T in the Park (7 -8 Jul provrsronal) and we’re already puttrng on bets as to who‘ll headlrne Scotland’s brggest rock festrval rn 2001
There's a double helprng of entertarnment for razz fans rn July. Brrngrng rnternatronal Jazz stars rnto venues across the Crty, the Glasgow Jazz Festival (July tbc) rs currently confrrmrng rts 2001 programme