Music

Paolo Nutini

21 Aug 2006

He has some beautiful tunes and cheekbones to match but Mark Robertson reckons Paolo Nutini has what it takes to make the successful transition from aspirant roadie to international superstar. Reclining in the June sunshine on the verdant grass…

Arctic Monkeys

ROCK

26 Apr 2007

The weight of expectation hasn’t affected the Arctic Monkeys one iota. They’ve hardly broken their stride and have tossed off a second album of casual brilliance. It almost feels unfair how off the cuff Favourite Worst Nightmare feels; the lyrics are as…

Madonna to play Hampden?

2 May 2008

Madonna is set to play her first ever Scottish date this year, it has been reported. The 49-year-old singer, whose single with Justin Timberlake '4 Minutes' is currently the number one UK single, has not officially announced the show yet. But it's…

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

The devil plays guitar

13 Nov 2006

Tearing modesty a new asshole, Tenacious D describe themselves as ‘the world’s greatest rock band’. The D’s two members, Jack Black (vocals and rhythm guitar) and Kyle Gass (lead guitar and backing vocals), name check among their inspirations Kiss, Dio…

Retrofest 2008 lineup announced

17 Apr 2008

The bill for Retrofest, Scotland's annual festival of pop nostalgia, has been announced. The event, which moves to a new home at Strathclyde Country Park, Motherwell from its old location at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, is expected to attract 15,000 fans…

2008 Rock Ness line-up unveiled

31 Jan 2008

The picturesque surrounds of Loch Ness are set to host some of the biggest names on the UK rock scene. The Rock Ness music festival, named after its location on the banks of the famous Scottish loch, will showcase top bands, including Editors…

Pete Doherty announces Glasgow Barrowland show

12 May 2008

Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty is out of jail and getting back to doing what he does best: playing live to an adoring audience

Preview of the year 2007

2007 is about the future. And about the past. It’

3 Jan 2007

THE FUTURE Cyberspace invaders We may not be flying around in hover cars or wearing spangly all-silver outfits, but thanks to the internet the future has truly arrived. And the revolution will continue apace in 2007, argues Suzanne Black. A…

Sugababes, The Feeling And Gnarls Barkley to play Princes Street Gardens

9 May 2008

Sugababes, The Feeling And Gnarls Barkley are to perform in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens on Sunday June 1st. The Sugababes, with a line up now consisting of Keisha, Heidi and Amelle, have sold five million albums (including 3 triple-platinum…

Hey You Get Off My Pavement! announces line up

8 May 2008

The best-monikered music festival in Scotland - Hey You Get Off My Pavement! - returns to Glasgow’s King’s Court on 29 June.

Belle & Sebastian revealed as ‘Best Scottish Band of All Time'

1 Jan 2005

After a three-month public vote, Belle & Sebastian were named as the ‘Best Scottish Band Of All Time' at an exclusive Announcement Party at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. The prestigious accolade, sponsored by Orange, was announced in front of an…

Amy Winehouse interview

Life and soul

12 Feb 2007

It’s the morning after the tabloid outrage the night before. The weekend before we meet, Amy Winehouse was due to perform at GAY, the full-on, no-holds-barred club institution in the heart of London. Kylie’s done it with her sister Danni, McFly dropped…

Stereophonics - album review

Indie rock

4 Oct 2007

Although rock’s snootiest critics might have it that The Stereophonics are one of the most blasphemous and superannuated crimes ever inflicted on music, it’s hard to underestimate the value of giving a fanbase what they want. Certainly, the band’s…

Leith Festival announces line up

8 May 2008

Leith provided further evidence of its status as one of the city's most vibrant areas with the launch of its annual festival. Organisers revealed that the Leith Festival would showcase its trademark brew of home grown talent, alongside big name…

The Ting Tings

15 Nov 2007

POWERPOP Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Wed 17 Oct If record labels really must go getting caught up in unseemly ‘bidding wars’, the least they can do is make sure they’re getting a good band. Columbia recently won the squabble for Manchester duo The Ting…

Tom Waits - album review

Tom Waits

27 Nov 2006

UNCLASSIFIABLE When the BBC were planning their resurrection of Jackanory, Tom Waits may well have been on the longlist of proposed readers. But maybe they got wind of his disturbing night-time terror ‘Children’s Story’ and revoked the invite. Like…

Girls Aloud to broadcast concert live to UK cinemas

8 May 2008

Girls Aloud are to broadcast their London concert to 50 Vue cinemas across the UK.

