Aidan Moffat

SAY Award shortlist announced

Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat, Mogwai and Rustie nominated for inaugural Scottish Album of the Year

17 May 2012

The Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) shortlist has been announced today. After some toothcomb sifting and careful deliberation, the judging panel have whittled down the nominations from a beefy 20 to a lean top 10. Through some hi-tech gadgetry, savvy…

Scottish Album of the Year Award 2012 long list announced

Includes Remember Remember, Rustie and Conquering Animal Sound

12 Apr 2012

The long list of nominations for the inaugaral The Scottish Album of the Year Awards has been announced, after 12 months of organisation and deliberation. The 20 albums chosen cover a wide range of genres and include many well-known bands - from…

FOUND and Aidan Moffat collaborate on new project #Unravel

Installation based on events from Moffat's life

29 Mar 2012

As the old saying goes, there are three sides to every story: yours, theirs, and the truth. Or in the case of Aidan Moffat’s latest storytelling project, there is his version, her version, and somewhere, maybe lost forever in the mists of time, the…

Single of the Month: The Son(s) - 'If I Hear You Talk Apostrophes Again'

Django Django, Kate Bush and Lightships also reviewed

28 Mar 2012

TS Eliot got it wrong. April is not the cruellest month. Not where our ear canals are concerned, anyway. April is killing us with its pop kindness. Take ‘Storm’ (●●●●, Because), a sojourn into sun-dappled collage-rock, courtesy of vintage exoticists…

RM Hubbert, Stereo, Glasgow, Fri 27 Jan

1 Mar 2012

The launch RM Hubbert's second album, 13 Lost and Found, is both a celebratory and elegiac affair. A punk and post-rock veteran, Hubbert turned to the classical guitar as a way of dealing with bereavement and depression. To perform his latest album with…

Preview of 2012 - The best events this year

Featuring the Cultural Olympiad, The Dark Knight Rises, WU LYF, Glasgow International and more

9 Jan 2012

It’s 2012, but fear not, things aren’t as bad as they seem. Before you decide to occupy government property, or smash a brick through Dixons, take heart in the folklore of a simpler age. For when times are black, you can always rely on the comfort of…

RM Hubbert launches album Thirteen Lost & Found with friends

Aidan Moffat, Alex Kapranos and more to join in at Stereo show

6 Jan 2012

RM Hubbert’s debut album First & Last was more than just an instrumental record by a talented Glaswegian guitarist. Far from a commercial stepping-stone, the record was rather the result of Hubbert’s attempts to document a tumultuous three-year period…

Kid Canaveral’s Christmas Baubles II - Summerhall, Edinburgh, Sat 17 Dec 2011

Josie Long, eagleowl and more join in Kid Canaveral's annual shindig

6 Jan 2012

The combination of cheap tins and 12 hours of live entertainment could be an endurance test in the wrong hands, but the second annual Fence Records/Kid Canaveral Chirstmas Baubles all-dayer doesn’t exactly feel like a chore. A joyous turn by Fence…

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

FOUND win the first ever List Award

Edinburgh arts collective claim prize, while Cargo Publishing collect Best Newcomer

16 Dec 2011

Edinburgh-based band and arts collective FOUND have won the first annual List Award. The Award, presented on Thursday 15 December at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery as part of The List's Hot 100 Party, recognises achievement in the arts over the…

Arab Strap - Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, Glasgow, Thu 17 Nov 2011

Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton strip down their back catalogue

13 Dec 2011

As if anyone would have called their band ‘William Harness’ anyway. That was the not-so-secret moniker Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton chose to add deniability to the fact they were getting the old band back together here, even if it was just for one…

The List launches new cultural awards

The List Award 2011 shortlist includes David Greig, Karla Black, Aidan Moffat and David Mackenzie

12 Dec 2011

The List introduces its own end-of-year cultural award, plus a Best Newcomer award. The awards complement The List's annual creative talent list The Hot 100, the 2011 edition of which is published on 14 Dec The winners to be announced at a Hot 100…

Bill Wells' National Jazz Trio of Scotland to appear at Tracer Trails' Christmas Party

Another engagement for the ubiquitous collaborator and jazzman

9 Dec 2011

The National Jazz Trio of Scotland has never really been a trio. Nor has Bill Wells’ cheekily-monickered combo ever played jazz in the conventional sense. With a first album of original material – the waggishly christened Standards Volume Two…

