Ian McDiarmid (who played Palpatine in Star Wars) lives around the corner from me in Leith. My boss and I were discussing him the other day after she’d watched New Hope; had recognised him previously from Morse and thought nothing of seeing him hanging about Leith Walk… but the man is an utter (and I don’t normally use such slack-phrases) utter legend. “great disturbance in the force” and all that. If I see him in the street I will gush.
Archive for the 'Leith' Category
The folks who run The Skinny are game. A young crowd turned up to one of the most miserable Saturday’s I’ve spent outside– and to the Skinny’s “Boat Party” on Cruz (Leith’s nice but not homely floating restaurant, nightclub-bar combo) and it was barry. Yes, ‘barry’ is Leith for ‘pretty fekkin’ nice’. An all-day DJ set moving through hip-hop, jazz, soul and a little latin inspired thingy in the middle sums up most of the stuff i nodded along to… an ambitious idea i suppose; keep 400 (I’d say 150 max turned out) punters bouncing along all day and night- but it was a good laugh, and the free drink helped (it lasted… a short time) free BBQ too.
I had a kind of press-pass (involved saying to the door-men “yeah, i’m with the Leither… look there’s the editor across the road- ‘ave a word with him” –the editor promptly disappeared leaving me to wrangle myself in on the basis that I had a big camera and knew the owner of the boat) the orginisers were a pretty good laugh and the uncomfortable early moments of turning up sober to a gig where you know no-one passed quickly. met and had a laugh with the lee, photo editor for the skinny, and some fella named ian who’s an event manager and has an incredibly optimistic take on most things manufactured a waterproof ceiling for the promo girls from Kopparberg who stood in the pouring rain handing out free pear-cider.
There were pirates. Dead of course, and they did some stuff with fire which was nice, made for an interesting photo set; dj’s, rain and fire. On a boat, in Leith. Went home early after a great campari-esque cocktail, which I helped Esmeralda (possibly not her real name) the Cruz’s newest foxiest barmaid, invent. Doug showed up and we had a few drinks in an old man pub across the street where I complained about the mad-house we’d just left with the locals “aye, i said calm down ya loon– t’won of these pirate lads”. bloody pirates, eh.
So. this is my new attempt at keeping you a’breast. I’m no William Rennie but i really should start drafting these or taking this psudo-journalistic spree seriously, just a little. First stop: English for beginners. Stay with me! Photos are with The Leither- if you’ve found yourself here via my scribbled notes whoever you may be.
recently i helped out on the photography side of things for the Leither magazine. in this month’s issue you can see my snaps from the Leith Festival, a traditional / eclectic week of music, dance, arts and culture with its heart and soul in the east of edinburgh. photos here. felt like a successful event– the free food and drink resulting in what felt like longest hangover of my life was very much worth while. incredible group of passionate well-meaning folk running the festival which can only grow and grow. and i’m sticking around to see what happens, that week and the characters i encountered confirmed that leith is the place where i want to be, i’m staying-put in my current flat even planning a trip to ikea too. how sad.
So, the photos from Leith Festival are here and i’ve changed my email address too, add @yahoo.co.uk to callumalden. If you fancy any of those shots contact me or Peter Laing at The Leither.