Feist

8 May 2008

One of the founding members of Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene and former flatmate of Peaches, Leslie Fiest is now best known for that video ‘1234’ as featured so ubiquitously in the iPod advert. However this takes nothing away from the simple…

Exposure - No Age

8 May 2008

Set to be the breakthrough band from Los Angeles arts space The Smell, No Age have unleashed a scuzzy noise-pop masterpiece in their Sub Pop debut Nouns. Guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/singer Dean Spunt crank out a joyous racket that suggests a…

US rapper J-Live not playing Glasgow, just Edinburgh

12 May 2008

Further to our announcement that rising NYC rap star J-Live is to come to Scotland this month, we wish to make it clear he is only playing one date, the Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh on Monday 19 May and not, as we previously stated at the Ivy in Glasgow on…

Gregory Isaacs

8 May 2008

REGGAE Citrus Club, Edinburgh, Tue 20 May Born in Kingston Jamaica in 1950, five years after Bob Marley, Gregory Isaacs’ musical trajectory offers a fascinating counterpoint to the beloved Rastafarian musician. While Isaacs’ early inspirations came…

Roisin Murphy

18 Oct 2007

ELECTRO Overpowered (EMI) A love or hatred of Roisin Murphy’s former band aside, there’s no arguing with the fact that this ex-Moloko vocalist currently makes some of the most sophisticated electro pop around. Boasting catchy melodies, demonic…

O2 Undiscovered

8 May 2008

Tell ya, kid. These days, everybody wants to get into showbiz. O2 Undiscovered, which lands in Glasgow this fortnight, is the latest in a fast-growing succession of hands-on networking events offering the public a chance to meet and get advice from…

Bands for T Break 2008 announced

22 Apr 2008

The judging panel of T Break 2008, which launched at the end of February, have made their decision on the 48 acts who will compete in the competition's 2008 heats. The prize on offer to the winning acts will be an opportunity to perform on the T Break…

Sonic Boom Six

8 May 2008

PUNK Barfly, Glasgow, Sun 18 May Less than ten years ago, bassist/vocalist Barney Boom’s only audience were the people who showed up to parties he was MCing at. These days, he’s touring internationally, as part of the Manchester-based quartet, the…

Tinariwen

8 May 2008

Formed in 1982 in Muammar al-Gaddafi’s camps of Tuareg rebels, Tinariwen mix their traditional music Tishoumaren (‘music of the unemployed’), with electric guitars to create world music at its most thrilling aided by a distinct 70s rock edge.

Madonna to play Radio 1's Big Weekend

21 Apr 2008

Madonna has been confirmed as the headliner for Radio 1's Big Weekend 2008 , which will take place at Mote Park in Maidstone, Kent on the weekend of 10 and 11 May. The singer, who won her 13th UK number one single at the weekend, with the Justin…

Cadence Weapon and J-Live

8 May 2008

HIP HOP Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Mon 19 May; The Ivy, Glasgow, Tue 20 May In the space of two albums, Rollie Pemberton (aka Cadence Weapon) has cut a compellingly maverick path across the hip hop landscape. His first record, Breaking Kayfabe, set…

Mark Ronson

28 Jul 2006

We know him as DJ to the stars, a British born Yank who appeared as if from nowhere in 2003 with the chartbusting, floor-filling, hip hop juggernaut ‘Ooh Wee’. There is however, so much more to the pouting crown prince of cool Mark Ronson. Son and heir…

Lily Allen

BACK TO EARTH

27 Feb 2007

Five years ago, when Lily Allen was 16, she was not far from being a teenage waster with the in-built tendencies of a 50-year-old bum down the bookies.

Willard Grant Conspiracy

8 May 2008

Willard Grant Conspiracy, the disparate alt.country band led by the gravel-voiced Robert Fisher numbers in excess of 40 musicians from all over the world. Since Fisher started it all off in 1996, the group’s output has been prolific: seven full albums…

Sexy Kids

18 Oct 2007

INDIE Mono, Glasgow, Mon 8 Oct Glasgow’s Sexy Kids are so brand new they don’t even have a Myspace yet. But trust us, we’d tell you if we knew it. After all, they’ve blessed themselves with just about the last name you want to go googling in good…

T in the Park 2007

19 Jun 2007

In a matter of months Dumfries shelf-stacker Calvin Harris has taken the MySpace-sensation route to universally lauded electro producer, touring with Faithless and being linked professionally and romantically with pop icon Kylie Minogue along the way.

