Gig Listings 23rd – 29^th September

Hello! There is a very international flavour to the gigs in Edinburgh this week. Auld Reekie plays host to a Maltese Death Metal band (Abysmal Torment), Norwegian Punk (Honningbarna), French Indie-Pop (Melanie Pain) and intentionally absurd Ska music from the Balkans (Bobok). Incidentally, Bobok claim that some of their music is inspired by “the absence of bananas in Siberian concentration camps” – obviously a burning issue in North Eastern Europe. Furthermore, some very big fish in the music world stop by to share their talent with us. English Folkster Laura Marling, US Guitar Virtuoso Joe Bonamassa, Brit-Pop survivor Tim Burgess and Scottish Album of the Year award winner RM Hubbert are all in town this week. Some head scratching decision making and rearranging of diaries appears to be in store for all of us. Happy Gigging!

Monday 23^rd

The Primitives

Electric Circus 7pm £10

Fighting Fiction

Opium 7.30pm

Coldroad, Kings Gambit & Southpaws

Bannermans Rock Club 8pm £5

Akord, Mountains Under Oceans, We came From The North & Alphasky

Sneaky Pete’s 7pm

Lach’s Antihoot Open Stage

Henry’s Cellar Bar 7.30pm Free

Tuesday 24^th

Honningbarna

Electric Circus 7pm £6

Joe Bonamassa

The Edinburgh Playhouse 7pm £36-£76

Sarah Slean & Unkle Bob

The Voodoo Rooms 7.30pm £10

Violent Whispers, Lieutenant Tango & The Diversions

Whistlebinkies 8pm Free

Larsa

Leith Folk Club (Victoria House Hotel) 7.30pm £7

Wednesday 25^th

Laura Marling

Usher Hall 7pm £17.50

Tim Burgess, Hatcham Social &Velveteen Saints

The Pleasance 7.30pm £15.50

Beans On Toast

The Voodoo Rooms £7.30pm £6

Hanzel Und Gretel, Deadcell & Metaltech

Bannermans Rock Club 8pm £9

Chris Finn, Tombstone & Splendid Gentlemen

Whistlebinkies 7pm Free

Thursday 26^th

RM Hubbert, Aidan Moffat & Craig B

Electric Circus 7pm £8

Bobok

Wee Red Bar 7pm £5

Abysmal Torment, Inveracity & Neuroma

Bannermans Rock Club 8pm £10

Trace Bundy & Kat Healy

The Voodoo Rooms 7.30pm £9

Future Heroes

The Jazz Bar 11.30pm £3

Friday 27^th

The Media Whores, The New Shmoo, Satellites, The Minionz, Columbia, The Signals, High Priority & Bond Jovi

The Liquid Room £5 6pm

Gerry Jablonski And The Electric Band & Main Street Blues

The Voodoo Rooms 7.30pm £8.50

Harvey Lanes, Cowboy Horrorshow & Dancing Mice

Henry’s Cellar Bar 7pm £5

AC Rid, The Omega Corridor & RJ Feathers Blues Band

Wee Red Bar 7pm £5

Billy Letford, The Wellgreen & Linden

Summerhall (The Meadows) 7pm £7

Saturday 28^th

The Wynd

Henry’s Cellar Bar 7pm £5

Ben Poole

Bannermans Rock Club 8pm £8

Melanie Pain

Voodoo Rooms 7.30pm £12

Shock And Awe

Citrus Club 7pm £5

Led Astray

Electric Circus 7pm £8

Sunday 29^th

John Gomm & Kat Healy

Voodoo Rooms 7.30pm £10

Spirit Kick, Rothschilde & Southpaws

Whistlebinkies 9pm Free

Cranachan

Bannermans Rock Club 3pm Free

Bedford Falls

Barony Bar 7.30pm Free

Joanna & Ged Milroy

Dalriada 3pm Free

Posted by James Scott

Well… I am not going to write about everything I did, rather I am going to write about what I can remember. Linkylea is a small boutique festival situated for the first time this year in Coulstoun Estate, near Haddington. It has been running for about nine years and it’s a charity festival with all the profits going to disadvantaged children and young adults in Gwalior, India – so far it has raised around £35000.

