I met up with the good people over at Indicate Magazine to have a wee chat and learn more about how and why they started. Indicate is a quarterly magazine from Glasgow focussing on the surrounding areas. It covers fashion, culture and talent and has been in production for the past year. Within that time they have amassed an impressing following of readers and helped to support and raise the profile of many talented, young creatives. So without further ado, let’s chew some fat.

Snaps by Alex Martin.

(continue reading…)

Wes Kingston has been a photographer for over 15 years. He started studying in Glasgow with an already diverse portfolio containing shots of extreme sports in South Africa, pro snowboarders in British Columbia, urban landscapes and street scenes from Toronto. While Wes studied he experimented with all kinds of cameras, films and styles finding he preferred medium format cameras, which he still uses today.

Wes is inspired by the changing and challenging environments of this industrial city, his travels and the diverse range of artists contained within SWG3 from graffiti artists to screen printers, musicians and sculptors. He say’s that it is this colective group which inspires him to continually challenge himself and his profession.

Recently Wes’s professional body of work contains documentary pieces for charitable organizations in South Africa and across Scotland with contrasting involvement in the world of high-end international fashion. This collaboration between Wes and top fashion designer Deryck Walker has seen Wes create and shoot in Glasgow and Paris, putting these cutting edge specialist fabric designs into context.

Wes has been published in Borne Magazine, i-On, British Journal of Photography,Vouge.com and across the National press.

He continues to exhibit around the UK and is currently working on a project showcasing Scotland’s up and coming athletes, as well as continuing Fashion work in Scotland. He is also set to head out to Cape Town to do a post World cup documentary story.

He has an online portfolio here and also a SWG3 site.

Sub Club got in contact to let all you good, good people know of a very unique night, that’s on it’s way to Glasgow. In The Company Of Wolves is a one off multi-media, fashion and art event showcasing the best in Scottish fashion design, and it’s being held on the 14th April.

It has been inspired by the dark fairytale themes of fashion week and the release of Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland. They promise to make this a night to remember and all profits are donated to Glasgow Women’s Aid – so get involved!

The fashion front will be kicking off at 8:30pm and will be showcasing work from: Rebecca Torres; Che Camille; Obscure Couture; Anna Whyte; Rowan Joy; Raw Vintage; Velvet Tigers and Dazed Dorothy Accessories.

There will also be a screening of Colonel Blimp‘s production for Halston and Yves Saint Laurent (they did the latest Hot Chip vid) and Pro Vinylist Karim will be spinning the records.

The £10 entry gets you a luxury goodie bag, drinks, canapes, catwalk show, art and music.

Nicki O’Donnell is a photographer based in Glasgow. He has worked with Coca-Cola, Wilhelmina Models, Parisian boutique Colette and mens style magazine The New Order. You can view more of his folio here.

Emilia Weber, co-founder of Letters From The City, got in contact to share with us her beautiful work. This charming quarterly zine, features anecdotes, short stories and pieces from local artists. When reading you can’t help but reflect and acknowledge the qualities Glasgow has. For me, as it’s been written by people not originally from Glasgow, it captures a sense of appreciation, interpretation and observance that the natives sometimes miss. The next issue is out in April, read on to hear what Emilia had to say and also, how to find one of these limited gems.

‘Letters From The City; An Illustrated Glasgow Philavery’ is a Glasgow based creative arts quarterly that was conceived and created in the summer of 2009 by Lewis Irvine, Emilia Weber and Charlotte Wainwright over a kitchen table strewed with Rubicon cartons and tobacco packets. We decided that we should stop talking about the exciting things we wanted to do, and actually do them.

We knew there were other magazines dedicated to Glaswegian writing or art or photography but nothing that brought all of these together, so we decided to create a space in which people could have their photographs, drawings and musings inspired by the city published. We wanted it to be affordable and beautiful; accessible to anyone.

We had all moved here from other cities and although we were aware of our ‘foreign’ status in Glasgow, we hoped that us choosing to move here and loving the city was a good enough reason to create this. Our boundless adoration is complemented by all of our fantastic contributors who bring their own personal views, connections and portrayals of the many faces of this city to the magazine.

The A5, forty page magazine is filled by submissions from miscellaneous Glasgow artists, many of whom we never meet, and by obliging friends of friends. We also give the middle of the magazine to a Glasgow based art graduate and they exclusively compose a centrespread for us, accompanied by a piece outlining their feelings about art and what keeps them in Glasgow. After a lot of trawling through shops and smiling sweetly, the magazine is now available to purchase from nine independent retailers around Glasgow, including Monorail, Volitaire & Rousseau and Aye Aye Books in the CCA (a complete list can be found on our website).