Mark E Smith with Austin Collings - Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E Smith

8 May 2008

MUSIC BIOGRAPHY (Viking) The real joy of Mark E Smith and The Fall has always been expecting the unexpected. His music has always stuck to a rigid formula but is somehow never formulaic, and he’s survived every British musical subculture since punk…

Scottish Arts Council funding shift causes controversy

1 May 2008

A redistribution of Scottish Arts Council funding, announced today, has readjusted the balance of financial power within the Scottish arts. Among those to benefit under the new plans are: Arika , who run experimental music festivals Instal and Kill…

KT Tunstall to play homecoming show at Dunfermline's Alhambra Theatre

24 Apr 2008

Fife singer KT Tunstall is to play a T in the Park warm-up show at Dunfermline's new Alhambra Theatre . This will be only the venue's second show under its current incarnation. The venue, one of Scotland's finest on its opening in 1922, before being…

Horrors, The

The Horrors

21 Nov 2006

5 REASONS TO GO SEE 1 They’re horrible The zombie garage goth rock dafties (Faris ‘Rotter’ Badwan, Tomethy Furse, Joshua von Grimm, Coffin Joe and Spider Webb, apparently) hail from Southend, but look and sound as if they’ve just climbed out of…

KT Tunstall

6 Sep 2007

POP KT Tunstall delared she wanted to make a ‘scuzzy rock’n’roll album’, but teaming up with Steve Osbourne, who has put the gloss on Placebo, Happy Mondays and U2 among others in the past, meant it was never really going to happen. Instead, Tunstall…

Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela

Edinburgh International Festival

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh International Festival Bittersweet symphonies Carol Main meets Gustavo Dudamel, the young maestro behind the world renowned Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, which has transformed the lives of many underprivileged young people in its native…

Vashti Bunyan

Cold comfort

20 Dec 2006

The story behind Vashti Bunyan’s 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day has become legendary. Vashti made her first bid for stardom guided by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham. Her wisp of a voice and tall, elegant beauty suggested she could be an…

First ever Sauchiehall Crawl launches

1 May 2008

On Sunday 1 June, the first-ever Sauchiehall Crawl music festival will take place along Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street. Tickets will cost ú15, and allow fans to pick from 10 different live music acts playing throughout the night in 3 different…

T Break offers new bands chance to play T in the Park

28 Feb 2008

The request for entries for this year’s T Break competition has been made from the organisers of T in the Park. The opportunity to play at T must sit at the top of many young band’s wish list and T Break gives them the chance. If they make it through…

The Easy Star All-Stars

23 Aug 2007

It seems that these days the cover version is more popular among artists and listeners than ever. Mark Ronson’s stone-cold funk renderings have made him friends aplenty (as well as a few enemies), and one cottage label has made the high concept leap…

Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing

2 Jul 2007

DOCUMENTARY When the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks made an off-the-cuff remark at a concert in London in 2003 about the band being ashamed of President Bush coming from their home-state Texas, there’s no way they could have foreseen themselves…

Nick Cave

24 Apr 2008

Nick Cave is in his car. It’s a big car, but no Chelsea tractor. He’s in the driving seat, howling madly along with the bombast blaring out of the speakers. This isn’t a cruise down endless stretches of autobahn, freeways of America or through the arid…

Connect Festival: Music, massages and mud, glorious mud

3 Sep 2007

Connect Festival, Inverarary Castle, Sunday. Festival gossip has it that Mike D from the Beastie Boys took a shine to the castle and challenged the Duke of Argyll to a duel. Jarvis Cocker is acclaimed as the best thing about Friday by fans still…

Sounds of the City

Hey You Get Off My Pavement

1 Aug 2007

Fed up wading through the mud and the crowds at major music festivals? Karin Goodwin gets the lowdown on an innovative alternative and finds there is a whole lot going on in Glasgow this summer

Meow Meow in Beyond Glamour: The Absinthe Tour

1 Aug 2007

‘It’s sequins and razors, my darling. That’s what my show’s about,’ explains Meow Meow, who deems her real name and place of origin ‘simply not necessary’ to the conversation. It is, she coos in a faint Aussie drawl, ‘all about the art.’. . .

Agyness Deyn to release single

28 Apr 2008

Supermodel Agyness Deyn is to release a single with the band Five O'Clock Heroes on 23 June. Deyn sings on the track Who and also appears in the video, both of which were recorded in New York. The collaboration came about after Deyn heard a demo of…

The Zombies announce album and UK tour

17 Apr 2008

Classic 60s rockers The Zombies have announced a greatest hits album and UK tour, which will include a date at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall on 15 May. The band, from St Alban's in England, became highly-regarded between during the 60s for songs like…