Its run from Friday teatime till the wee small hours, and Saturday all day till about 3am. You can camp from Friday till Sunday morning, or drop in fresh and clean for Saturday when the festival is in full swing. On site there are two stages for bands, a dance tent and several other activities and stalls for adults and kids. I could only make it for a couple of hours on Friday night which was a real shame, but I did catch Jamie & Shoony who were fantastic. They are Radio Forth’s “one to watch” of 2012, and you can see why as they have great stage presence and some really catchy tunes. I caught up with “&” from Jamie & Shoony, who is drummer Richard Neil, and hopefully Feast will be doing some recording with these guys soon.

Later on I had a wander around and caught up with a few of the bands playing on Friday and Saturday and most of them were camping despite the torrential rain on Friday night. I also popped into the dance tent and caught up with the Chappel Perilous Sound System crew who have had a busy summer supplying their humungous sound system for Linkylea, Audiosoup and Glastonbury. I was really disappointed not to the catch Battle of the Zoo later but they were on well past my bedtime. I heard they had an absolute blinder of a set.

I arrived on Saturday to sunshine and I managed to stay for about 7 hours and catch so much more that Friday. I saw a few songs by Folk Rag who had some beautifully crafted songs with truly lovely vocals and harmonies from Pete and Lisalot. I chatted to David from the band and again we are looking forward to working with these guys in the future. I also had the pleasure of bumping into promoter Steven Mackay who is always great company and always involved in looking for new music. He introduced me to Georgia Gordon who has a wonderful voice and played a sweet set .If you are a sucker for singer/songwriters, Georgia is very good indeed. I couldn’t be everywhere at once and there were just too many musicians I missed. Shuna Cook got great feedback when I asked around and I look forward to hear more of her stuff when it comes out – she could be one to watch.

Feast had brought a couple of bands to the festival and I cannot over-emphasize how good they both were. When Man of Moon played they created such a spell on the audience that by the end there was a crowd chant of their name. Mike and Chris are such talented song writers and musicians and Feast is really looking forward to working with them on a couple of videos and their debut E.P. which should be coming out early next year.

Redolent rather honourably swapped sets with Man of Moon due to Chris having to split early.  Three of the band had camped on Wet Friday but this had not dampened their spirits. By the time they came on at 7pm, they hit the ground running. I have seen them about three times and they have only played about 20 gigs. Even still, they are getting better each time. Still a wee bit shy onstage but with such great sounding tracks and skill they just keep getting better and better. I know I am a sucker for new music with strong vocals and layers of talent because that what Redolent have.  The front of house mix by Brian Jones (an ex-student of Edinburgh College) was the best I have heard from these guys, and it made all their songs sound magnificent.

There were so many other highlights from Linkylea but I am sorry to say I missed the Stagger Rats, the Merrylees and the Victorian Trouts which was a real shame. You can never catch all the bands you want when you go to a festival.

I would like to thank so many people for making Linklylea so brawsome; Bonnie , Callum, Granny Radge, and many more,  have wokered so hard to built such a cool festival.

I would however like to give special thanks to all the students and ex-students from Edinburgh College who did such a good job running the sound for both tents, playing on stage, and photographing the whole thing. You know who you are and you were all great.

I salute you all and look forward to keeping on working together. Well done.ß

If you look at the picture that come with press pack the untrained eye can spot a few tell tall signs that the band like to party. Beer in hand, an emptied glass on the floor, a discreet hip flask. All the band are smoking and I think one of them might be wearing a fur coat with not much else on. I am not sure if this is a pre-party shot are this is how the guys look after a 24 hour bender, cause I know Pirate Sons can play hard. I think they can party hard as well.

They have built up a solid reputation since they formed in 2012 and although they have had a few changes in line up they are settled with the current team of Guitarist and Vocalist Ceallaigh Corbishley, who moved over from New Zealand in October 2011, Drummer Angus Ross joined in january 2012, and new addition Bass player Tom Diaz who joined Pirate Sons after living with the other guys for 6 months in a flat they shared..

This flat is the inspiration for their E.P and with songs like Dirty Dirty Rascals I can only shudder to think of the kind of crazy s**t they got up in their time. The E.P. is jammed packed with rock n’ roll tracks inspired by the likes of the Blacks Keys, Iggy Pop and the White Strips and with the songs being recorded on 2″ tape and Chambers Studio, and the restriction of 24 tracks (compared to the unlimited tracks available in the digital age), has helped the band print a tight sounding record. They are already making a name for themselves north of the border and moving in the same circles as the likes of Glasvegas and Wet Nuns, Pirate Sons are serious rock n’ roll players with an attitude to match.

Links:

Bandcamp: http://piratesons.bandcamp.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/piratesons

Soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/piratesons

YouTube: http://youtube.com/piratesons