Our fourth issue is in the making and will be in the shops on the first of April. As always, we are looking for contributors, and their pretty musings about these windy streets, their overheard conversations, their hidden histories, their loves and losses and anything else anyone wants to share with us. Your words and pictures about the city we live in and the city around which our lives revolve.

Photography by Alexander Martin

Image Of The Day is from Glaswegian photographer Alexander Martin. You can view his folio here and he is available for both full time and freelance work.

↑ Vid The Pogues – Streams of Whiskey

While your knocking back the black stuff tonight, don’t forget there are some other great treats on:

The Stand – St Patrick’s Day Comedy Special. Part of the Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival. £10

Brel – Scotch Comedian of the Year 2013 (Antony Murray) Part of the Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival. £5/£6

Barrowlands – Stiff Little Fingers. Get some classic punk in yer. £16

SWG3 – Little Magazine. Exhibition, curated by Alex Pollard. Free

The Arches – National Review Of Live Art Celebrating it’s 13th anniversary, this edition will feature artists from it’s legacy. £15

Right, I’m away for a Guinness.

Hard to believe these beautiful buildings used to be in Kelvingrove Park. The Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901, was an amazing demonstration of Victorian self confidence which proudly displayed the great progress made in industry, science and art during the nineteenth century. They had also held one 1888 which was massively popular and the profits paid for Kelvingrove Art Gallery.

You can see more from the 1901 International Exhibition here.

A very original idea for a bird house. These were made by Glasgow artist, Robert Stewart. You can by them at Recoat’s online store.

Also, watch this space for an upcoming interview with the owners of Recoat Gallery.

Hushpuppy, of the Recordplayerz, got in contact with a press release for the closure of Optimo. I’m sure many are sad at this news, but it was due to happen and can be justified. The amount of opportunities Twitch and Wilkes have turned down through the Sunday night commitment must be staggering. The very best of luck to JD Twitch and JG Wilkes. Thank you for loving our ears…

Optimo (E!spacio) is a club night in Glasgow that was started in November 1997 at The Sub Club by dj’s JD Twitch and JG Wilkes. On Sunday the 25th April 2010 that event will end forever.

From its home in Glasgow’s legendary Sub Club, Optimo (E!spacio) has become both internationally renowned, and more importantly highly respected as one of the finest clubs nights anywhere in the world. Though the Optimo dj team of JD Twitch and JG Wilkes have in the last 13 years come to travel the length and breath of the global clubbing community, they have never lost affection for their one true spiritual and geographical home – Optimo (E!spacio).

Optimo have trail-blazed a new form of genre-bending djing.  Optimo has becoming a club name synonymous with experimentation and innovation born of a genuine passion for all dimensions of music.  They have taken a slice of Glasgow’s insatiable appetite for music and dancing across the world, and they remain one of Scotland’s most highly respected international cultural ambassadors.

However the passing of those years brought a change to Twitch & Wilkes as both a dj team and as individual artists.   The success of their many mix releases – How to Kill the DJ Vol. 2, Psych-Out, Walkabout, In Order To Edit, to name but a few – have hugely extended their reputation and placed them on demand internationally as djs .   As remixers they have a collective and impressive CV of diverse artists, including Manic Street Preachers, Hot Chip, Franz Ferdinand, Simian Mobile Disco, The Gossip, Snow Patrol and The Presets.  In addition both are solo artists with their own projects – JD Twitch with his Betty Botox persona, and JG Wilkes with his Naum Gabo projects.

The pressures that come with running a weekly club night in the UK, whilst touring internationally, trying to fit in remix work and find time to work on their individual projects caused both members to realise that perhaps the time had come to re-think their investment in Optimo (E!spacio), perhaps relinquish their hold on the weekly event and allow themselves time to pursue new projects as well as further opportunities to travel both individually and as a team.

Consequently Twitch & Wilkes have decided that it is time to allow themselves and the club night to move on, to grow, to become something new. Thus Optimo (E!spacio) – the event with residents Twitch & Wilkes  - will cease to be.  Together they will present a newly conceived event curated  - to an extent – by them, but no longer with themselves as the guiding and permanent musical core.

Wilkes & Twitch envisage a new event with a rolling roster of djs drawn from their Glasgow clubbing peers; their friends and musical family.  There will continue to be a commitment to live performance from bands and solo artists curated by the Optimo team. But one crucial new addition will be the introduction of guest deejays  - this having been specifically NOT part of the Optimo (E!spacio) ethos.

Full details of the new event will follow, along with the planned delirium for the final, tearful and joyous closing party for Optimo (Espacio) on April 25th.

Someone once said “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings”.  On Sunday 25th April 2010, she will. Literally.

Optimo, we will always love your ears.

Photo: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan