Some of the world's best bands play Scotland in June: Here's our pick
Alon's delicate vocals and searingly honest lyrics have drawn comparisons to Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley. Heady company, but Alon doesn't sound out of place. This will probably be one of the quieter gigs this month, but it will possibly resonate the longest.
Iggy Pop
02 Academy, Glasgow, June 3
Iggy Pop (Image: PA)
Maybe the drugs do work. Or maybe he's indestructible. So many of his contemporaries are no longer with us, but Jim Osterberg's still around, still singing Lust for Life and The Passenger and showing off his aged torso as he reaches the fag end of his seventies. It really is quite something. Still a street-walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm, in other words.
Spectacular Shostakovich: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Usher Hall, June 6; Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, June 7
Marking the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich's death, the RSNO performs his epic 11th Symphony, inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1905. Thomas Sondergard conducts and cellist Daniel Muller-Schott is the soloist.
Pulp
OVO Hydro, Glasgow, June 7
Getting the jump on Oasis, Britpop's finest (well, it's them or Suede) mark their first album - entitled More - in 24 years with another round of live gigs. Last seen in these parts ushering in 2024 at Edinburgh's Hogmanay, the band have had a new lease of life whilst mourning the loss of bass player Steve Mackey. Will the new album live up to its predecessors? That remains to be seen (the precursor single, Spike Island, is OK but maybe not much more). Still, any excuse to sing along to Do You Remember the First Time and Babies is always to be welcomed.
Abbie Gordon
The Poetry Club, Glasgow, June 19
New blood. Abbie Gordon is a teenage singer-songwriter from Irvine who was named Young Live Artist of the Year in December after headlining King Tut's. The future starts here. And while you're at it, maybe check out Theo Bleak (Canvas, Dundee, June 20), another fresh singer-songwriter with an ear for a tune.
Diana Ross
OVO Hydro, Glasgow, June 25
Diana Ross (Image: Newsquest)
Yes, that Diana Ross. Now in the foothills of her ninth decade on the planet, Ross has a back catalogue that stretches back to her Motown pomp in The Supremes, and takes in her imperious disco era working with Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, her Bee Gees-fuelled Chain Reaction chart ascendancy and even collaborating with the name producer of the moment, Jack Antonoff, on 2021 album Thank You. Not sure she'll have any time for deep cuts. The question is, which of her 100 plus singles will she leave out?
Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Mono, Glasgow, June 25
The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band (Image: free) In the mood for some country blues? This might be the gig for you. Big voice, big beard and guitar picking. The good Reverend, who hails from Indiana, leads a trio including his wife Washboard Breezy (on washboard, you might not be surprised to hear) and Jacob Powell on percussion. Can't deny, they make a noise.
Lana Del Rey
Hampden Park, Glasgow, June 26
Lana Del Rey (Image: free) Gone are the days Lana used to hang out in Glasgow's south side, but she is back in the city for this arena gig towards the end of the month. Del Rey's shtick - established as early as her first single Video Games - is the society girl with an eye for bad boys, as played out in a Mogadon haze. On paper that doesn't sound like a recipe for filling arenas but it's turned out to be surprisingly moreish. Del Rey is currently the 25th most streamed artist in the world. Hopefully she will turn up on time this evening and not risk getting the power turned off as happened to her at Glastonbury in 2023.
Simple Minds
Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, June 27
Part of this year's Summer Sessions programme (preceded by the Sex Pistols and Sting on June 21 and June 25 respectively), Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill return for a hometown gig. We can argue over their back catalogue (my cut-off point is 1982; given the commercial success of what was to follow clearly few agree), but the truth is they remain a formidable live act. As frontman, Kerr both looks his age and acts like he's still in his twenties. It's quite the combination.
Macy Gray
Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, June 27
Macy Gray (Image: Newsquest)
Want to feel old? It's now been 26 years - yes, 26 - since Macy Gray's breakthrough single, I Try, which introduced us to the gorgeous rasp of her voice. It remains her best known song, but she has never stopped making records. Quick question. Is her cover of Radiohead's Creep better than Billie Eilish's? Discuss.
