The Skinny

The Skinny is a great free music newspaper. It is a great source to find new upcoming local bands, and it also has extensive listings for upcoming gigs, clubs and comedy shows.
I always enjoy reading music publications, and compared to many main stream music magazines, the Skinny certainly provides a better range of coverage on a broader spectrum of music. Indeed, it recent years, the Skinny has gone further and now features articles on theatre, books, art and fashion.
Apart from the emphasis on local new bands, the paper also focuses on the alternative-​indie music scene. Indeed, it recently had a headline interview with the American band The National.
If you want to know what is happening in the latest music circles, then the Skinny is essential reading for you. It might not come in a glossy magazine format, but its content is head and shoulders above other publications.

The Skinny is a great, free resource that tells you the happy haps across Scotland. Gigs, art events, night clubs nights, festivals and so on. As a free resource it’s excellent and if you’re not sure what to do this weekend pick up a copy, you might find your perfect weekend activity.
That said, I do find The Skinny a wee bit pretentious and more than half of the stuff in it I would probably never go and see, it’s all a bit too cool for school for me. They never have mainstream stuff advertised, not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, I just feel a little bit out of my depth reading it sometimes with the articles about bands that people think are cool to like but probably deep down love the Spice Girls and just don’t want to admit that to their «underground» friends. I much prefer looking in local newspapers to find out what jumble sale/​fête is on at the weekend or perhaps even a spot of strawberry picking.

I’m always on the hunt for new, exciting bands, so when my aural senses have hit a musical drought, The Skinny shows me many a new musical outfit to get my ears stuck into!
There are many, many reasons to like The Skinny
— It’s free and available to pick up from record shops, book shops, the uni campus, in bars…
— It’s local, and the writers constantly keep us up to date on the buzz near you (not to mention showcasing local artists).
— It’s a great platform for artists to get noticed.
— It’s entertaining and a great way to spend an hour if you’re reading it in a coffee shop.
— It’s tapped into the Scottish culture for young and old — not just the music scene.
Sure, it’s got a bit of a rep for being the hipster’s bible, and you do get the impression it’s indie chic. But it’s well written, accessible, crammed full of information and offers a colourful take on local culture.
It keeps you informed and it’s free, so dig in!

The Skinny is absolutely brilliant, and I always have a copy in my bag to check out what’s happening in the city.
It’s totally free, and very interesting and entertaining, as well as informative. It’s particularly useful for upcoming gigs and shows. It knows that it’s cool though, so it can sometimes come across as a bit uppity, but frankly, it is damn cool so why not?
Fab!

It’s always a bonus if you find yourself sitting down in a pub or a coffee shop and see copies of The Skinny lying about. Compared to the double glazing ads and out of date non-​news you get in most free papers, it’s journalistic heaven.
Compared to papers you’d actually pay for it’s not that bad either, It’s a bit up it’s own arse at times, but if you’re interested in what’s going on slightly left of centre in the music, film, media and art scenes across Scotland, then it’s probably the best publication currently available, free or not.
Granted, some of the content an writing will appeal only to the most insufferable arseholes who bore you senseless by wittering on about the latest no-​mark band they’ve found on Myspace, but even taking that into account there’s plenty of reading to be had here.

I’d avoid most free papers like the black death — they are so full of crap that it just doesnt seem worth the paper its written on.
The Skinny however, is something different. Firstly, its free — so yay! Secondly, its written well, like really well. It has articles, entertainment listings, reviews of local gigs etc. Its pretty cool. Dont get me wrong, it isnt a ‘news’ paper, more of a bible for the students. Once you’ve finished reading it, the cool will radiate out of you.
You can get the Skinny in most of the shops/​cafes around edinburgh, so grab a copy and enjoy!

Ideally, when new to city, you want some cool cucumber to squire you about the town showing you the trendiest places to drink, coolest places to lounge and offer an abundance of experience honed tips to ensure you get the best out of your new haunt.
Personifying this is The Skinny — available free in most shops around Edinburgh.
Set yourself aside an hour or two each month, coffee in hand, to read The Skinny’s sound advice on all things music, film, clubs, art, fashion etc and rest assured you’ll get the best out of (in this case)
Edinburgh.

Moving here made me realise that there wasn’t much info (unless you trailed the Internet for hours) of gigs, performances etc going on in the country one might be interested in going to. Then I came across the Skinny.
Giving you the low down on anything that’s going on at Edinburgh and Glasgow that you should go to. And stuff you should have done.
I quite enjoy flicking through the Skinny when I’m chilling in a café– it’s a free newspaper full of gig and event info– plus up and coming bands, theatres to look out for and other artsy happenings. Sure it gets a bit pretentious at times and it’s listings are certainly subject to personal taste but the newspaper is put very well together and it’s obvious that it is run by passionate young people, with an interest in anything cultural going on in the cities they love.
Sadly I hardly ever can afford to go this stuff, either money wise or time wise but the Skinny sure reminds me what I might be missing out on– or stuff I would love to go to that’s coming up.

Although this free magazine is based in Edinburgh, it’s ubiquitously spotted in pubs and music venues across Glasgow on account of its excellent listings section.
Like all music journalism products, it’s still prone to the odd bout of cringeworthy pretension, but generally speaking it has been an excellent addition to the Glasgow social scene and has since become the largest independent listings magazines in Scotland.
This is no student paper job, it looks professional and mistakes are rare. What’s more, it genuinely does appear to have its finger on the pulse and recruits volunteers who know their stuff, helping to ensure there’s far more reading involved that you should realistically expect from a free publication.
Magazines like this are massive in USA at the moment with plenty of competition. The Skinny, however, was ahead of the game here and chances are its already banked a substantial enough following to stay the most popular for years to come.