Press features on Underbelly
Fringe 2007
Juicy quotes from 2007 will follow once we have found a moment to collate all the best bits! Needless to say, we have quite a few to choose from!
Fringe 2006
“The Underbelly is surely a portal through which an entire generation can gain access to the arts - on its own terms. Roll on Glastonbelly” Sunday Herald (27 Aug 2006)
“The success of the giant, purple, inflatable upside-down cow is testified by the large crowd daily milling around its rubbery teats” The List (23 Aug 2006)
“On the Fringe, Underbelly’s profile and programme has stolen everybody’s thunder” Herald (05 Aug 2006)
“The Udderbelly, already a unique venue, is now home to that rare find - the perfect show” Scotsman (10 Aug 2006)
“The most visually striking venue” Financial Times (11 Aug 2006)
“Best new venue” Sunday Times (27 Aug 2006)
Before the Fringe even started, Underbelly was well featured in the press:
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times put Charlie Ross's One Man Star Wars at the UdderBELLY in their list of The Top 50 Things To Do This Summer, the only Edinburgh Festival event to feature.
The Evening News
The Evening News ran a large feature on our new UdderBELLY and Cow Barn venues entitled "Holy Cow! Has the Capital got an udder venue like this one?":
"It is possibly the strangest Fringe venue yet... Underbelly has become one of the most popular Fringe promoters in recent years... The venue's location [in Bristo Square] will add to an already buzzing Festival hub." (full text »)
They also ran a separate feature on the show One of Our Ain, the harrowing true-life story told by the daughter of a convicted paedophile (full text »)
Their preview feature on the 2006 Fringe, included the following: "The Underbelly's programme includes the UK premiere of the hit US show One Man Star Wars, juggling extravaganza Tossers and hip-hop spectacular Into the Hoods. Stewart Lee, the creator of Jerry Springer - the Opera will direct a new stage production of Talk Radio, a play about a phone-in host targeted by extremist listeners. Its stars will include Phil Nichol, Mike McShane and Stephen K Amos." (full text »)
Scotland on Sunday - Come on in, the Fringe is lovely
Scotland on Sunday has also done a Fringe preview feature. Talk Radio got the lead role in the list of recommendations. Also recommended were:
- Breakfast with Jonny Wilkinson - "starring Norman Pace, formerly of Hale and Pace, following its successful run at the West End, so expect good things";
- Tossers - "it promises to do for juggling what Stomp did for dustbin lids";
- Demetri Martin - "Festival favourite Demetri Martin returns fresh from a sell-out run in Melbourne, which also saw him take the prestigious Barry Award for his fourth show, Dr Earnest Parrot Presents"
- Topping & Butch, Reginald D Hunter, Carrie Quinlan and The Early Edition
- Our new UdderBELLY and Cow Barn venues and The Pasture.
Fringe 2005
The Telegraph , Saturday 30 July
This year has been the turn of the Telegraph to do a feature on the Underbelly, with a long article in a special Edinburgh preview version of thir Arts section.
"Edinburgh reports: there's something very fresh in those musty bank vaults
...the arrival of a new contender - the Underbelly - has transformed the landscape.... the Underbelly's leaps forward could easily place it at the head of the pack in the coming years.... the most exciting festival discovery for ages.... During August, it becomes a kind of vertical Glastonbury, every nook filled with bohemian activity."
Other press
Rain Pryor, as the daughter of Richard Pryor, has been one of the most newsworthy of our shows and has garnered most of the preview column inches with long interviews in the Observer and Telegraph and well as recommendations in several other national papers as one of their Picks of the Fringe.
Other shows recommended in the various previews include Stewart Lee, Bicycle Men, Ether Frolics and Billy Holiday.
Fringe 2004
Having established ourselves as a top-class venue and breaking the domination of the previous "Big 3", we no longer had any novelty value to the press as a venue. However, the quality of our programme spoke for itself and the press rightly concetrated on the shows rather than the venue. Amongst the awards for shows within our programme were the Perrier Comedy Award; a Perrier Newcomer nomination; three Fringe Firsts; and a nomination for the Amnesty Award. 15 shows (one quarter of our programme) received at least one five star review and a further 29 (nearly one half of our programme) received at least one four star review.
