How some historic railway buildings are finding a new purpose. Old railway buildings that had long thought to have passed their sell-by date are being given a new lease of life. Take Pollokshaws West on Glasgow’s southside. Just 10 minutes walk from both Pollok House and the Burrell Collection, it happens to be the oldest […]
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Ol’ Blue Eyes in Scotland
On the centenary of Frank Sinatra’s birth, Paul F Cockburn looks back to his two trips to Scotland. “The lean and hungry look came to the Glasgow Empire last night. But there was nothing lean or hungry about the audience or about the performance by Frank Sinatra,” according to the Daily Record on 7 July […]
Doctor Who and the Gay Agenda
Is the iconic BBC TV Series – back on BBC1 – really guilty of having a pro-LGBT agenda? Life-long fan Paul F Cockburn has a look at the evidence. Back on 26 March 2005, television viewers saw the new Doctor Who – a lean, leather-jacketed Christopher Eccleston – momentarily pause while flicking through a copy […]
Queer Up North
Liverpool’s annual LGBT festival returns with a programme of exhibitions, events and debates under the theme of ‘Art=Life’. So why should you head to Liverpool this November? “We’ve got some amazing highlights this year,” insists Homotopia’s Development Director Bev Ayre, when asked about this year’s festival at Liverpool’s Unity Theatre and other venues around the […]
The Daredevil Aeronaut
Fortune, alas, doesn’t always favour the bold. There is absolutely no doubt that Angus-born James Tytler was the first person in Britain to ascend into the sky by balloon. The London Chronicle of 27 August 1784 reported: “The Balloon being filled at Comely Gardens [in Edinburgh], he seated himself in the basket and, the ropes […]
The Hallow
Award-winning filmmaker and music video director Corin Hardy has always loved monsters – it’s why his feature debut is dedicated to special effects maestro Ray Harryhausen. “As a child I fell in love with those monster movies with pure effects; that, combined with then getting into Horror – and seeing Alien, The Thing, and Jaws – meant I […]
Do Not Adjust Your Set
William Edward Taynton was television’s first paid star – and, just like many celebrities of recent times, he was somewhat resented for what he earned. Taynton was working as a clerk in an office at 22 Frith Street in Soho, London, when – on Friday 2nd October 1925 – a friend and upstairs neighbour suddenly […]
