“The benchmark for festivals across the world”: Why Scottish music fans are choosing Primavera Sound to kick off their summer

By Tony Inglis Imagine this day: you wake up, saunter down the sunny street to a cortado and a freshly baked pastry. Refreshed, you spend the day sightseeing in a city teeming with exuberance, shaded by beautiful buildings, and stepping in and out of some of the best museums and galleries Europe has to offer. …

June and Winter: Picks of the week

By Niall Christie and Tony Inglis Here’s a rundown of the music released, films screening, shows playing, books read, events happening and stuff going on that we think is worth talking about this week. Borg McEnroe - Released September 22 It may seem strange, but a tennis film following the battle between two of the …

“As long as you’re not a pretentious idiot you’ll succeed.” Interview: Moon Dogs star Christy O’Donnell

By Tara Fitzpatrick There is a high chance you haven’t heard of Christy O’Donnell. Over the past few years, the 22 year-old Glaswegian has shifted between being a recognised presence on the Scottish busking scene and building the foundations of an international acting career. The latter is about to take off. Moon Dogs, in which …

Interview: Former Hector Bizerk frontman Louie John Lowis takes his talents to the stage

By Niall Christie Loud, brash and often provocative, former Hector Bizerk MC Louie John Lowis is back, this time tackling one of Scotland’s salient issues with a slightly unfamiliar medium. Arriving at the Platform Theatre after a slow and tentative wander through, what looked to be through my unfamiliar, Dundonian eyes, deepest, darkest Easterhouse, I’m …

Interview: Indie clothes designer Ed Phillips of By Sea By Land

By Niall Christie Since its inception towards the end of 2011, Highland-based indie clothing brand By Sea By Land have been styling an increasingly loyal band of followers. Now sending clothes across continents, founder and designer Ed Phillips talked to June & Winter about how the label came about, how to take the next step using …

Interview: Scottish singer songwriter Michael Timmons on getting personal and breaking through

By Tony Inglis Michael Timmons and I are reminiscing about the time we first met. I was interviewing a young, Jake Bugg-esque upstart before his gig at Glasgow venue King Tut’s - Timmons was supporting. Like a teenage Liam Gallagher, he strutted around wearing his sunglasses in the dark. When Timmons took the stage, alone …

Interview: Frankie Cosmos’ Greta Kline on missing home and being the face of your art

By Tony Inglis Greta Kline is right in the middle of the Edinburgh Fringe and she doesn’t even know it. The singer, songwriter, guitarist, and artistic driving force behind New York band Frankie Cosmos, is fresh out of sound check at La Belle Angele, the night’s tour stop, wedged between shows in Dublin and Manchester. …

Interview: Cramp Your Style — the social enterprise that tackles period poverty one tote bag at a time

By Émer O'Toole Rebecca Blackburn-Turner, the founder of Cramp Your Style, discusses how she helps homeless women access sanitary products through commissioning artists to make designs for tote bags. The fight against period poverty is making progress with Waitrose and Tesco dropping the five per cent tampon tax on sanitary products, a petition to end this tax receiving more than 320,000 signatures …

Women come out on top at Belladrum Tartan Heart 2017

By Niall Christie Last weekend's Belladrum Festival proved to be one of my favourites, and having attended every year since 2005, that is a reasonable complement coming from me. But, the one thing I noticed, having thought about and taken in all that I saw during the festival, when asked who my top three performers …

Fringe 2017: Alan Bissett revisits his ‘hardest woman in Falkirk’ with (More) Moira Monologues

By Tara Fitzpatrick Alan Bissett is off duty. Temporarily. We meet in Glasgow as he prepares for the Fringe premiere of (More) Moira Monologues, the sequel or update to his hit 2009 one-man (or one-woman) show about a loud, chatty, working-class Falkirk woman, getting things off her chest. He is enjoying a post-rehearsal wine and …