Check out the 2004 reviews page for full details.
Fringe 2003
We can probably justify our claim to be one of the most talked about venues at the 2003 Fringe. This was helped by our partnership with Radio Forth One 97.3 and Metro's sponsorship of our joint brochure with the Gilded Balloon. Here are some extracts from some of the articles on the Smirnoff Underbelly this year.
The Guardian - Belly laughs
"It may be mouldy, dusty and smelly - but the Underbelly is the venue to watch this year.... In fact, the Underbelly is one of the most exciting, atmospheric spaces on the fringe - and, increasingly, one of the most important.... After all, this is the first venue in years to present a serious challenge to the seemingly unshakable hegemony of the big three: the Pleasance, the Assembly Rooms and the Gilded Balloon."
Sunday Times, 6 July 2003
"don't leave Edinburgh without exploring the subterranean Smirnoff Underbelly."
Sunday Times, 27 July 2003
"The past two years have seen a blossoming of some exciting new venues. The best of these is the Smirnoff Underbelly.... Founded in 2000 in an ever-growing warren of subterranean cellars, the Underbelly has become as much a place to be seen as to see things at. Consciously appealing to the young, this year it's taking on the heroic task of bringing pop back to the heart of the Fringe.
"... Neither man nor woman can survive on comedy and theatre alone, so, luckily, there's some fine and varied music this year. The Forth One Fringe concerts at the stunning subterranean Smirnoff Underbelly will showcase up-and-coming stars in an intimate 200-seat venue, and, best of all, most of the tickets will be given away on the day. A fine line-up includes the Mercury-nominated Thrills."
Other
In addition there have been hundreds of mentions of the Smirnoff Underbelly in the press as part of the coverage of Aaron Barschak's successful attempt to gatecrash Prince William's 21st birthday party. Aaron Barschak is appearing at the Smirnoff Underbelly as the Comedy Terrorist in his show, Osama Likes it Hot.
We also received significant coverage as a result of Gary Le Strange winning the Perrier Best Newcomer award.
Fringe 2002
The increased size and visibility of the Smirnoff Underbelly in 2002 and the diversity of its programme attracted many column inches of press interest and some of the shows have themselves picked up press interest - in particular Tetragrammaton for its sponsorship by the Scottish Bible Society and Jumpers for its 9/11 theme.
In the three months leading up to and including the 2002 Festival, the Smirnoff Underbelly and its shows were included in over 100 separate articles in national press, not including the many more in various web-based publications.
These are extracts from just some of the articles featuring the Smirnoff Underbelly in 2002:
Paul Gudgin, Fringe Director quoted in The Scotsman
"It's underground, odd and interesting, there's a great vibe about it," said Mr Gudgin. "The building itself can give as excellent a performance as the performers themselves." He added that the venue had been run imaginatively and that it might soon challenge the "Big Three" venues, The Scotsman Assembly, the Pleasance and the Gilded Balloon.
BBC Online - Stage-hunting frenzy at Fringe
"Every year at Edinburgh's crowded Fringe Festival, production companies have to go to great lengths to find a venue to stage their shows. Such a venue can be found in a damp, deserted bank vault under George IV Bridge in central Edinburgh...".
Financial Times - Entrepeneurs make it on the Fringe
"the quintessential fringe venue"
BBC Online
"The Underbelly - surely the coolest venue and bar on the Fringe for years"
Jerry Sadowitz, Comedian & Magician
"I like the Underbelly - it is the Glastonbury of the Fringe" quoted in an interview in The Scotsman
The Scotsman
"This fabulous one-off set - Bailey's only gig in Edinburgh - was a coup for the Underbelly, who have done a fantastic job at establishing themselves as a fourth force this year with a number of surprise hits."