Top five Arab Strap lyrics

In honour of Middleton and Moffat's gig at Nice'n'Sleazy's on Thu 17 Nov, we sings their best bits

16 Nov 2011

1 Speed Date ‘The ugly tattooed swingers euphemise and call their mucky hobby “trysts” / But if I saw another man touch you, I'd break his fucking wrists.’ 2 The First Big Weekend ‘It was a beautiful day, and later that evening Malcolm introduced me…

Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat - interview

Moffat and Middleton are set to team up again to celebrate Nice'n'Sleazy's 20th birthday

7 Nov 2011

The mid-90s Arab Strap song ‘I Saw You’ was inspired by The List’s lonely-hearts feature of the same name. Do you remember using I Saw You at that time? That I Saw You feature had just started, and it was quite exciting and cool. I did attempt to use…

Aidan Moffat & Bill Wells and Malcolm Middleton are pick of September singles

Jens Lekman, Josh T Pearson and Django Django also among highlights

16 Sep 2011

The humble lyric is oft-overlooked in the quick-fix rush of the singles market. Come hither, then, as we salute the month’s most loquacious quality popsters. No such discourse would be complete without a nod to Swedish indie-bard Jens Lekman, whose…

Detours film project at 2011 Edinburgh Art Festival

Responses to work by Aidan Moffat, Josie Long and Ross Sutherland

24 Aug 2011

While everyone might know about the Edinburgh Art Festival, a series of collaborations have been quietly reflecting the works exhibited in the various exhibitions around the city. Suzy Glass (behind the creative social network Central Station) and Angie…

Lee Konitz, Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat among highlights Glasgow Jazz Festival

Michel Legrand, Zu and Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra also appear

29 Jun 2011

A veteran of Miles Davis’ Birth of Cool sessions, Lee Konitz is one of the Festival’s most prestigious bookings. A key player in the development of cool jazz, the alto saxophonist has become more experimental with age. His playing partner, Polish…

Sounds of the Summer 2011 Spotify Playlist

The best summer listening, as chosen by List music critics

25 May 2011

The List: Sounds of the Summer Playlist 2011 You've bought your sausages, you've scrubbed your charred old BBQ back to shiny, chrome perfection, and you've invited your most lithe and beautiful friends around to your back garden. Everything's in…

Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat - Everything’s Getting Older

A great jazz, folk and spoken word collaboration

25 Apr 2011

(Chemikal Underground) Lovers of a collaboration both – Bill Wells with The Pastels and Isobel Campbell among others, Aidan Moffat with the likes of Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite and FOUND – it was really only a matter of time before this pair got it…

Edinburgh art-poppers Found release album Factorycraft

Third album is trio's first on Chemikal Underground

3 Mar 2011

‘We were all a bit jealous of Cybraphon,’ laughs Tommy Perman. FOUND’s bassist and synth player is talking about their ‘autonomous emotional robot band’ project that went on to win them a BAFTA in 2009. And the more it spread like wildfire on the…

Aidan Moffat's Valentine Revue - Oran Mor, Glasgow, Wed 16 Feb 2011

28 Feb 2011

Aidan Moffat's standing on stage at Oran Mor, bathed in the seasonal glow of a red light, singing about how he'd probably stick by his girl even if she had some sort of debilitating brain disease. He's here to sing about love, and that's about as…

Aidan Moffat takes Bill Wells collaboration album Everything’s Getting Older on tour

Falkirk poet and ex Arab Strap member set for Oran Mor show

8 Feb 2011

‘Yeah. I might have personality issues,’ Aidan Moffat deadpans, while sipping on a tea. He’s explaining his knack for writing equally candid lyrics about ‘unemotional, nasty shaggers’, ‘lonely sollipsists’, sixty-year-old women, squaddie-shagging girls…

Some simple suggestions for a special Valentine's in Edinburgh and Glasgow

Poetry, song, food and hotel break options for February 14th 2011

1 Feb 2011

Special Valentine-themed events seem to fall around but not on the day in question this year: Club Noir (O2 Academy, Glasgow, Sun 11 Feb, below) have their sexy burlesque-y Valentines Masked Ball slightly early, while Aidan Moffat hosts his Valentine’s…

The best Christmas gigs in Edinburgh and Glasgow

Burns, Zombie Nation, Ballboy and Broken Records among Christmas party gig highlights

