The Herald

Usher; Master of the Kiss and Tell

Fri Jul 2, 7pm, SECC, Glasgow, (pounds) 23.50, 0870 040 4000 Usher made his first big impression with that song about leaving the one you're with to start a new relationship with someone else. For years after he hardly managed to make an essential artist of himself - just the occasional alright single here and there, such as the nearly-novelty track U-Turn. (It could be accompanied by a dance that made you look as if you were trying to pick up a 10p piece on an ice-rink.) Recent No 1 Yeah! ha...

Bonnie Raitt; Raitt Where She Belongs

Sun Jul 4, 7.30pm, Usher Hall, Lothian Road, Edinburgh, (pounds) 28, 0131 228 1155 July 4 is a special day in America. It could be special in Edinburgh, too, if Bonnie Raitt gives a concert even half as good as her Playhouse gig in 1991. Back then, Raitt was enjoying a phenomenal renaissance. After 15 years of critical acclaim but only cult success, she approached the end of the 1980s with no recording contract, no self-esteem, and no "no" to alcohol. This all changed with rehab and the appro...

Briefing: The (Pounds) 50 Man

THE (pounds) 50 man is now downloading more music from the internet than teenagers. Q: What new species of homo sapiens is (pounds) 50 man?

In Defence of the Decision to Invade Iraq

BILL Brown's diatribe on Iraq (Letters, June 30) raised a number of points that need to be challenged, and illustrated how difficult it has become to debate the issue with some opponents of the war. Mr Brown claims that "reports are stating that more Iraqis have perished due to the coalition's actions than ever died under Saddam". It seems that some of your correspondents have become so angry at the coalition's policies in Iraq that they will believe and spread anything, no matter how ludicro...

The Economic Deficiencies of Devolution

IF taxpayers were astonished by First Minister Jack McConnell's statement in his Allander speech that the size of Scotland's public sector is too big, then, as the provider of the necessary ever- increasing levels of taxation, they would not be surprised (McConnell says public sector is too big and inefficient, June 29). But any prospect that he intended to reduce the public sector was soon dismissed by his contention that "we need to re-balance Scotland's economy - not by shrinking the publi...

A Legal Challenge On University Fees

Under European law, governments must treat all European Union citizens the same and the Treaty of Rome gives citizens the right to challenge their own governments against alleged discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity. The current position which sees English students studying at Scottish universities paying considerably higher fees than their Scottish counterparts at those same universities is discriminatory and breaches both the Treaty of Rome and the European Convention on Human R...

Lesson From Uganda About Value of Abstinence

Melanie Reid (July 29) could be forgiven for believing that the Catholic Church was criminally culpable by the end of watching Panorama's documentary. By the end of it you would have thought that the only contribution that the Catholic Church had made to the fight against Aids was a claim by an archbishop that condoms were 15-30% ineffective. Most of the programme was devoted to disproving that. What it totally glossed over was the major role that abstinence has played in combating Aids in Ug...

Stop Blaming the Victims of Poverty

Capitals are indispensable, but when the head becomes too swollen, the body develops apoplexy, with fatal results. The Marquis de Mirabeau made that prophetic observation about Paris in 1750. A hundred years later, in his brilliant study of the French Revolution, Alexis de Tocqueville suggested that this unhealthy centralisation created the climate for that great political earthquake. Long before a single aristocrat laid his neck below the guillotine, a bloodless revolution had already occurr...

Quick Solution

The New Labour Record On Military Service

EVEN in her grief, Rose Gentle, mother of Private Gordon Gentle, expresses succinctly the two most disquieting aspects of the unprovoked war on Iraq - it is about oil and those who precipitated it have made sure that they and their children have not risked their lives fighting it. The Bush-Cheney record on draft-dodging is well-known. What surely deserves greater attention is the New Labour record on military service. The Blair government, after all, has been one of the most belligerent in Br...