Kid Creole and the Coconuts
Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, June 28; Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, June 29
To be honest, there is a corner of my head where it's always 1982. The year I left home, the year I started fending for myself, the year I fell in love. Kid Creole and the Coconuts were part of that year's soundtrack, a heady mix of disco, Latin rhythms and New Pop, amped up by August Darnell's larger-than-life ego and Zoot suits, and gilded by the Coconuts themselves, all backcombed blonde attitude and harmonies. It was pop panto back then, probably more so now, but, admit it, you're humming 'Ona-Ona-Onamatopea' even as you read this. (Who cares if that's not the real lyric? It's a better one.)
Lucy Dacus
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, June 30; Barrowland Ballroom, July 1
Fresh from her time as a member of Boygenius and being namechecked by Taylor Swift in her song The Tortured Poets Department, the American singer-songwriter is touring in support of her latest album Forever is a Feeling. It contains a track called Limerence, by the way, which takes us back to Jacob Alon and where we came in.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Can you solve it? Are you a matcha for these tasty Japanese puzzles?
Japan is a world puzzle superpower. Its grid logic puzzles – like Sudoku, Kakuro, KenKen and many more – are played across the world by millions every day. The country also has its own culture of mathematical puzzles, nurtured by the Academy of Recreational Mathematics, Japan, which was founded in 1979. Today's problems are by Yoshiyuki Kotani, a founder member of the Academy and a professor of engineering at Tokyo University. They are taken from his new book, Tasty Japanese Morsels in Recreational Mathematics. 1. Squid game Two octopuses will face off in a boxing match. Each octopus requires eight gloves. (There is no distinction between left and right gloves.) The rules of octopus boxing stipulate that an octopus must only wear gloves of the same colour. There is a bag containing 16 red gloves and 16 green gloves. Find the minimum number of gloves that must be drawn at random from the bag to guarantee that the colours of the gloves of the two octopuses are (a) the same. (b) different. (c) either the same or different. 2. Sum-o wrestling. The diagram below represents a multiplication in which all but two of the digits have been replaced by stars. Reconstruct the computation. 3. Another boxing puzzle A restaurant uses 4 × 4 and 5 × 5 Bento boxes each divided into exactly eight square sections, as shown in the diagram below The chef has asked you to create Bento boxes with rectangular boxes. Each Bento must still have eight square sections, even though, as in the example, the square sections do not have to be all of the same size. Design a 4 × 6 Bento box, a 3 × 9 Bento box, and a 5 × 6 Bento box. I'll be back at 5pm UK. PLEASE NO SPOILERS. Please discuss your favourite Japanese things. Tasty Japanese Morsels in Recreational Mathematics by Yoshiyuki Kotani s published by the American Mathematical Association. All the diagrams above are taken from the book. I've been setting a puzzle here on alternate Mondays since 2015. I'm always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me. PS: Might anyone with computer skills be able to help me create a web page for a puzzle that involves dragging shapes around the screen? I hope to use the puzzle in a future column. If you think you can help, email me.
