The Edinburgh Reporter February 2022

19
Matt Crockett
Patter & pints
Martin P McAdam
BROUGHT TO YOU by Leith
Local and Gilded Balloon,
regulars at the Edinburgh
Fringe, this is evening
entertainment that blends the
street food of The Pitt Market
with live music and comedy.
Leith Social's 'Patter & Pints'
nights have been running
throughout November and
December, with more to come
this month. Set to take place on
24 February and 31 March,
Leith Social is a night of
comedy, entertainment and
good food.
Previous events featured acts
such as Christopher MacArthur
Boyd, Susan Riddell, Amanda
Hurst and Jesus L’Oreal (Jesus
appeared on stage at Club
Comedian, Fern Brady
back) – with music from the
likes of Jimi Get Your Funk On.
The Pitt Market regulars Róst
and Barnacles & Bones will
provide their usual mouthwatering
selection of
street food.
Tickets for Leith Social are
£12.50 on the Gilded Balloon
Cumming a couple
Denise
of years
Mina at the Book
website:
Week
gildedballoon.co.uk
Scotland programme launch
Hidden in plain sight
A TEN DAY ARTS festival like no other
will take place from 9 to 18 June at one of
the most imposing buildings in
Edinburgh which has lain empty and
unused for more than half a century.
The former Royal High School will
come to life with live music, visual art,
dance, theatre and spoken word between
9 and 18 June 2022 when Hidden Door
hold this year’s pop up festival there. The
central chamber will become a space for
dance on an elevated stage. Outside there
will be bars on the front terrace enjoying
fabulous views over Holyrood, and an
outdoor stage will be built in the car park.
The empty building was considered as
the possible home for the new Scottish
Parliament, but none of those plans came
to fruition. The school moved to
Davidson’s Mains in the 1960s and the
council has not found a good use for it
since except as storage. The building is
made up of interlinking rooms, staircases
and corridors which will be filled with art
for a last hurrah before it is developed as
an education centre for the musicians of
the future.
David Martin, Creative Director of
Hidden Door, said: “It’s not that hard to
find as a building as it is pretty prominent
in the city centre, perched on the side of
Calton Hill. We had always clocked it - at
Hidden Door there’s a group of us who
are always aware of buildings in the city
which are conspicuously dark, so when
we built up a relationship with the council
we started talking about the Royal High
School and the possibility. We were
amazed at how open the council were to
Hidden Door coming in and doing our
thing in the building.
“What we are really trying to do is
shine a light on what we call the best new
emerging talent in visual art, music,
dance, theatre, spoken word in Scotland.
“And one of the ideas is that if we bring
that together then audiences get a chance
people to pick and mix between different
art forms that they might not necessarily
go out of their way to see. So people can
create their own experiences where they
get to see visual art, go and see a music
show, sit in on a spoken word
performance that they might not
normally go and look at. But above and
beyond all of that we are also for this
particular edition of Hidden Door we are
commissioning collaborations . We are
asking artists and musicians set designers
and costume collectives to work together
to create some specially commissioned
performances for the building.
“There are over 100 doors and we are
opening some doors and gates which have
not been opened for more than 50 years.
That involves a lot of rust, a bit of
blacksmith work and some careful
conservation work, but we are really
excited to be able to open up the original
school gates and the audience will be able
to find their way in just like the pupils did
back in the 1960s.”
Events like this involve an amount of
fundraising and in the case of a pop up
festival like Hidden Door that means it is
back to the drawing board each time.
David said: “With Hidden Door we
have always wanted to be as independent
as possible. We generate all our own
funding through ticket sales, bar sales,
grants and funding. We make that money
each year and the best way people can
support Hidden Door is to come along,
buy tickets and buy a pint and get their
friends to do the same. That is supporting
Hidden Door.”
18 FEBRUARY
High Performance Podcast Live!
20 FEBRUARY
SCO 2022: Schubert’s Trout
21 FEBRUARY
Consone Quartet
24 FEBRUARY
SCO 2022: A French Adventure
25 FEBRUARY
SNJO: Pop! Rock! Soul!
How do Premier League football
coaches lead their teams to victory?
Special guests Steve Clarke:
Scotland Men’s National Team
Football Manager and Ollie Patrick:
Physiology and Lifestyle
Management Expert. The High
Performance Podcast - offers an
intimate glimpse into the lives of
high-achieving, successful people.
Franz Schubert conjured the
carefree melodiousness of his
radiant ‘Trout’ Quintet as a 22-yearold
kicking back with companions
on a countryside holiday. It’s music
of good times and warm friendship
– just the piece for Principal
Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev at
the keyboard for an intimate
afternoon of chamber music.
The Consone Quartet programme
for New Town Concerts at The
Queen’s Hall offers a rare and
intriguing chance to hear quartet
music by Fanny Mendelssohn
alongside that of her brother Felix.
The current BBC New Generation
Artists have made a name for
themselves on Radio 3, and on tours
in Europe and South America.
British cellist extraordinaire Steven
Isserlis joins Principal Conductor
Maxim Emelyanychev for a
sophisticated soirée amid some of
France’s most irresistible music –
and a quick trip to Hungary. Isserlis
brings his lustrous intensity and
celebrated joie de vivre to Saint-
Saëns’ spirited Cello Concerto No 1,
and Fauré’s ‘Élégie’.
Award-winning vibraphonist Joe
Locke and vocalist extraordinaire
Kenny Washington join the SNJO to
play tracks from the modern
American songbook with
wonderfully popular songs by the
likes of Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell,
Billy Joel, and Bill Withers, Earth,
Wind & Fire, Led Zeppelin, Heart and
Steely Dan.