Idlewild

Drever McCusker Woomble - Before the Ruin

4 Sep 2008

The crossing of normally disparate musical boundaries is always to be applauded, although it’s not automatically the green light to genius that reviewers sometimes make out. This collaboration from two generations of folkies – Kris Drever and John…

West End Festival

5 Jun 2008

Best for al fresco frolicking There is of course more to the West End Festival than Scotland’s Mardi Gras (pictured), but the impact of 500+ musicians and costumed revellers stopping traffic on Byres Road (Sun 15 Jun) is not to be sniffed at. Propping…

Tigerfest

8 May 2008

This year’s Tigerfest once again brings some of the most exciting Scottish acts to Dunfermline and Fife, but also branches out with gigs in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Names like Twilight Sad, Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake and Paul Haig will all be gracing…

New gigs announced, 2 May - Paul Weller, White Lies and more

2 May 2008

Some more freshly-announced Scottish gigs to consider over the weekend: Paul Weller will be playing Glasgow SECC on 14 November. Tickets are on sale now. White Lies , who play the NME New Noise Tour next week, return to Glasgow with a date in…

Tartan Heart Festival returns in August

24 Apr 2008

Following its success last year, the Tartan Heart Festival returns to Beauly in Inverness-shire on 8–9 Aug. Among the acts confirmed thus far are Scouting for Girls, The Waterboys, Idlewild, Edwyn Collins and Nouvelle Vague.

Waterboys set for top billing at Tartan Heart

15 Apr 2008

He's a singer, he's a songwriter and he can play almost as many instruments as the London Symphony Orchestra. Now Mike Scott is set to top the bill with his band Waterboys at the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival in Inverness-shire. Joining them…

Idlewild, Paul Haig and Twilight Sad to headline Tigerfest

4 Mar 2008

Organisers of Dunfermline’s own mini-festival Tigerfest have announced that Idlewild are among the headliners for their month-long series of shows in May this year. Around 20 bands will play in venues across Dunfermline between 2 and 30 May.

Hogmanay in Glasgow and Edinburgh 2008

13 Dec 2007

Kirstin Innes looks at the options for celebrating Hogmanay in Glasgow this year while Allan Radcliffe discovers the traditional meeting the contemporary in a diverse programme of events for the capital’s Hogmanay.

Music DVD Round-Up

15 Nov 2007

Oasis show their capacity to entertain remains undiminished on Lord Don’t Slow Me Down (Sony) ••• which follows Noel and Co round the world on the tour to support Don’t Believe the Truth. More accurately it shows the relentlessness and tedium of touring…

Idlewild

18 Oct 2007

ROCK A Distant History (Parlophone) Ask anyone who’s ever poured over Cure outtakes or Pulp B-sides. When you get to know a band’s back catalogue intimately, after time it’s the bits in between that hold the greatest fascination. After ten years…

Idlewild

23 Aug 2007

‘We’ve always been the band of bad timing, haven’t we?’ laughs Idlewild singer Roddy Woomble. ‘We’re perennially called underachievers or underdogs, because we’ve always put out records that are out of sync with what’s being played on the radio. We’re…

Ballads of the Book

16 Aug 2007

The relationship between music and literature has always been a strong and natural one, but never has that bond been tighter than with the Ballads of the Book project. Described by Chemikal Underground as a ‘meteoric creative hoopla’, it brought…

Idlewild - album review

IDLEWILD

13 Feb 2007

ROCK (Sequel) Around the time of his folky solo project’s first release, Roddy Woomble hinted at a return to heavy music for his main band Idlewild. And boy was he right. Make Another World sees the Edinburgh quintet get back to blasting out…

Singles and downloads

Singles and downloads

13 Feb 2007

An almighty Single of the Fortnight has this reviewer’s eager digits already itching to rattle off their glowing textual praise. But first credit where it’s due to some of the largely stiff short-playing competition coming your way in the next 14 days…

Singles & downloads

3 Jan 2007

With the annual Christmas bunfight over with, January always provides space for some decent songs to come to the fore. Step up Amy Winehouse featuring Ghostface Killah (now there’s a date to gooseberry) with ‘You Know I’m No Good’ (Island - 3 stars), a…

Idlewild

(15) 121min

2 Oct 2006

GANGSTER There is a tendency in African American cinema and culture (think Chester Himes novels) to romanticise the 1930s, a world depicted in Harlem Nights, Cotton Comes to Harlem and the first hour of Malcolm X as a time of black gangsters that…

Dispatch - Roddy Woomble

Roddy Woomble ponders the big birthday question: a

4 Sep 2006

I never really ever expect anything for my birthday, which is why in recent years I’ve been unexpectedly surprised and delighted by the way things have turned out. This year I spent it on a beach in Iona, eating banana and pineapple birthday cake, then…