The Edinburgh Reporter July 2023

WHAT’S ON 19

Craig and

Charlie

come

home

The Proclaimers

wow their fans

at the Big Top

Kerry’s top picks

KERRY TEAKLE is our Food and Drink

columnist but she is a real culture

vulture. She has picked out this month’s

top exhibitions for your diary.

TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC

PORTRAIT PRIZE 2022

Scottish National Portrait Gallery

1 Queen Street EH2 1JD

On until Sunday, 10 September, the Taylor

Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022,

captures and share emotional, dramatic, or

everyday moments in life. A truly global affair,

the prize celebrates the very best in

contemporary photography, drawing on over

4,000 entries from 62 countries, which have

been whittled down to 51 portraits from

36 artists.

http://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/taylor-

wessing-photographic-portrait-prize-

On until 12 November, this popular and

provocative artist gets the retrospective

treatment as a 40-year old career is marked

in the appropriately titled Smash Hits.

The exhibition contains language and

imagery that explore themes including sex,

violence and identity. Some visitors may find

this challenging.

http://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/

grayson-perry-smash-hits

GRAYSON PERRY

Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

The Mound EH2 2EL

PETER HOWSON

The City Art Centre, Edinburgh

2 Market Street EH1 1DE

On until Sunday, 1 October, Now 65 , When The

Apple Ripens, is the first major retrospective of

one of the UK’s leading figurative painters. The

exhibition features around 100 works from

across his lengthy career, many of which have

yet to be seen in Scotland.

http://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/

when-apple-ripens-peter-howson-

THE PROGRAMME has been

announced for a new literary

festival that will take place in

Edinburgh in October this year. The

Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival

is the idea of four Edinburgh

women with a love of reading

women’s fiction. The new event,

which the organisers hope will

become an annual fixture on

Edinburgh’s festival calendar, will

celebrate writing for, by, and about

all women. It will take place on 6

and 7 October with panels and

workshops at the Morningside

United Church on Holy Corner, and

the Green Room and Festival Bar

directly opposite at McLarens on

the Corner. There will be one ‘in

conversation’ event on the Friday

evening, followed by a reception,

more panels and three writing

workshops on the Saturday.

The festival programme was

announced at a launch party at

McLarens on the Corner. The

authors who will appear include

Jenny Colgan, Jackie Fraser, Mike

Gayle, Milly Johnson, Nina Kaye,

Sara Sheridan, Karen Swan and Eva

Verde. Angela Jackson, an

award-winning Scottish Writer

whose debut won the Edinburgh

International Book Festival’s First

Book Award, will lead one of the

three writing workshops. Full

details of the programme can be

found on the festival website.

http://www.edwomensficfest.co.uk

By PHYLLIS STEPHEN

THE BIG TOP ON Leith Links was the place to

be one Saturday in June to hear Craig and

Charlie with a great opening line – “Hello

Leith!” followed by a brief but joyous mention

of the eleven men in Norway who had just

pulled off something very special in Oslo. (Two

winning goals in the 80 somethingth minutes

proved too much for the Norwegians in case

you haven’t heard.)

The feeling inside and outside the tent was of

a massive act coming home to play for their

local crowd, and the audience were up for it, if

the singing – even ahead of the band taking to

the stage – was anything to go by.

Sunshine on Leith was of course the pinnacle

of the almost two hour long show with

everyone joining in. The emotion was a

palpable pent up desire to see and hear live acts,

most probably born from the last few years, but

it was more than that. The proximity to the

stage was unlike the big show at Edinburgh

Castle a few years ago where the band was

elevated and a bit distant.

The big top really worked – well done

Regular Music. This was a safe place to be and

easy to get to. There seemed to be many, many

security staff with someone helping out at the

beginning of the bar queue with a handy menu

• making sure you knew what you were going
  to buy (no time to waste).
  Admiral Fallow and Hamish Hawk had
  already played some of their own fabulous
  music for the crowd standing in the huge
  tent which not only made you feel
  close to the action, but provided back
  up for those who needed it with two
  big screens either side of the stage.
  There was plenty of space – and we
  really should not complain in
  Scotland about it being a bit warm
  should we?
  Songs from the Dentures
  Out album may be less
  well known, but with
  their usual
  repertoire of at

least half a dozen songs (Letter from America,

I’m on my Way, Sunshine on Leith and 500

miles the most prominent among them) there

was plenty of opportunity for the singers and

the would be singers in the audience. The band

were not taking requests as the list “would have

been as long as Boris Johnson’s Honours

List”, but nobody can have gone home from

either show disappointed.

We have to hope that this is the first of many

events at Leith Links – where people sat outside

the big tent basking in the Sunshine and the

sounds from within. It was a big event with a

genuinely local touch – maybe

just what is needed to foster

that spirit of community we

hear so much about.

Regular Music have several

other concerts this year

including Rod 0Stewart, The

Who, The Lumineers, Dermot

Kennedy and Jerry Sadowitz.

http://www.regularmusic.com

Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival

Ian Jacobs