Music and Previews

Ride the RockNess Express - train details

The Express will pick up festival goers from London, Birmingham, Derby, York and Newcastle

8 May 2012

As part of the Year of Creative Scotland, RockNess are offering a unique (and environmentally friendly) way to the festival site on the banks of Loch Ness. Picking up passengers from London, Birmingham, Derby, York and Newcastle before dropping them off…

Interview with New Order drummer Stephen Morris and guitarist Phil Cunningham

The reunited music icons on playing live and the importance of arguing

26 Apr 2012

New Order are back, and it’s as if they never went away. Are you enjoying it Stephen Morris, drummer and longest continuously-serving member alongside Bernard Sumner? ‘Yeah, it’s been great,’ he says from his house/studio just outside Macclesfield…

Five reasons to go and see Tim Hecker

The electronica artist is appearing at church venues in Edinburgh and Glasgow in May

23 Apr 2012

1. Celebrate the death of rave At least according to Hecker’s new album: the wonderfully-titled Ravedeath, 1972, a lush assembly of droning, dream-like electronic soundscapes which builds upon the work he’s been creating for the last two decades, both…

Interview: Ben Sims gets ready for RockNess 2012

The techno DJ/producer among names added to festival bill

13 Apr 2012

DJ Ben Sims has been announced for 2012’s RockNess festival, where he joins Soma Records on the Arcadia UFO stage. With over 20 years of DJ experience, running his own Theory label (among others), he’s renowned for his DJ skills using vinyl, CD and…

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Third Annual Wide Days Seminar

3 Apr 2012

Following on from successes in 2010 and 2011, the informal music conference, slash industry showcase that is Wide Days returns – with seminars for those wanting to get in to the music business during the day, followed by live performances and showcases…

Interview: Andrew Weatherall set for RockNess 2012

Esteemed DJ and producer on A Love From Outer Space and festivals

30 Mar 2012

Andrew Weatherall is just one of the new announcements for 2012’s RockNess line-up where he’ll be joining Soma Records who are taking control of the new Arcadia UFO. It’s a Scottish Festival exclusive as he’s joined by Sean Johnston as they present an…

5 reasons to go and see OFWGKTA

Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All set to play O2 ABC gig

27 Mar 2012

1. We might find out what they are Are they an ironic comedy hip hop troupe? Or are they a wilfully nasty, relentlessly violent, misogynistic and homophobic throwback whose goofy nonsense just happens to distil the finest styles of rap created in the…

Colette Thurlow of 2:54 - interview

The indie singer/guitarist discusses sibling bandmates and significant influences

27 Mar 2012

Like a louchely worn black leather jacket, moody guitar music will never go out of fashion – see 2:54 for proof on both counts. Having toured with Warpaint and The Big Pink since emerging a year ago, the London four-piece based around sisters Colette…

SMC to host Composition Marathon

Event at the Scottish Music Centre to feature performances from Daniel's Beard, Pure Brass and more

8 Mar 2012

To commission ten composers at the same time to write a new work each is quite an undertaking. To ask them all to do it in the space of only twelve hours could be verging on insanity, especially as none of the ten will have an inkling of which…

Dub/electronic/experimental act Hype Williams to play Glasgow's SWG3

The London duo marry a shadowy stage presence with engaging tunes

29 Feb 2012

The List once saw Hype Williams perform entirely hidden behind a white bedsheet. It was like a Poundstretcher version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall but with an added fug of skunk. The duo, Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland, revel in this sort of batshit chicanery…

Florence & The Machine and Noel Gallagher to play T in the Park 2012

The Vaccines, The Maccabees and The Horrors also on bill

21 Feb 2012

DF Concerts and Tennent’s Lager today unveiled that Florence and the Machine and Noel Gallagher’s Flying Birds will be two of the big acts playing at Balado this summer. Flame-haired and big-lunged star Florence had her second full-length record…

Five picks from Celtic Connections 2012

Featuring Zoe Muth, Jack Bruce, King Creosote and Jon Hopkins and Vieux Farka Touré

6 Jan 2012

Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers The year in Americana 2011 belongs to Gillian Welch and the release of her album The Harrow & the Harvest, but amongst a promising field of young female country singers, Zoe Muth stands out. With her ear for an instant…

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy to play Celtic Connections set

