In a former existence, Edinburgh’s Summerhall art space was a veterinary college. Tonight’s gig is located in The Dissection Room and its tiled walls, linoleum floor and viewing gallery create a certain unsettling atmosphere that turns out to be quite appropriate. Normally a standing venue, we’ve been provided with extraordinarily uncomfortable plastic chairs to sit […]
Amtrak’s Texas Eagle train runs from Chicago to Los Angeles, covering 2,728 miles and taking just under 67 hours to complete its journey. Tonight Billy Bragg and Joe Henry are showcasing a set of songs that they recorded when they took that trip together in March this year.
When Rickie Lee Jones toured her Pirates album in 1981, she comfortably filled Edinburgh’s 3,000 seat Playhouse Theatre. Tonight, The Queen’s Hall, at less than one third of the size, is somewhat less than half full. The lack of seat sales is undeniably disappointing but is perhaps unsurprising. Jones is an uncompromising musician who has […]
Forty years have passed since the summer of 1976, that long, hot summer when punk’s adrenaline rush threatened to sweep away anything and everything that threatened to get in its way. The Sex Pistols were punk rock’s leading lights and singer Johnny Rotten was punk’s poster boy, although whether the band were a credible threat […]
Nikki Lane’s 2014 album All Or Nothin’ fused country songwriting with Spectoresque Be My Baby drums, glam rock handclaps and Muscle Shoals electric piano. Tonight, there are no drums, no piano; just Nikki and her Fender acoustic with back up from special guest Jonathan Tyler on guitar and harmonica but Lane’s rock and roll attitude […]
Spizzenergi are remembered principally for two things: their 1979 single Where’s Captain Kirk?; the first single to top the UK indie chart where it remained at number one for seven weeks, and their tendency to change names at the drop of a hat. Starting as Spizzoil, lead singer Spizz went on to lead a variety […]
Craig and Charlie Reid have come along way since they signed off the dole in a bleak benefit office on Edinburgh’s west side and signed onto the government’s Enterprise Allowance Scheme, with which they helped to fund the first six months of their musical career as The Proclaimers . Ten albums, a musical and a […]
Last night 89 people lost their lives because they went to a rock concert in Paris. Tonight, I’m at a rock concert and my thoughts, along with everyone in the audience, I suspect, are with that Bataclan audience and their families and loved ones. Nils Lofgren has opened his shows on this tour with Too […]
Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique was one of my first classical purchases way back in the early 1980s. I was initially attracted by the album’s sleeve notes, which alluded to febrile opium-induced nightmares. Also, the instrumentation featured something called an ophicleide, which I hadn’t encountered before and I’m not sure that I have since.
The last time I saw Richard Thomson in concert, a member of the audience shouted: “Where’s Linda tonight Richard?” Thompson replied that she was in hospital giving birth. Linda gave birth to a daughter, Kami, who as one half of The Rails is opening tonight’s show. The other half of The Rails is Kami’s husband, […]
King Crimson gigs are, it would seem, like buses – you wait 35 years for one and then 2 come along at once. I’m happy to say that I was able to attend both of their recent Edinburgh shows.
Is it really almost eighteen months since we last attended one of the Association Jazz Edge events? Let me put you in the picture dear reader.
If you are a hifi enthusiast, you may well think that there would be no better way to spend a couple of hours than listening to a system from one of the world’s most respected hifi companies. You would, however, be wrong.
Hifi Pig readers of a certain age will know Dean Friedman from at least two songs – Lucky Star and Ariel. Readers of a younger vintage may know him from Half Man Half Biscuit’s song The Bastard Son Of Dean Friedman.
John Otway used to base much of his act around being a one-hit-wonder. Until he became a two-hit-wonder. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
“Iconic” is a much overused word but when it comes to Tubular Bells, its use is entirely justified. From its cover art to its multi tracked instrumentation, the album embodies the early seventies just as Sergeant Pepper did for the late sixties a few years earlier and Never Mind The Bollocks would do for the […]
Now in its eleventh year the much loved Fest Jazz at Chateauneuf-du-Faou certainly didn’t disappoint visitors this year…if only the same could be said for the weather which was excitedly moist to say the very least.
I don’t believe in astrology. And yet, I exhibit all the qualities of a stereotypical Libra: I weigh up all sides of an argument, find it hard to make decisions and always, always see the other person’s point of view. The Manic Street Preachers are very much a Marmite band: people either hate them with […]
A long, long time ago, as the song begins, I was a nine year old boy addicted to the radio. I was fascinated by American Pie as soon as I heard it. Mostly, because I had no idea what it was about. I hadn’t a clue what a levee was (I’m Scottish) – I’m not […]
The support act for Bryan Ferry’s current tour is Welsh singer-songwriter Judith Owen who describes her new album, Ebb & Flow, as “a love letter to Laurel Canyon”. Earlier in the day while I was on the phone to my friend Terry, arranging to meet up for the concert, he checked out Judith’s website and […]
The Unthanks brought their UK tour in support of new album, Mount The Air, to a close in front of a sell out crowd at The Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh. Departing from tradition, not for the first time tonight, The Unthanks eschew the time-honoured format support band followed by main act. Instead, The Young Uns […]
Somewhere in the deep, dusty archives of the BBC television centre lies an unseen episode of Dr Who in which Rumer becomes the Doctor’s assistant and travels back to 1975 where her new album Into Colour becomes the best selling album of the year.
If I required yet another reminder that The Supreme Being does not evenly distribute his gifts, I need look no further than Steven Wilson. Let’s have a think about this: Does he have a back catalogue spanning more than 20 years, covering a diverse variety of genres? – He does. Can he sing and play […]
It’s always a pleasant surprise at a gig to discover that the support band is one that you have actually heard of. I had enjoyed Public Service Broadcasting’s album Inform-Educate-Entertain when I heard it last year but had found it difficult to dispel a feeling that it was a bit “Kraftwerk lite”. Live however, the […]
Adam Cohen’s show at The Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh – the first night of his European tour – was opened by local lad Dean Owens, supported on guitar and vocals by Calais Brown. Owens, former frontman of alt-country band The Felsons, showcased some songs from his forthcoming Nashville-recorded album Into The Sea along with others […]
