Spectrum Centre, Inverness, 25 July 2007 BEING AT that awkward age between children and grandchildren, it is a while since I went to a kids’ show. “The Perfect Spot” was a great way to re-enter the heady world of cartoons and clowns. Billed as “A Fun Filled Forty Five Minutes for all the Family”, it did […]

The Bon Vivant Spiegeltent, Falcon Square, 23 July 2007 THREE piece – sweet! People in the arts often mention the “invisible wall” between performer and audience. From the moment the three members of Lau bounded on stage, still clutching their pre-show drinks, and flung themselves haphazardly onto some chairs, they made the Spiegeltent their…[Read more]

The Bon Vivant Spiegeltent, Falcon Square, Inverness, 23 July 2007 PAVILIONS WITH handcrafted interiors of wood, glass and mirrors – Spiegeltents – were once used throughout Europe as travelling dance halls, bars and entertainment salons and, thankfully, several survive. To pitch one in Falcon Square as the venue for the Festival Club during In…[Read more]

Craigmonie Centre, Drumnadrochit, 5 August 2005 ROSS NOBLE starts off his UK and Eire tour with 12 Highland dates before he gets a night off; the Craigmonie gig, winding up this year’s DrumBeat 2005 festival, was only the fourth of the tour. Assuming he’s going to keep this level of energy going from now till mid-December […]

The Stables, Cromarty, Friday 22 July 2005 DREICH WEATHER might have deterred me from driving the several miles over to Cromarty to see Sergej Andreevski create a painting in the courtyard at the Stables – and what an experience I would have missed. As it was, the weather gods are evidently into art. Driving along the […]

Hootananny, Inverness, 30 May 2004 KNOWING THIS motley crew only from their CDs, I expected a good night, but behold, the half was not told me. Shooglenifty hooked the audience early on. Evidently fiddler Angus Grant made a bargain with an even darker, hairier chap at the crossroads in Fort William. It’s not often fiddle eclipses lead guitar […]