The Star's critics ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review The Blue Trail, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Colours of Time, Glenrothan
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Seductive sound organisation
CONRAD LANDIN recommends a unique aural event on a Scottish beach
WORTH SOUNDING OUT: Irvine Beach
CHRIS SEARLE on Mike Westbrook who died aged 90
STEVE JOHNSON speaks to JIM MORAY about an album that marks 25 years since his first
DENNIS BROE observes how cutbacks, mergers and AI create content detached from both reality and history itself
SAHAR MARANLOU explores a novella, newly translated and republished in English that tells the history of Iran through women’s bodies
DAVID NICHOLSON applauds the revival of a joyous production that deals with choirs, competitions and communism
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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