Rob St John

Rob St John, Banshee Labyrinth, Sat 18 Feb

Intimate gig from a new breed of folk troubadour

8 Mar 2012

The first thing to note about the venue for Rob St John’s sell-out gig is how dark, small and shivery it is – it's basically a subterranean cavern which fits perfectly with the haunted alt-folk to come. Support, marred slightly by sound issues, comes…

Rob St John - Weald

Forceful mix of melancholy and otherworldly rapture

10 Nov 2011

(Song, by Toad) Forget the much misused ‘F-word’. Rob St John is miles better than that, and putting a full electric band behind his whey-faced Lancastrian intonations has put muscle and guts on his musings. Yet for all the low-key chorales…

Retreat IV - Pilrig St Paul’s Church, Edinburgh, Sat 27 & Sun 28 Aug 2011

Glorious fourth appearance from the indie DIY pop fest

1 Sep 2011

All Sunday afternoons should be like the one at this year’s Retreat DIY pop festival: tea in our hands, bacon rolls in our bellies, and eagleowl gently blowing our minds. That was before a toddler joined them onstage and stole our hearts; before the…

Edinburgh's Retreat festival 2011

A fine August ending to Edinburgh’s annual festival hoopla

27 May 2011

It’ll be the fourth year running for the pocket-sized festival, which the organisers describe as ‘an independent micro music festival celebrating Edinburgh’s contribution to the international pop underground.’ And by ‘pop underground’, last year that…

The best Christmas gigs in Edinburgh and Glasgow

Burns, Zombie Nation, Ballboy and Broken Records among Christmas party gig highlights

10 Dec 2010

Stars In Their Eyes special/ Song, By Toad’s Christmas party/ Kid Canaveral’s Christmas Baubles/ Death Disco’s XXXmas Party/ Radio Magnetic’s Winter Rave/ Mungo’s Hi-Fi/ Bill Wells’ Black Christmas In a bygone olden, golden era – circa 1995 BC…

Withered Hand and Meursault head up Edinburgh's Retreat!

Home-grown, DIY city festival, in a church

24 Aug 2010

As we stagger, tired and bewildered, in the twilight of this year’s Edinburgh Festival, there’s a DIY pop haven on the horizon, and it’s got all of our names on it. It’s locally-sourced, it’s BYOB and it’s for all ages. Its name is Retreat. Sorry…

Retreat!

A mini-festival of fantastically named locally sourced indie

6 Aug 2009

Shopping local is even better when it’s free. So it goes with the second edition of Retreat!, a bijou DIY all-day smorgasbord of 14 acts, many of whom are culled from Edinburgh’s fertile lo-fi anti-folk circuit. Rather than hosting a slew of drippy boys…

Rough Cut Nation

Music meets art uptown

29 Jul 2009

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…

Exposure: Rob St John

27 Feb 2009

Buried deep within Edinburgh's ever-evolving folk movement (a scene now boasting the likes of eagleowl and Meursault), Rob St. John, complete with his band of like-minded minimalists, has been pleasing many an ear with Last year's Like Alchemy EP and…

Singles & Downloads

8 Jan 2009

My New Year’s resolution was to give all music the benefit of the doubt but Travis are making it difficult. According to their press release they’re now at their ‘loudest, edgiest and most arresting’ since their debut. If only that description bore any…

Adrian Crowley, Doogie Paul and Rob St John

Tracer Trails @ Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 9 N

6 Dec 2006

FOLK A rare Edinburgh appearance from Irish singer songwriter Adrian Crowley always promised to be special, particularly in combination with an even rarer (if slightly chilly) choice of venue and a pair of fine local supports. Rob St John was…