The Herald Scotland
5 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Step into the witty world of PG Wodehouse
'Yes, he's got a great story,' says Daws, one of the most familiar faces on television, who has appeared in the likes of Jeeves and Wooster, John Sullivan's Roger Roger. Essex-born Daws became interested in PG 'Plum' Wodehouse (as a child, Wodehouse couldn't pronounce his first name, Pelham, and early attempts sounded like 'Plum,') when at RADA. 'I was given a copy of Right Ho, Jeeves by actor/writer Tom Wilkinson, who was directing at the Academy. I read it and loved it, little knowing that a few years later I'd be starring in a wonderful TV adaptation.' Daws became fascinated with Wodehouse, reading several biographies of the writer. 'I learned about his extraordinary life, including his early career as a Broadway lyricist, which I'd known nothing about. I then called my friend Bill Humble and said, 'Do you think there might be a play about this?'. Incredibly, he told me that he'd just finished working on a screenplay about his life, which wasn't being picked up.' He smiles. 'The screenplay didn't make it, but the play has.' The actor adds; 'I was invited up to do the piece at the Assembly two years ago but couldn't because I was filming. Then Bill died just before Christmas. But I called our producer and suggested we do it this year.' The Wodehouse theatre project is clearly a labour of love. 'I was fascinated to learn that Wodehouse was a man who lived in a little bubble. So few people actually knew what he looked or sounded like. And I had no idea that before he'd become a successful writer, he'd been a contributor of stories to magazines, but then made his fortune in America as a lyricist for the likes of Cole Porter. At one point he had five shows running on Broadway simultaneously, and even if he'd never writer a Jeeves and Wooster, he'd have become famous for helping to create the great American musical, using the American vernacular, which hadn't been done before.' What sort of man was Wodehouse? 'He was guarded and considered quite shy and naïve. He was in some ways a repressed Victorian, separated from his parents for most of his childhood. (His father was a Colonial Civil Servant. Plum was dumped on a nanny from the ages of two to 15 while they worked in Hong Kong). He really did exist in the world he conjured up and was never really happy in the world outside of it. The one time in his world he was forced out of it, it didn't go well at all.' Daws is referring to Wodehouse's connection with Nazi Germany. Living in France when war broke out, he was playing in a cricket match on the June day in 1941 when taken prisoner and sent to an internment camp in Upper Silesia. The Germans manipulated him into making what became known as the 'Berlin broadcast', which was used by the Nazis for propaganda purposes. He wrote a diary of this period entitled Wodehouse in Wonderland. Wodehouse described the period as his 'great shaming.' MI6 later exonerated the writer. 'To be honest, some people are still divided (about Wodehouse's complicity) but I think there is no shadow of a doubt that he was innocent. But stupid? Yes. Interestingly (and sadly) the British government didn't release the report of his innocence until after his death.' Wodehouse was a workaholic, describing himself as 'a writing machine'. 'This was when he was happiest,' says Daws. Was Wodehouse living the life in his head of the sort he couldn't manage for real? 'I didn't think of that, but I think it's spot on. It's often true of writers generally, such as Dickens, but I think it's especially true of Wodehouse.' Daws adds; 'And Plum didn't write about a world which existed. It was historic, but it had a lightness to it, about toffs and rich people and the so-called Roaring Twenties. Yet he's still respected as one the greatest comic writers ever. And he was entirely dedicated to his craft.' The actor laughs. 'He knew that comedy is a very serious business.' The play is set in the 1950s where we see Wodehouse is in his New York state home, writing another Jeeves and Wooster book. We hear Wodehouse's wife Ethel ('Bunny') occasionally ask for a drink as an off-stage voice, while he writes letters to his beloved daughter 'Snorkles' (his affectionate name for Leonora). He is also pursued by a biographer, whom we don't see, keen to write his story. And Wodehouse occasionally breaks into the songs he has co-written. Read more Daws loves the challenge, but he's eminently qualified to entertain an audience, leaping across characters including Bertie Wooster, Jeeves, Lord Emsworth, Gussie Fink-Nottle and the squashily romantic Madeline Bassett. He has long been a natural performer. Born with feet and leg problems, the actor spent the first five years of his life in and out of hospital. 'I didn't walk until I was five, but I was precocious little brat and cast into the women's ward I sang songs like How Much Is That Doggie in The Window.' He grins. 