WILL STONE is frustrated by a performance that chooses to garble the lyrics and drown the songs in reverb
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Seductive sound organisation
CONRAD LANDIN recommends a unique aural event on a Scottish beach
WORTH SOUNDING OUT: Irvine Beach
RITA DI SANTO points out the social experience of exploitation and oppression that inform the popular winners at this year’s festival
PETER MASON is tickled by a new book and exhibition that mine the rotten anachronism of the monarchy for laughs
A Nazi zeppelin whodunnit, death amidst detoxification, a twistaholic’s delight, and noir fiction for criminals
STEVE JOHNSON salutes the mellifluous tones and clear-minded political message of a uniquely relevant Birmingham-born singer-songwriter
STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old
TOM STONE urges you to catch the last dates of a New York singer/songwriter, never afraid to challenge her audiences musically or politically
Signal-on-Sea
Irvine Beach
A YOUNG couple scream as they plunge into the water. A flock of seagulls descend on an overturned rubbish bin, surrounded by indifferent teenagers. A family’s picnic, complete with gas stoves and giant folding tables, becomes an object of envy as others struggle against the elements to get their barbecues going.
Close your ears and it could be just another sunny day in Irvine, one of several prime beaches on Scotland’s west coast in easy reach for the working class of the central belt.
But all around are tannoy speakers anchored in the sand, as if the nostalgic comparisons of our present predicament to the beaches of Dunkirk have culminated in a Blitz re-enactment in North Ayrshire.
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