Thomas Gold

Austrian-born Cornell University astronomer Thomas Gold, described as a gadfly and a world-class contrarian, has died after a long battle with heart disease. He was 84. A brilliant but controversial figure in science, Gold had a penchant for unconventional theories, several of which proved right. He also opposed the "big-bang theory", joining fellow astrophysicists Fred Hoyle and Hermann Bondi to suggest the universe had no beginning or end - matter was constantly being created.

Paul Neagu; Romanian Artist Who, in the Name of Art, Walked Into the River Forth Wearing a Metronome On His Head

Romanian-born Paul Neagu, who died earlier this month - on Bloomsday, as it happens (and how that would have charmed him, had he known) - was no stranger to Scotland. It was in 1969 that we first saw his work at the Richard Demarco Gallery. Neagu was undoubtedly a draughtsman par excellence, with masterly drawings plus fascinating mixed-media objects leading to his Palpable Art Manifesto. From then on, and not least through his major contribution, Concept of Metamorphosis, at Demarco's 1971 F...

Torsten Johansson

Swedish tennis star Torsten Johansson, whose consecutive double- bagels in the 1946 Wimbledon tournament are still a record, has died. He was 84. In tennis parlance, a double-bagel - winning 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 - is rare. Johansson had two straight at Wimbledon 58 years ago, shutting out two opponents in a row.

Billboard

Fun in Brum LIKE David Bowie, Billboard has found lots of other things to do while T in the Park is on. L'Esprit Manouche is a small festival held in Moseley, Birmingham which was established last year to honour the 50th anniversary of the death of Django Reinhardt, the great gypsy jazz guitarist. The inaugural event included the participation of no fewer than four of the Reinhardt clan.

James Brown, Carling Academy, Glasgow

3/5 THE reputation of a living legend is a hard one to uphold at the best of times, but when you're hitting 71 and your self-styled infamy is as bad-ass as it gets, maintaining your street cred must take that little bit more effort. Ladies and Gentleman, let me introduce Mr James Brown, Deus Sex Machina, Godfather of Soul and almost every bit the mean-mouthed, mother-funkin' maniac you hoped he would be. But only almost.

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Carling Academy, Glasgow

5/5 You could say there's something spiritual about a Ben Harper concert. His slightly raspy voice is so soulful and his lyrics so heartfelt that at times you can feel the hairs on your arm give a standing ovation. Showcasing material from his upcoming album, a collaboration with legendary gospel vocal group and three-time Grammy-winning The Blind Boys of Alabama, he treated us to new songs such as the spiritual title-track There Will Be a Light and Where Could I Go? It took a while for Harpe...

Family Band That Lets the Rules Slide; the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players Will Bring Their Unique Music, Inspired by Snapshots of Strangers, to This Year's Fringe. By Beth Pearson

DON'T believe what anyone says to you about the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. They are just a normal, everyday rock band. So what if the family team of husband, wife and 10-year-old daughter base their songs around second-hand slides culled from jumble sales, prefer their clothes sparkly and their live performances are accompanied by a slide show? They're no different from Led Zeppelin, says dad, singer and guitarist Jason Trachtenburg. "There's no doubt our job is rock band," he say...

Tortoise, Arches, Glasgow

5/5 IT was not part of Glasgow Jazz Festival director Olive May Millen's programme, but a concert by Chicago's instrumental collective sat happily on her opening evening. Arguably, Tortoise play music that is closer to the contemporary idea of jazz than could be heard at Van the Man's official opener at the Clyde Auditorium. Certainly, the band's final encore in a set that was approaching two hours long carried explicit echoes of the wilder extended improvisations of the Miles Davis band of t...

Jon Schueler; Scotch Myths

Love Really Can Conquer All, As Long As Your Cooking's Up to Mamma's

Cutting Edge: It'll Never Last Channel 4, 9.00pm The Daily Politics BBC2, 11.00am Gemma Birthwood's wedding seemed a jolly affair, though the gifts were not the sort of things you can exchange easily. If your goat is the wrong colour, or your donkey last year's model, that's your problem.