🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 16 - 22 Oct 2024
🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 16 - 22 Oct 2024
All the Summerhall gig updates, Elvis Shakespeare up for sale, radical book fair line-up + Leith's first Asian Culture Market
Welcome to the 63rd edition of the Culture Minute, a weekly round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs, funding and opportunities. The Culture Minute exists thanks to paying subscribers. If I’ve missed anything please get in touch.
The most-viewed links from last week’s Edinburgh Culture Minute:
🎸 After 20 years in business, Leith Walk’s Elvis Shakespeare music and book shop is up for sale. Loved for its books, vinyl collection and in-store / open-door gigs with crowds on the street outside, the shop is not closing. But owner David Griffin said he hoped a new owner could take on the shop, the stock and the ‘marvellous staff’. - More from Dave here.
📚 The Edinburgh Radical Book Fair 2024 programme is now available. Events will be in-person at the Assembly Roxy and online over four days (21-24 November) with 70+ publishers. Organisers Lighthouse bookshop say: “The Radical Book Fair is entirely bookshop run, without outside funding, so any and all support means the world to us.“ - The print programme can be viewed online here and tickets are here.
⮑ Speakers will include Jeremy Corbyn and Salena Godden. - Kevin Fullerton previews the fair in The List.
🎭 What’s happening with Summerhall? With its finances frozen due to a (disputed) HMRC claim, many events planned at Summerhall are either in limbo, rescheduled or moved to new venues. The pub at Summerhall remains open from noon every day.
⮑ The upshot of the re-scheduled or moved gigs is that it’s created a very busy week of gigs at venues across the city. Here’s a rundown of everything I could possibly find out about for the month ahead:
John Maus, Wednesday 16 October. New venue: Liquid Rooms.
Chrysanths ‘Leave No Shadow’ album launch, Wednesday 16 October. New venue: Voodoo Rooms. - New ticket link.
Nobody’s Empire: An Evening with Stuart Murdoch. Thursday 17 October. Still listed as going ahead at Summerhall. - Tickets via Belle and Sebastian.
Liz Jones & Broken Windows Album Launch + Tiptrick, Thursday 17 October. New venue: Voodoo Rooms. - Tickets.
Astrid Sonne, Friday 18 October. - Listed as ‘cancelled’ on the Summerhall website, but Astrid’s confirmed it’s rescheduled for Sneaky Pete’s on Saturday 19 October. Sneaky’s to the rescue once again.
Edinburgh Dub Club: Mighty Oak Meets Common Unity Sound, Friday 18 October. - Postponed.
Frankie Archer, Saturday 19 October. - Cancelled. - Frankie shared this message saying she tried to get another venue but it was ‘too short notice’.
Hejira: Celebrating Joni Mitchell, Sunday 20 October. - New venue: St Brides Centre. - Tickets.
Afro Celt Sound System, Monday 21 October. - Still listed as going ahead at Summerhall.
Meteor Airlines, Monday 21 October. New venue: Voodoo Rooms. - Tickets.
🎸 🎹 🥁 Los Bitchos with Faux Real, Wednesday 23 October. New venue: The Caves. - Tickets.
Oisín Leech, Wednesday 23 October. New venue: Cabaret Voltaire. - Tickets.
Wojtek the Bear, Xan Tyler and Martin Metcalfe, Friday 25 October. - Listed as cancelled and moved to Glasgow.
Rhythm & Revolution presents Lagos Thugs + Kalakuta, Friday 25 October. - Postponed.
MICROSTERIA, Saturday 26 October. - Listed as cancelled.
This year’s ‘Cold Turkey’ event featuring Michael Pedersen, Hollie McNish, Withered Hand and Gemma Cairney will now be at Leith St Andrew’s Church on 6 December. - Tickets.
🎨 Something else that is going ahead: Sprawling across three floors with the work of 300 local artists, this year’s Out of Sight Out of Mind exhibition is still on and runs at Summerhall until 27 October.
⮑ The team behind it spoke to the Keeping Edinburgh podcast. - Have a listen here.
🎨 Edinburgh’s first ever Asian Culture Market is happening at Out of The Blue Drill Hall in Leith on Saturday. There will be 25+ stalls of craft arts at the market. There’s a free ‘Chinese Cultural Performance’ on Friday evening between 6pm and 9pm - More details in the posters on the slides here and on Hello Art here.
📆 As always, there are WAY MORE local creative events on this week than I can fit into this email. More of them are previewed in Naomi Head’s latest edition of The Good Egg Project Newsletter.
🎭 What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week?
Here’s Thom Dibdin of All Edinburgh Theatre:
The big opener this week comes from amateur company EGTG who are staging J B Priestley's tense psychological drama Dangerous Corner (Ends Sat: tickets) at the Assembly Roxy. A goody that one and not to be missed.
Three major shows for the schools’ October break. The Baddies (ends Sat: tickets) at the Lyceum is almost everything you would want from a stage adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler book. I didn't spot Scheffler's customary Gruffalo reference though.
Then the Assembly Roxy has a great dance piece by Farah Saleh for over four-year olds: The World We Share (Two shows Fri: tickets). It's 45 minutes of "hopeful dreaming" where the audience is invited to move around and eventually join what’s unfolded.
The Festival Theatre has Re:INCARNATION (Fri/Sat: tickets) from the Nigeria's QDance Company - which has a 12+ rating for "some mild sexual references and possible partial nudity" but will surely thrill any young person into their beats.
One for the big kids only, the Playhouse still has the Book of Mormon (ends Sat 2 Nov: tickets), outrageous musical comedy from the creators of South Park and the co-writer of Avenue Q.
Scotland’s Circus Cabaret Night: Cirqulation is back at the Roxy (Sun: tickets) "freshening the blood flow of Circus Arts in Scotland" with an After Dark them.
Finally the Traverse's lunchtime offering is the Edinburgh Fringe-set Lost Girls/At Bus Stops (Ends Sat: tickets)
For shows coming up, check: On Stage Next Week; and for more details of this weeks' shows go to Æ's Preview and listings: Mon 14 – Sun 20 Oct 2024.
📌 Edinburgh Culture Minute Community Noticeboard
📌 “Hey, just a heads up that the latest Cinetopia EHFM show is due to drop on Thursday and features both the Local Cinema autumn/winter programme of Edinburgh community cinema screenings and a focus on Since Yesterday: a history of Scotland’s Girlbands with lots of Edinburgh bands featured.” - Thanks to Morvern Cunningham, Local Cinema facilitator, for sharing this.
📌 “‘A New Primer’ - Exhibition by local artists at St Margaret's House meadowbank. On til Saturday” - Thanks to the artists for sharing this.
📌 “Love Music Choirs are back with a rich and varied programme of songs that reach to the heavens, celebrate the earth, and sparkle on our stage, featuring medleys from favourite musicals to the colourful world of Edith Piaf, the poise and celestial beauty of Fauré’s ‘In Paradisum’ and songs from icons of Scottish pop, Aztec Camera and King Creosote. This is more than just joyful music making from our 450 singers, it is a celebration of singing and community.” - Thanks to the Usher Hall event organisers for this. - Tickets and more details.
🤝 This week’s networking, jobs and funding opportunities, including paid work in photography and roles in film, events, art, books, venues and design:
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