10 Dec 2010

Stars In Their Eyes special/ Song, By Toad’s Christmas party/ Kid Canaveral’s Christmas Baubles/ Death Disco’s XXXmas Party/ Radio Magnetic’s Winter Rave/ Mungo’s Hi-Fi/ Bill Wells’ Black Christmas In a bygone olden, golden era – circa 1995 BC…

Aidan Moffat - Arab Strap is Dead

Documentary clip shows vocalist mourning end of his former band

27 Aug 2010

Four years after Arab Strap flew off to the big miserable record shop in the sky, their label, Chemikal Underground, have released a shocking documentary short, tracing lead singer Aidan Moffat’s mental decline since the band broke up. In ‘Arab Strap…

Music festivals 2010: Festival profiles

28 May 2010

Big or small, loud or quiet, dry or muddy – we love festivals whatever their size, sound or likelihood to leave you soaking wet. Over the next 20 pages we'll give you the lowdown on every major fest hitting Scotland this summer, and information on a few…

Burnt Island

Mono, Glasgow, Sun 7 Mar 2010

22 Mar 2010

This was the launch party for Music & Maths, the debut album from the group christened after Scotland’s most evocatively named place – but Burnt Island’s supporting cast wasn’t bad either. The Second Hand Marching Band and Benni Hemm Hemm, two youthful…

Alasdair Roberts, The Low Anthem and Buffy Sainte-Marie set for Celtic Connections

7 Jan 2010

With Alasdair Roberts, The Low Anthem and Buffy Sainte-Marie all featuring, the Celtic Connections festival just keeps going from strength to strength, says Ninian Dunnett

Labels of love: Chemikal Underground

4 Dec 2009

Based in: Glasgow. Roster: The Phantom Band, Lord Cut-Glass, Emma Pollock, The Unwinding Hours, Adrian Crowley, Zoey Van Goey, Aidan Moffat, Angil and the Hiddentracks, The Radar Brothers. Bosses: Set up in 1995 by the four members of…

The Hot 100 2008

11 Dec 2008

It’s been a helluva year. 2008 has been a time of significant global change, socially, politically and culturally, with Scotland no exception. So here, for your delectation, is The List’s pick of the 100 people, places and things that rocked our world…

The Burst Noel Christmas Party

11 Dec 2008

Like microwaveable turkey dinners, borderline alcoholism and falling out with your siblings, Malcolm Middleton is in danger of becoming something of an unhappy seasonal institution. The ex-Arab Strap guitarist’s bid for a Christmas number one last…

Angil and the Hiddntracks, Aidan Moffat and De Rosa

16 Oct 2008

INDIE Chemikal Underground is best known for a generation of great bands who have now mostly split up or moved on, so fresh blood is needed. Tonight’s showcase presents suggests where the label goes next. First on, Martin of De Rosa previews new…

Skeletons & the Kings of all Cities

24 Apr 2008

Leftfield weirdo popsters who have drawn comparisons to everyone from Sonic Youth to Boyz II Men. Matt Mehlen has drawn together a mixed bag of talents including classical horns, punk drummers, multiple guitars and more for a truly unique bombastic…

The art of writing love songs

31 Jan 2008

How do you approach writing about love? Kenny Anderson AKA King Creosote, Fife’s own regal tunesmith of the heart With my heart on the accelerator and my head on the brakes. Emotional turmoil is exactly what you need to get the pen moving, but…

Aidan John Moffat - I Can Hear Your Heart

31 Jan 2008

(Chemikal Underground) SPOKEN WORD Sometimes a relationship has run its course and all you can do is split up, something former Arab Strappers Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton know all too well. Since going their separate ways, Middleton has…

Ian Rankin interviews Aidan Moffat about comics

1 Nov 2007

Rankin When did you start reading comics? Were you a DC Thomson lad (Bimbo, Dandy, Beano, Victor, Hotspur)? Moffat I was definitely a Beano boy because it always seemed more edgy than the Dandy, but I insisted I got the Dandy as a sort of light…

Ballads of the Book

WORDS & MUSIC

27 Feb 2007

Projects like Ballads of the Book don’t come along very often. And, looking at the roll call of writers and musicians involved, it is easy to see why. It must have been a logistical nightmare getting 54 of Scotland’s finest writers and musicians…