Idlewild

Rod Jones & The Birthday Suit set for UK tour

Idlewild guitarist learns drums for second solo album

24 Aug 2011

When Idlewild took indefinite leave in 2010, it appeared guitarist Rod Jones would follow singer Roddy Woomble down the folk route. After all, 2009’s A Sentimental Education suggested a man at one with his acoustic guitar. When he sat down to write and…

Madness, Kelis, The Waterboys and Tinchy Stryder play Northern Lights festival

New Aberdeen music festival boasts Edwyn Collins and Paloma Faith

30 May 2011

The one for … hitting the north Northern Lights Introducing a brand new contender to Scotland’s expanding festival scene, as Northern Lights welcomes an unexpectedly star-packed line-up to Seaton Park, a public field on the north of Aberdeen’s city…

Idlewild perform 100 Broken Windows album live

Tenth anniversary of band's breakthrough second album

23 Dec 2010

If it’s true that Idlewild will be on sabbatical for the whole of 2011 while singer Roddy Woomble releases and tours his new solo album, this tour is a perfect way to say goodbye to their fans for now. It celebrates the tenth anniversary of their…

Idlewild - 100 Broken Windows: 10th Anniversary Edition

15 Nov 2010

(EMI) Despite making The List feel hideously old, this 10th anniversary re-release of a bona fide classic is a hugely welcome one. Devotees will pour over the wealth of live and exclusive goodies featured here (including tracks recorded by Shellac’s…

Autumn highlights: The best albums and gigs from Scottish bands

The Phantom Band, The Twilight Sad and Errors set for action

16 Sep 2010

The Phantom Band Chemikal Underground’s finest, most eclectic and most likely signings of recent years return with the follow-up to last year’s debut Checkmate Savage. The Wants is released on Chemikal Underground, Mon 18 Oct. The Scottish…

The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival 2010

Bill Douglas Trilogy screening and premiere of David Greig’s Monsters in the Hall

10 Sep 2010

If there’s one thing that Scotland has in spades, it’s a proliferation of some mighty fine smaller scale festivals, and the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival (now in its 4th year) has more than earned the credibility to rub shoulders with…

Rod Jones and The Birthday Suit

6 Jan 2010

When Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones was piecing together his debut solo album A Sentimental Education, there was one simple test to decide which songs to use himself and which ones to pass on to Roddy Woomble and co: did they feel so personal that only…

Homecoming Final Fling - ditch cynical, think musical

19 Nov 2009

You know the big speech by Renton in Trainspotting where he goes on about how it’s ‘shite being Scottish’? Well, he was only half right. His defeatist rant is a quintessential example of that under-a-dreich-cloud Scottish pessimism, rubbishing…

Food For Thought: Rod Jones

The Idlewild guitarist and mental health spokesman gives us his food tips

2 Oct 2009

Whether I’m touring or at home everything starts the same way, a breakfast of toast, a banana and coffee. In the studio and during rehearsals it gets a bit fraught as we’re a band who all love coffee but argue over how it should be made. Colin [Newton…

Idlewild - Post Electric Blues

16 Sep 2009

(Cooking Vinyl) With a bulky back catalogue soaked in boisterous, if melancholic, guitar rock the expectation for Idlewild was always for them to make their Automatic for the People: a weighty album which crystallised all their most extreme emotions.

Strike the Colours - Seven Roads

16 Sep 2009

(Deadlight Records) Jenny Reeve is a well-kent face in Scottish indie circles, having worked with Idlewild, Malcolm Middleton and The Reindeer Section in the past. This second album from her current project is a subtle and considered affair, a…

Exposure: Strike The Colours

10 Aug 2009

Strike The Colours is the song-writing vessel of Glasgow-based multi-instrumentalist, Jenny Reeve. Cutting her teeth on a plethora of guest appearances and tours with the likes of Arab Strap, Idlewild and The Reindeer Section - not to mention frequent…

U2 - In the Name of Love

9 Aug 2009

After 30 years at the top, U2 remain an unstoppable force of live performance, global success and critical relevancy. Ahead of their Glasgow date, we ask some prominent figures in music to describe their relationship with the band and explain their…

Wickerman Festival 2009 - DJ Danny Rampling interview

23 Jul 2009

It might not be on the same scale as T in the Park or Rock Ness but the Wickerman is happily striding forth into its eighth year as an alternative to the many big buck corporate festivals. Wickerman aims to create a friendly atmosphere and a good time…

T in the Park: Soundtrack to the weekend

25 Jun 2009

Friday The whole festival starts in considerable style with The Maccabees and ‘No Kind Words’ before shifting in gloriously mental fashion with ‘Roulette Dares’ by The Mars Volta so sing along now … ‘Exoskeleton, junction at the railroad delayed!…

West side story

25 Jun 2009

For decades, the West End has meant one thing to non-WEndies: Byres Road, and while that esteemed thoroughfare is still geographically pivotal, its tributary roads have formed little communities of their own, each with an increasingly distinctive…

Idlewild

8 Jan 2009

ROCK RESIDENCY This was always going to be a sentimental trip, Idlewild revisiting each of their albums over consecutive nights. In my case, seeing the band for the first time on the 100 Broken Windows tour in 2000 and now again, eight years later…

Idlewild - King Tut's, Glasgow, Wed 17th December 2008

18 Dec 2008

‘I think I just came in my pants!’, bellowed one excitable sort during a lull, and Roddy Woomble treated his well-intentioned contribution with the amused wince it deserved. The band, and particularly the lanky Woomble, are much too polite to get caught…

Hogmanay 2008 - Glasgow Highlights

11 Dec 2008

If the live gigs from Idlewild (pictured below), Bleachie and Paolo Nutini don’t grab you, we’ve got some other suggestions for how to get your Hogmanay kicks around town. Glasgow racks up its cool points (and not just the temperature ones) with…

Idlewild

11 Dec 2008

ROCK RESIDENCY It’s a good time to be an Idlewild fan. For one thing there’s a new album on the way, set to be released in April, and before that we have this one-off run of King Tut’s shows – that’s six brilliant records delivered live, across five…

The importance of being idle

27 Nov 2008

Idlewild have announced plans for fans to get involved in their forthcoming album. Although there will be an album release in the summer, for a limited time, fans can pre-order a special edition album, along with extras. Check out…

Music Like A Vitamin: Vitamin A

23 Oct 2008

Praise should be heaped on Idlewild’s Rod Jones, the man behind Music Like a Vitamin, for organising the double-header of concerts on behalf of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. Thursday’s show, Vitamin A, compered by the…

The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

2 Oct 2008

‘Anyone can suffer from mental health issues, regardless of your walk of life,’ says Idlewild’s Rod Jones, curator of a music evening during the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. ‘It’s something I really wanted to get involved in. It’s…

Exposure - Desalvo

18 Sep 2008

Desalvo’s sound is a furious battle between prog showmanship and math metal technicality, all drenched in black, black humour. Imagine the aural equivalent of watching as that fella in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom tears your heart out and shows…

Idlewild to perform all of their albums live

15 Sep 2008

Idlewild have announced that they are to perform each of their albums in their entirety at dates scheduled for December 2008.