Some facts you may not know about Will Oldham's alterego

6 Jan 2012

1. This will be first Scottish performance in over five years The music of Will Oldham (aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy) has haunted independent music for over two decades now, through various monikers (Palace Music, Palace Brothers, Palace Songs to name a…

The Captain’s Collection

Matthew Zajac of Dogstar Theatre to play Gaelic music preservationist Captain Simon Fraser

19 Dec 2011

The latest production from Inverness-based company Dogstar is a rich tale about a composer and former British Army officer who courts fame by publishing his volumes of Highland music. The piece, which is being performed in Glasgow as part of Celtic…

New Year in Vienna and A Viennese New Year

Austrian-themed classical concerts by the SCO and RSNO

13 Dec 2011

What would New Year music be without Vienna? No matter how many times orchestras sail up and down the Beautiful Blue Danube, pop the corks in the Champagne Polka or waltz their way through the overture to Die Fledermaus, audiences flock to hear their…

Numbers discuss the club/brand's New Year plans

Hogmanay celebrations in both Edinburgh and Glasgow lie ahead

13 Dec 2011

It’s been another good year for Glasgow’s ever-growing clubbing export Numbers. So big, in fact, that they need a whole three cities to contain their send-off to 2011. First they’ll be warming up with a set at Edinburgh’s Sneaky Pete’s the night before…

Com Truise - profile

Seth Haley (under his synth-pop pseudonym) gears up to play Sneaky Pete's

16 Nov 2011

Who: No, not the one married to Hatie Kolmes. Com Truise is the alias of Seth Haley, the New Jersey based producer behind this summer’s sublime Galactic Melt; his debut album, and one of this year’s finest, most addictive electronic synth-pop…

Wake the President - Zumutung!

Harder, more mature songwriting on Glasgow duo's second album

15 Nov 2011

(We Can Still Picnic) An improvement from their first album You Can't Change That Boy in 2009, Wake the President have taken a harder, more mature songwriting approach on new album Zumutung!. Twin brothers hailing from Glasgow, Erik and Bjorn…

Sonic Youth founder Thurston Moore brings his fourth solo album to Glasgow

We look back on the career of the legendary DIY music icon

15 Nov 2011

Once upon a time in Stirling, a counter-cultural icon walked among the people and played his guitar and snapped up their Scottish country dance records. The year was 2005, when Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore came to the central belt to perform at…

Eat, sleep and breathe: The Drums

The Brooklyn indie-poppers' guitarist Jacob Graham lets us in on his tour-time eating habits

15 Nov 2011

What time is breakfast? Whenever I wake up. Usually around 9.30 or 10am. But going through time zones can mess that up. Tea or coffee? I’ve never really gotten into either. I do like hot chocolate though. Smoking or non-smoking? Non.

Ever been to a silent disco with a Chinese dragon?

25 Oct 2011

Ever explored a museum at night? Ever had a cocktail surrounded by thousands of years of history? Ever been to a silent disco with a Chinese dragon? Thanks to the support of RBS and The List, the National Museum of Scotland is bringing you an exclusive…

Azari & III - Don't call them house revivalists

Toronto-based act favour Roland drum machines, crisp piano loops and emotional lyrics

21 Oct 2011

Is it too soon for a house music revival? That’s the question The List is mulling over ahead of speaking to self-proclaimed ‘house music aficionados’ Azari & III. The Toronto-based band, comprising producers Dinamo Azari and Alixander III and vocalists…

Eat, sleep and breathe: Twin Sister

The dream-pop quintet's guitarist Eric Cardona explains the band’s on-the-road eating habits

20 Oct 2011

What time is breakfast? Usually around 10 or 11 we are locating a Denny’s. Tea or coffee? Lately, it’s been coffee again. Not at Denny’s though. Too much water. One good cup a day. Smoking or non-smoking? Non-smoking for three of us…

The Stone Roses reform to play dates at Manchester's Heaton Park in summer 2012

19 Oct 2011

As you’ve no doubt heard, yet another cornerstone of the British music establishment has chosen to dust off its bucket hat and have it large with a reunion tour. This is no ordinary by-the-numbers reformation, though. This is The Stone Roses. Capable…

DJ Yogi Haughton presents Scottish Soulful Weekender

Dumfries event features Todd Terry, Kerri Chandler and Joey Negro

18 Oct 2011

A weekend of soul music held at a hotel in Dumfries & Galloway sounds almost like a niche market event, a retro get-together for old school Northern Soul junkies to relive the glory days. Yet Yogi Haughton, the promoter of the first Scottish Soulful…

