Music, Previews, Issue 635

One More Tune turns two

The folk behind the sound talk to David Pollock about difficult beginnings

It’s overplaying things to describe it as a rags-to-riches tale, but Matthew Craig’s career as a DJ and promoter on the Glasgow circuit has come a long way since he started putting on One More Tune (alongside Ralph Thomson, who he DJs with as Define…

Baptiste Trotignon

Sometimes the setting is everything, and for one of the real Edinburgh Jazz Festival highlights this year, the programmers have taken the ingenious step of putting French pianist Trotignon in the hallowed environs of Rosslyn Chapel. Trotignon has shown…

Kilmarnock Edition Festival

Kilmarnock might not be the first place you think of as Scotland’s musical Mecca, but the Kilmarnock Edition Festival is aiming to redress the balance. Centring around Dean Castle there are free gigs (featuring the likes of Pearl & the Puppets and El…

The Heptones

Formed in Jamaica in 1965 The Heptones were one of the top vocal groups of the rocksteady era. Working with names like Coxsone Dodds and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry back in the day they reunited in 1995 and have been bringing real reggae back to the live…

Rough Cut Nation

Music meets art uptown

Gallery gigs are ordinarily bespoke, underground shop-front affairs that flaunt their art-rock credentials like billy-o. The renovation of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery has allowed some of that DIY spirit to mess up its normally plush interior…

5 reasons to go and see: Tartan Heart Festival - Belladrum 2009

1: The best new music in Scotland. Now in its sixth year, this perfectly formed Highland shindig outside Inverness has always been a champion of new Scottish music. This year is no exception, with The Phantom Band, Dananananakroyd, Unicorn Kid, St…

Dub Syndicate

Sci-fi wall wobblers

Anyone who witnessed former Pop Group vocalist Mark Stewart with ex-Sugarhill house band The Maffia play Edinburgh last year with seminal producer and On-U Sound head honcho Adrian Sherwood manning the controls will probably still be wondering where on…

Barbara Morrison

Ebullient and expressive jazz singer

Los Angeles-based singer Barbara Morrison has been a popular visitor to Scotland in recent years, and settles in to a Fringe residency via a couple of outings within the Jazz Festival programme. Raised in Michigan, she has an ebullient, wise-cracking…

Shooglenifty at the Fringe - Keep on Shooglin’

When Shooglenifty burst onto the Scottish folk scene in the early 90s playing their radical new take on traditional music-meets-club culture (quickly dubbed ‘acid croft’), their impact was enormous. According to co-founder Garry Finlayson, there was no…

Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra

Burns meets big band jazz

The second of the Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra’s two concerts turns from familiar ground with Duke Ellington into rather more uncharted waters. Robert Burns has been even more ubiquitous than usual in the course of this 250th anniversary year, but…

Out of the bag - Dead Cat Bounce

They may have upset everyone at Mo Mowlam’s memorial gig but Dead Cat Bounce are now flying high

If you’ve never actually met rock’n’roll sketch band Dead Cat Bounce, you could be forgiven for thinking that these guitar-wielding Dubliners occupy a place so far ahead of the curve that they’re on the outermost tip of the zeitgeist’s serrated edge.

A-Team - The Musical

Pity the poor fool who misses out on scoring a ticket to this musical version of the legendary 80s TV adventure series about a quartet of ex-crack commandos-turned-mercenaries. So, can Faceman hold a tune? How are Hannibal’s harmonies? What’s BA’s…