Neil Cooper

Wanna hear Ivor Cutler’s ACTUAL harmonium played by Stefan Maurice with Hamish Hawk?

Check out Front Row now on BBC Sounds, also featuring Mary, Queen of Scots, Film Festival plus me and Fergus Morgan doing the Fringe, all helmed by Kirsty Wark. The harmonium’s ace.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Pussy Riot's Riot Days returns to confront Russia's brutal present Pussy Riot: Riot Days, Summerhall. Pussy Riot's updated Fringe show returns to confront a brutal Russia and remains more vital than ever.

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social Edinburgh Fringe review of Pussy Riot: Riot Days.

@summerhallarts.bsky.social until Aug 23- festival.summerhallarts.co.uk/events/pussy...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

Pussy Riot: Riot Days - Free the Pussy Again It is almost seven years to the day since Pussy Riot first arrived in Edinburgh with Riot Days, the punk theatre staging of Maria Alyokhina’s memoir of the same name sired after she and two other key ...

New on the Noise of Art

Pussy Riot: Riot Days - Free the Pussy Again

As Maria Alyokhina and Pussy Riot return to Edinburgh for an 11-night run of their new iteration of Riot Days, a look back at when they visited in 2018 after playing Glasgow the year before.

open.substack.com/pub/neilcoop...

4 of my List Edinburgh Fringe reviews #1

Champions – Pleasance at EICC
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Cheese and Guava - Summerhall
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Chrome Yellow - Zoo Southside
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Trouble, Struggle, Bubble & Squeak - Pleasance Courtyard
list.co.uk/news/trouble...

Review: Karine Polwart's Windblown at the Queen’s Hall Polwart’s story comes with a twist that lends even more charm to a work of monumental beauty

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social Edinburgh Fringe review of Karine Polwart: Windblown, a tribute to a 200-year-old tree at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/2537872...

Queen’s Hall until Aug 13 www.thequeenshall.net/whats-on/kar...

www.heraldscotland.com/news/2537872...

Hamish Halley talks in Scottish Art News about his new video work, ‘please keep’ (2025), for Edinburgh Art Festival.

flemingcollection.com/scottish_art...

People’s Story Museum, High Street, until August 24.

www.edinburghartfestival.com/hamish-halley/

FC Bergman's Works and Days is remarkable with a golden statement on new life Which came first? Chicken or egg? In the case of this remarkable work by Belgium’s FC Bergman company, who open the show by getting a real life…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of Works and Days, Belgian company FC Bergman’s remarkable visual journey through the ages of man (and woman).

@edintfest.bsky.social at the @lyceumedinburgh.bsky.social until Aug 10 www.eif.co.uk/events/works...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

Shop Local #103 - W/E 8.8.2025 Not the only fun in town...

New on The Noise of Art…

Shop Local! #103

Edinburgh’s weekend starts here…

Leith Depot: Bellfield Brewery: Paradise Palms: Jazz Bar: Zoo Southside: St Giles’ Cathedral: Inspace: French Institute: The Citadel: Argonaut Books: Outhouse: Out of the Blue: VoxBox:

open.substack.com/pub/neilcoop...

An insightful look at prison politics and the need for freedom Fringe, Theatre, Ordinary Decent Criminal, Summerhall. It’s the early 1990s, the Strangeways prison riots have just kicked off, the Berlin Wall…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social Edinburgh Fringe review of Ordinary Decent Criminal, Ed Edwards’ prison set play starring Mark Thomas.

Summerhall until Aug 24. festival.summerhallarts.co.uk/events/ordin...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

Billy Connolly and Alasdair Gray - an imagined conversation When Billy Met Alasdair, Scottish Storytelling Centre, Fringe. From Billy Connolly’s move from the shipyards to folk clubs to international…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social Edinburgh Fringe review of When Billy Met Alasdair, Alan Bissett’s homage to 2 cultural titans when they crossed paths

Scottish Storytelling Centre until Aug 23 scottishstorytellingcentre.online.red61.co.uk/event/913:60...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

A thriller of a play chasing ghosts in Skye Fringe, Theatre, Skye: A Thriller, Summerhall. This debut play has the feel of an old school creepy thriller in a powerful mood driven piece

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social Edinburgh Fringe review of SKYE: A Thriller, Ellie Keel’s new play starring Dawn Steele as a woman haunted by her past.

@summerhallarts.bsky.social Arts until Aug 25. festival.summerhallarts.co.uk/events/skye/

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

YouTube video by Terry Reid - Topic Rich Kid Blues

RIP Terry Reid.

youtu.be/Amc1J8OZuzE?...

Tempers fray at 90th birthday celebrations Consumed, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe. As tempers fray on Lily Arnold’s classic kitchen set, the truth of the absence of the men in the…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of Consumed, Karis Kelly’s Edinburgh Fringe play set at a 90th birthday party amongst four generations of women in Northern Ireland.

@traversetheatre.bsky.social Theatre until Aug 24 www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/eve...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

Fringe: Johnny McKnight shares the secrets of pantomime dames She’s Behind You, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe. Johnny McKnight shares the secrets of being a pantomime dame for 20 years in a captivating…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of She’s Behind You, Johnny McKnight’s personal Edinburgh Fringe celebration of pantomime and 20 years as a grand dame.