Profile: Moritz Von Oswald

Rare live show from minimal techno pioneer in association with club night Animal Farm

6 Oct 2011

This Saturday sees one the most important and legendary figures in electronic music, Moritz Von Oswald, play a rare, pre-Subculture live set with Tikiman, organized jointly by Animal Farm and the Sub Club. An established percussionist for the likes of…

Family Fun Music Day

Programme of music events aimed at opening up the Glasgow Concert Halls to younger music-lovers

19 Sep 2011

Mission Impossible-style light beams that play musical notes as you cross them, a giant labyrinth of music and light, and a dark room filled with scary sounds – hardly business as usual at Glasgow’s City Halls. Organised by Svend Brown, director of…

5 Things: the changing faces of Bob Dylan

Our five favourite versions of the man born Robert Zimmerman

19 Sep 2011

Folk Dylan Became the poster boy for protest music with album and song The Times They Are a-Changin’ in 1964. Electric Dylan Enraged the folky masses by plugging in for ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ in 1965. Allen Ginsberg pushed a broom in the…

Bob Dylan set for 2011 UK tour

Dates in Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham, Cardiff and Bournemouth

14 Sep 2011

Rock stars, like canines, maintain strange relationships with the tally of the passing years. The job is viable till the moment the performer hits 60, at which point the shade of pensioner-hood lowers like showers on a Bank Holiday weekend. We’re…

Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

Annual arts festival returns for biggest year yet

13 Sep 2011

Unless you’ve been gently nestled under some rock for the past several years, you will probably be aware of the annual autumnal arts treat that is the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival (SMHAFF). This year’s brochure boasts almost 300 events…

Electric Frog September Weekender 2011

Frankie Knuckles, The Fall, Jeff Mills, Mogwai, and Joe Claussell feature in stellar line-up

25 Aug 2011

Whoever chose to carry out some large-scale maintenance at their Eastvale Place business premises on the last weekend of July has inadvertently done Glasgow’s clubbing fraternity a favour. It might have meant the planned Electric Frog Summer Weekender…

Music Is The Music Language

Festival of the experimental and esoteric

25 Aug 2011

Music Is The Music Language, a two day festival organised by DIY promoters Cry Parrot and Tracer Trails, is testament to the vibrancy of Scotland’s underground music scene. ‘Underground music is strongest and most exciting where and when the values…

Classics at Greyfriars set for 2011 Edinburgh Fringe

Beethoven concert series with church backdrop

10 Aug 2011

Taking advantage of the unique way that music can be presented in the context of a festival, Greyfriars Kirk (at the top of Candlemaker Row) is presenting all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas and string quartets over the course of a new two-week long series…

How to Dress Well - Tom Krell interview

Tom Krell on of many reinventing solo songwriting

3 Aug 2011

This is getting to be a trend. Where young men with an indie sensibility used to express themselves by picking up an acoustic guitar and letting it all out, a new generation disguise their fragile falsettos with a wash of reverberating electronic…

Interview: Oneohtrix Point Never

Psychedelic synths and drones from experimental electronica-lord, Daniel Lopatin

2 Aug 2011

Name Daniel Lopatin Job title Musician, label owner Where are you just now? Brooklyn, NY. What are you doing/ going to do today? Finish the track arrangement for the upcoming OPN record. Do you enjoy touring? I do, I didn't always. It…

Nicolas Jaar interview - Electronic pop artist on UK tour

NY-based experimental DJ and head of the Clown and Sunset label

27 Jul 2011

Trends bloom and wither fast in the fragmented landscape of modern music, and most die out without ever seeing the light of the popular consciousness. In the high-turnover world of electronic music this ephemeral air is accelerated, although it’s…

King Tut’s Summer Nights series of gigs

Local heroes including Song of Return and Meursault line-up for Tut's fortnight-long season of gigs

21 Jul 2011

‘Britain’s Best Small Venue’ – as voted last month by the NME but perhaps better known to Glasgow music-loving punters as plain old ‘King Tut’s’ – continues its successful run of seasonal live programmes with this month’s second annual ‘Summer Nights…

