Features
Confessions of a Cash Addict
- 20 May 07
"It all had an addictive quality for him, he realised he was not immortal"
Freelance journalist Neil Forsyth was sat sprawled across the sofa of his Edinburgh flat when something caught his eye: a newspaper story about a twenty-four year old Scottish conman by the name of Elliot Castro. He was one Scotland’s most prolific fraudsters. He’d spent money using stolen credit cards - hundreds of thousands probably - they weren’t sure. He’d bought a £12,000 Rolex watch. He’d lived on whimsy, jetting between Beverly Hills, New York, London and Ibiza. He’d left the authorities trailing in his wake. But now he’d been caught.
The ABC - and how it shimmied its way onto the Glasgow scene
- 24 Mar 07
A little bit glam, a little bit rock and, uh, not really glam rock at all: the ABC shimmied its way onto the Glasgow scene in June 2005. Or did it? The opening night debacle involved headliners Mogwai pulling out - drummer Martin Bulloch having been stricken with tendonitis - leading to The Kills and 2 many djs sound-tracking the unofficial opening night. This turned out to be a blessing in the disguise of a crippling ailment since, by offering a mixture of garage rock and rule-book-trashing dance, the venue helped light the fuse of a soon to be detonated indie/electro explosion. As Club Manager Pedro McShane explains, this became the “template of what ABC was going to deliver in future”.
Please Infect Me
- 27 Jan 07
“Why am I looking for the bug? I don’t really know other than I need to have it.”
Dreaming of HIV: Steve Dinneen explores the myth and reality of Bug Chasing
I heard about Bug Chasing the same way you hear most urban myths - a salacious tale about a distant friend of a friend.
“A Bug Chaser lives in that flat,” said a colleague, pointing towards the window of a Glasgow tenement. A Bug Chaser, he explained, is somebody who actively seeks to contract HIV.
But, like most urban myths, Bug Chasing has a basis in reality. Although no statistical research has been compiled – an impossible task given its intensely private nature – most HIV charities acknowledge it does exist.Penguins and Pianos: Collar Up
- 30 Nov 06
Pigeonholing Collar Up is a tricky proposition. Harder than squeezing a clinically tested elephant into a slot machine and equally pointless. McLaren fronts the two-piece band from behind a piano. Andrew Mill plays the drums. "There's a lot of bands that don't use the piano properly. Keane showed it could work. They've shown what can be done with a piano and you can't just ignore it. I've no interest in playing background music. You can't fill a venue with it."
Dead good
- 21 Oct 06
The Dead 60s' self entitled debut carried on the the pop-punk revival torch from the likes of The Futureheads. Now, having avoided the ignominy of a 22-20s style plummet to earth, and surviving a relatively quiet spell, the Liverpool-based five-piece are back. Where are they? Where have they been? Steve Dinneen has a word.