@traversetheatre.bsky.social Theatre until Aug 24. Various times www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/eve...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

A sort of hippy science fiction eco-fable - with a sense of hope The Beautiful Future is Coming, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe. A storm may be looming in Flora Wilson Brown’s beautiful new play, but as…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of The Beautiful Future is Coming, Flora Wilson Brown’s climate based play for Bristol Old Vic on Edinburgh Fringe

@traversetheatre.bsky.social Theatre until Aug 24 www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/eve...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

Rift: A powerful piece on brotherly love and hate RIFT, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe. Gabriel Jason Dean has produced a devastating piece of work that uses the trappings of a prison drama to…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social @edfringe.bsky.social review of RIFT, Gabriel Jason Dean’s play about 2 very different brothers

@traversetheatre.bsky.social
until Aug 24 Various times. www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/eve...

www.edfringe.com/tickets/what...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

My Herald review of Make it Happen, starring Brian Cox and Sandy Grierson in this epic satire of failed RBS banker Fred ‘The Shred’ Goodwin.

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

Edinburgh International Festival at Festival Theatre until Aug 9. www.eif.co.uk/events/make-...

Warmth and wit shine through in Gambler's Guide to Dying Fringe Show Warmth and wit shine through in Gambler's Guide to Dying Fringe Show

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of A Gambler’s Guide to Dying, Gary McNair’s 10th anniversary Edinburgh Fringe revival of his solo tribute to his granddad.

Traverse Theatre until Aug 24. Various times. www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/eve...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

My thoughts in The List on Wael Shawky’s exhibition at Talbot Rice Gallery featuring two films; Cabaret Crusades; and Drama 1882

list.co.uk/news/wael-sh...

Edinburgh Art Festival at Talbot Rice until Sept 28.

www.trg.ed.ac.uk/exhibition/w...

www.edinburghartfestival.com/event/wael-s...

My List review of John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture, a wonderful overview of one of Scotland’s major artists

list.co.uk/news/john-be...

City Art Centre as part of Edinburgh Art Festival until Sept 28

cultureedinburgh.com/events/john-...

www.edinburghartfestival.com/event/john-b...

And a quick List review of Linder’s Danger Came Smiling unmissable 50-year retrospective.

list.co.uk/news/linder-...

Inverleith House, @Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh as part of @Edinburgh Art Festival until Oct 19.

www.rbge.org.uk/whats-on/lin...

www.edinburghartfestival.com/event/linder...

YouTube video by Рудольф Росс Tom Waits - The Black Rider (Magic Bullets) Robert Wilson_tv 1990

RIP Robert Wilson, theatrical and operatic collaborator with Philip Glass, Lou Reed and many more, including here with Tom Waits and William S. Burroughs.

youtu.be/lbQkzAbCjio?...

Linder talks in @thelistuk.bsky.social
about her 50-year retrospective of punk-sired photomontage

list.co.uk/news/linder-...

EdinburghArt Festival @ Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh until Oct 19

www.rbge.org.uk/whats-on/lin...

www.edinburghartfestival.com/event/linder...

New on The Noise of Art…

Shop Local! #102

neilcooper.substack.com/p/shop-local...

Edinburgh’s weekend starts here…

Bellfield Brewery: Studies in Photography: Leith Dockers Club: Out of the Blue: Paradigm Shift: The Pitt: Coburg House: Argyle Bar: Campervan Brewery: Leith Depot: Sneaky Pete’s:

Actually #102. D’oh.

Here's what to see at the Edinburgh Festival ​Brian Cox returns to the Scottish stage for the first time in a decade to play the ghost of Adam Smith in this brand new play by James Graham…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social Top 10 Theatre Must-sees on this year’s @edintfest.bsky.social and @edffinge.bsky.social , which start this weekend

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

@traversetheatre.bsky.social @summerhallarts.bsky.social @scotstorycentre.bsky.social

You & Me Against the World: 2 Women, 5 Bands, '80s Edinburgh - A Time, a Place, an Attitude You & Me Against the World: 2 Women, 5 Bands, ‘80s Edinburgh - A Time, a Place, an Attitude

New on The Noise of Art…

You & Me Against the World: 2 Women, 5 Bands, ‘80s Edinburgh

Some thoughts prompted by Saskia Holling’s new book that looks at the close knit music scene that inspired her labour of love. @spinoutnuggets.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/neilcoop...

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of Sherlock Holmes, Jennifer Dick’s weaving together of 3 Holmes stories for her Bard in the Botanics production

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

Botanic Gardens Glasgow until Aug 2 www.bardinthebotanics.co.uk/productions/...

Image by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Theatre 118's debut season ends with a bang Theatre, Theatre 118, Morning Star. This final play of the season sets out its store in a spartan high rise in Springburn, where old Ms Maara sits…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of Morning Star, Alan Muir’s play that forms the 4th & final contribution to Theatre 118’s Play of the Week season.

118 Osborne Street, Glasgow until Saturday July 26. www.ticketsource.co.uk/theatre-118/...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

Shop Local! #101 - W/E 25.7.2025 Not the only fun in town...

New on The Noise of Art…

Shop Local! #101

Edinburgh’s weekend starts here…

Bowlers Rest: Paradise Palms: Home Bar: Leith Depot: Queen’s Hall: Leith Arches: Safari Lounge: Embassy: VoxBox: Sighthill Bowling Club: Heriot’s Rugby Club: Jazz Bar: Bethany Shop: etc

open.substack.com/pub/neilcoop...