60 TROUBLE CLUBS, MUSIC AND MORE
Before you accuse us of nepotism (and we do love Trouble man Hobbes’ Clubber’s Decktionary column in this very magazine, see page 73) the Trouble DJs are included on their own merit hosting two clubs in Edinburgh with Wonky and Devil Disco Club (and are also key in live music night Limbo) covering everything from dark disco, new wave, Afrobeat and indie rock. We can’t wait to get deeper into Trouble next year. (HN)
59 MURIEL ROMANES THEATRE VISIONARY
Having been at the forefront of Scottish theatre for the past two decades as artistic director of Stellar
Quines, Muriel Romanes scored a particular triumph in 2011 with The Age of Arousal, a ‘wild adaptation’ of a George Gissing novel about the first stirrings of female emancipation in late Victorian Britain, for which she was named Best Director by the Critics Association for Theatre in Scotland. (AR)
A SPUD WE LIKE 58 EWEN BREMNER
This Edinburgh native picked some fine supporting roles this year, first in David Mackenzie’s decent sci-fi romance Perfect Sense, and then with his delightfully understated turn in Page Eight. He also shared some of his favourite National Museum of Scotland memories with us earlier this year. He might not be scaling the resurgent career highs of his contemporary Ewan M, but we say less, Mr B, is most definitely more. (AM)
57 LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS CREATIVE LGBT CLUB CREEPS
Lock Up Your Daughters (or LUYD if you’re into that sort of thing) is Glasgow’s ‘network for creative queers’. This year they continued their club nights at The Flying Duck and started their own film club, with monthly showings of well-chosen cult classics at the Glasgow Film Theatre and weekly mentoring workshops for aspiring filmmakers. A force to be reckoned with. (LM)
SKIRTS AND SKINS 56 FREYA MAVOR
See panel (right).
55 MOGWAI INTERNATIONAL (GUITAR) PLAY(ING)BOYS
A sold-out show at the Barrowland wraps up another solid year for the Lanarkshire/ Glasgow post-rockers. They put out album number seven, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will plus the ‘Earth Division’ EP, toured their way round festivals in Naples, Shanghai and Mexico City (including a booking in Athens for someone called ‘Spicy Entertainment’), performed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and generally kept adrenaline levels soaring amongst their fans. (CS)
The 56
FREYA MAVOR
All good things, they say, must come to an end. So with the Skins policy of changing casts every two series, Freya Mavor may well be currently filming her final scenes of the popular E4 show. ‘I feel petrified of leaving my baby behind,’ Edinburgh’s Mavor says of Mini McGuinness, who started season five as a ‘status-driven bitchy mean girl’ before her vulnerabilities bubbled to the surface, revealing a warmer, more sympathetic individual.
Though the new series airs in mid-January, the cast had yet to be told how it would all pan out for their characters, but dramatic and intense things are promised, according to Mavor. ‘The word we were given for this year is “forbidden”. This series explores more drastic issues which jostle up the whole group and some people come out of their shells more. It’s quite full-on.’ In a year in which the 18-year-old fulfilled her ambition of becoming a
professional actor (it was reported that an astonishing 8000 hopefuls went for the role of Mini), she also entered a very different business, becoming the face of Pringle of Scotland and beating off competition from Gerard Butler and Karen Gillan to be named Fashion Icon 2011 at the Scottish Fashion Awards. ‘I found that more amusing than anything else. If people could see me right now, they’d reconsider and I’d probably have the award taken away from me.’ (BD)
15 Dec 2011–5 Jan 2012 THE LIST 29