Brian Ferguson’s diary
It’s a hardy Fringe crowd that is out late on a Monday night approaching the halfway point of the festival. It’s an optimistic bunch that is still patiently queuing outside a venue waiting for a Fringe show to get under way 45 minutes after the advertised start-time.
But there is an undoubted buzz about Tricky Second Album at the Pleasance Dome, seemingly inspired by the chart-topping band KLF and their million-pound burning stunt on the Isle of Jura.
It has been wowing critics, who have described it as “the most relevant, urgent production in Edinburgh this year”, a show which “makes you question what art is really worth” and a finale with “one of the most blistering and comprehensive attacks on the broken Fringe system.”
But the show, intriguingly described in one review as “a stage manager’s nightmare,” has also been frustrating punters after two cancellations in its run so far, one for “risk assessment” early in the run and another for technical reasons on Monday.
In Bed With My Brother’s apology for the latest no-show admitted: “We are broke and really can’t afford to keep cancelling shows.”
• With the clock ticking towards midnight when Monday’s show got cancelled there was only really time for a quick drowning of the sorrows at the Captain’s Bar, a welcome refuge away from the pop-up “liquid lounges” which featured in Bonnie Prince Bob’s now-infamous short -film takedown of the Fringe and its Wimbledonstyle food and drink stalls.
Despite the late hour, the pub was completely rammed with punters, among them Stewart Lee, pictured, and Bridget Christie, which prompted recollections of Lee’s own diatribe against the Fringe a whopping seven years ago. Edinburgh can’t say it wasn’t warned about being on the way to become an oligarchy and “Chipping Norton of the arts”, dominated by “an increasingly grotesque Philip K Dick-style wasteland of alcohol-banner festooned architecture.” Happier, more innocent times. • More tales of the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers and their unlikely ascendancy in the music industry emerged at the Book Festival.
Chris Brookmyre, who plays in the band with fellow novelists Val Mcdermid, Doug Johnstone, Luca Veste, Stuart Neville and Mark Billingham, said they had notched up 13 festival appearances last year.
Their growing popularity led to an invitation to play at Glastonbury, which Brookmyre admitted was “so far out there it wasn’t on anyone’s bucket list.”
Most of their set consists of “crime and murder-theme” covers of the likes of Back on the Chain Gang, Watching the Detectives and I Fought The Law, with just the one song about their own “day jobs,” which certainly impressed one young fan.
She seemingly told Mcdermid: “You guys are amazing. That song you guys wrote about yourself was so witty.”
Brookmyre added: “It was Paperback Writer. This girl was actually living in the film Yesterday.”