'I blame my early age handicap for introducing me to the joys of comedy. And then at my ordinary secondary school, I was lucky to have a great drama department. But there were showbiz genes in the family tree, such as grandmother who appeared in Marie Lloyd musicals in the West End and played the Fairy Godmother at Drury Lane.' Robert Daws' talent shone through, accepted into RADA aged just 17, he went on to join the Royal Lyceum Company in Edinburgh and work in acclaimed TV productions such as the award-winning Outside Edge by Richard Harris. He smiles as he rewinds, 'I think I'm so lucky to have worked in rep theatre. You really get the chance to find out what you are good at and hearing the gears crunch when it doesn't work.' Daws grins. 'In this play I do almost everything, play so many characters. It's almost like going back to the days when I played the back end of a pantomime camel in Dick Whittington.' But the reason he can shine in this production is because he was that half of a camel. 'Yes, you do learn as you go along.' He laughs out loud. 'I do owe an awful lot to Esmarelda. For one thing, she got me my Equity Card.' Wodehouse in Wonderland, Assembly George Square Studios, until August 24, (excluding 18), at 6:10pm
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Daily Mail
Tracee Ellis Ross slammed for 'disgusting' act on plane as fans erupt over star's 'out-of-touch privilege'
Tracy Ellis Ross has fans cringing after sharing a bizarre in-flight beauty routine while flying first class. The 52-year-old nepo baby daughter of Diana Ross took to Instagram to post a now-viral clip of herself in a T-shirt and sweatpants going full self-care mode in a very private and spacious pod aboard a luxury jet. In the video, Ross stretches her legs above her head, reaches under her shirt, and appears to be scrubbing and scratching all over in a full-blown grooming session. 'I do not play when it comes to self-care on long flights!' she captioned the post. 'Please enjoy a bit of my pre-landing prep routine. I dry brush, remove the compression thigh highs, dry brush some more, stretch, then I do some lymphatic body percussion, finish up that water, and look for some sunshine.' Fans immediately flooded the comment section with outrage. One critic posted, 'Super gross and inconsiderate,' while another wrote, 'The most disgusting and unhygienic thing to do.' 'All I can think about is all that dead skin in that pod. I love you girl but this is inconsiderate of the next person that has to sit there and the ppl that have to clean it,' added another. Some shared similar horror stories. 'I saw someone dry brushing in the sauna at my gym recently and was in shock at how unhygienic and inconsiderate it was,' one chimed in. Others focused on the glaring wealth factor. 'Oh to afford being this level of out of touch,' one wrote. Another piled on: 'It's called rich privilege! They don't care about others!' 'What does it feel like to be THIS rich?' a fan asked rhetorically, highlighting the ultra-luxury surroundings. Another explained the setup: 'That is the 'pod'. What first class looks like on most international flights. Very private.' Ross' controversial pre-landing prep follows her shocking reveal of exactly how many pairs of underwear she packs for vacation. The Black-ish star recently shared in a TikTok that a person can 'only pack so much underwear,' revealing that instead of lugging a month's supply or relying on hotels to wash her delicates, she handles it herself. Her method? Shower gel, a bar of soap, and two sinks for hand-washing, followed by wringing, rolling in a towel, and hanging to dry. The clip follows her on-stage chat with Travel + Leisure editor-in-chief Jacqui Gifford at the annual World's Best Summit on July 15, where she revealed her bare-bones packing essentials. Along with a dress, bathing suit, and flip-flops, Ross said there are always 'two undies' in her bag. Jacqui pressed her, asking if she literally only brings two pairs. Tracee went on to explain her underwear-washing method—the same routine she later shared on TikTok—and shifted the conversation to the joys of solo travel. Fans immediately zeroed in on the underwear revelation, with headlines spreading the news that Tracee supposedly packs only two pairs for a trip. Many were left scratching their heads. 'This can't be real, buy new ones,' one user wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Noticing the buzz her story had generated, Tracee decided to clear up the speculation by reposting one of the articles on her Instagram story. She captioned it: 'This is hilarious. I pack two pairs in my carry-on… in case my luggage doesn't make it.' Either way, most of Tracee's fans didn't seem bothered by the number of underwear she brought—what really captured attention was her hands-on, down-to-earth approach with her DIY 'washing machine.' 'Why are you so normal and so extraordinary at the same time?' one user commented on her TikTok. Many people even shared that their own experiences, pointing out that they were raised to wash their intimates by hand just like Tracee. 'I love seeing things that show that celebrities are literally just normal people,' another wrote. 'This is why we love you Tracey! So relatable!' someone else added.