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - A potted history

The post-rock deities set for 2011 UK tour

13 Jul 2011

One should never underestimate the power of the bagpipe. It played a key role, after all, in F# A# ∞ (F-sharp, A-sharp, Infinity) – the official debut from Canadian post-rock deities Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The anarchic, enigmatic (not to…

Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2011 - Fact file

The display of massed military viewed by 100 million people annually

8 Jul 2011

1 The Edinburgh Tattoo first took place in 1950. It was first shown on colour television in 1968. 2The word 'tattoo' comes from the old Dutch phrase 'doe den tap toe', meaning 'turn off the taps', which was a call used at closing time in 17th century…

Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival 2011 - highlights

Tommy Smith, Courtney Pine, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and more

8 Jul 2011

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble A high energy blend of New Orleans horns and live hip hop beats, this Chicago nine-piece return to raise the Spiegeltent from its moorings. Barack Obama, Jay-Z and David Byrne are among the fans of this exciting block party…

Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2011 - Highlights

Brass bands on bikes among highlights of music extravaganza

8 Jul 2011

Have you ever wondered if you are a 'Bad Scot'? If soor plooms, Mel Gibson's take on William Wallace, dodgy recitals of Burns' poems and other things associated with stereotypical Jock culture make you recoil like a moggie from a festering puddle, you…

Trombone Shorty profile - Edinburgh Jazz Festival 2011

Youthful jazz pioneer and composer set for Edinburgh date

8 Jul 2011

'Oooooh! Trombone Shorty! My man!' This is how the 25-year-old jazz musician from New Orleans is greeted by fellow (and fictitious) horn player Antoine Batiste in David Simon's new HBO television show, Treme. Simon's follow-up to his hard-hitting cop…

Amjad Ali Khan to perform set of morning ragas on sarod at EIF 2011

Edinburgh 11am concert accompanied by Ravi Shankar's evening ragas

7 Jul 2011

The sarod may not be as familiar an instrument to western audiences as the sitar made famous by Ravi Shankar, but virtuoso player Amjad Ali Khan is happy to establish its proper context. 'Ravi Shankar's teacher was a sarod player,' says Khan on the line…

Theatre, music and dance highlights from the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Semiramide and King Lear among picks

7 Jul 2011

The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) has been a benchmark for quality and innovation in the performing arts since its inauguration nearly 65 years ago. This year artistic director Jonathan Mills builds his programme around the multi-faceted…

Seven Angels opera tackles Paradise Lost

Composer Luke Bedford uses Milton’s epic to explore envorinmental themes

29 Jun 2011

According to Wikipedia, there are over ten thousand individual lines of verse in Milton’s Paradise Lost. That’s a bit much for an opera. So, for his new Seven Angels, leading young British composer Luke Bedford uses Milton’s epic as the starting point…

Bikini Machine compose a 'cinéconcert' score for Desperado

24 Jun 2011

Each year, the French Institute for Scotland takes part in the Edinburgh International Film Festival and strives to bring the media of music and film together to form one piece of intercontinental art. This year, the Institute have invited five…

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo set for Glasgow Jazz festival date

West African afro-beat band tour their new album Cotonou Club

23 Jun 2011

The influential West African band have set a series of tour dates circling the UK this summer, visiting Glasgow for the first time in the 30-plus years that they have been a band. Having formed in the late 60s, they have accumulated a collection of…

Interview: Katy B on bringing everything to RockNess - including the kitchen sink

The chart-friendly, female face of dubstep

27 May 2011

‘When I was 13, listening to Choice FM, I would listen to a lot of R&B from America, and whenever a British person tried to do it, it didn’t really work, they just sounded like they were trying to copy that whole style. Now the music sounds British…

RockNess 2011: Bus times, line-up and stages

New stages, weekend highlights and travel times

27 May 2011

RockNess have laid on three brand new arenas for 2011. Firstly, the Rock’n’Roll Circus will showcase cutting-edge music and comedy talent from the likes of Jamie Woon and The Cuban Brothers. Secondly, Glasgow clubbing institution Sub Club will present…

Interview: Glasvegas - Rab Allan on being older, wiser and stronger in 2011

Glasgow band talk to us ahead of their main stage slot at RockNess

27 May 2011

‘My head wasn’t in a very good place either. My head was up my arse. I didn’t really know what was happening. I was just as bad as he was,’ explains Glasvegas guitarist Rab Allan with a nervous laugh. He’s referring to frontman (and Rab’s cousin) James…