As I am sure of many of you will already be aware, the BBC have decided to call time on BBC Introducing in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and lump them all into one big UK-wide programme. To say it's a kick in the nuts for the Scottish music scene is a bit of an understatement. In recent years we have seen taken some pretty massive steps forward in the way that view folk the Scottish music scene, so I am pretty damn gutted to see it go. You can read more about what happened over on The Pop Cop.
On a more positive note for the Scottish music scene, the SAY Award shortlist was announced earlier this morning. The award which is being touted as Scotland's answer to the Mercuries, have managed to whittle down what are deemed to be the top 10 Scottish albums to be released in 2010. Admittedly I am still a bit bitter that Adam Stafford didn't even make the long list, but hey there's still loads of great stuff in there. I was pretty damn chuffed to see Happy Particles make the final list, for a band who didn't have a label and released their album on Christmas fucking Day, it's great to see them up there with the more established artists. Personally I think they might well be in with a shout, but that could be my heart leading my head.
The artists that will compete to win the inaugural SAY Award on June 19 with added bonus of a first prize of £20k will be one of the following:
Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older
Conquering Animal Sound – Kammerspiel
Happy Particles – Under Sleeping Waves
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
Mungo’s Hi Fi – Forward Ever
Remember Remember – The Quickening
Rustie – Glass Swords
Tommy Smith – Karma
Twin Atlantic – Free (who made the list thanks to being the winners of the public vote).
With each of the shortlisted artists are already guaranteed £1k, I guess this is the Ying to BBC Introducing's Yang. It's about time that us Scots got out there and started shouting about just how great the music our country is producing really is, I think the SAY Awards is a great way to start.
Talking about showcasing Scottish talent, King Tut's have announced the line up for this years Summer Nights Festival. The festival which runs for a fortnight in July aims to showcase some of the most exciting up and coming bands that Scotland has to offer. If you haven't already seen the line up, then it looks something like this:
Thursday 12th – Pronto Mama, Brazil Exists, The Little Kicks and Lost City Soul
Friday 13th – Hector Bizerk, Madhat McGore, Bigg Taj feat. Spee SixNine & Becci Wallace and BilL Breaks
Saturday 14th – John Wean, The NK Jays, Seed and Minor Delilah
Sunday 15th – Xavia, Lost in Audio, Atlas : Empire and Seams
Monday 16th – Daniel Docherty, Craig Fagan, Chloe Latimer and Anna Shields
Tuesday 17th – Beerjacket & Friends play 'The White Feather Trail' and other favourites, Quickbeam and Mike Nisbet
Wednesday 18th – Brown Bear And The Bandits, The Sea Kings, Aaron Wright and Lovers Turn To Monsters
Thursday 19th – Midnight Lion, Galleries and Aames
Friday 20th – Holy Esque, Queen Jane, The Mirror Trap and The 10:04s
Saturday 21st – Jack Butler, Selective Service, Mickey 9′s and Kobi
Sunday 22nd – The Recovery!, Hunt / Gather, Fat Janitor and No Island
Monday 23rd – The Unwinding Hours, Olympic Swimmers and Dead Electric
Tuesday 24th – Fires Attract, Scarlet Shift, The Darien Venture and Crusades
Wednesday 25th – Randolph's Leap, Jonny Jack, Blue Sky Archives and Bronagh Monahan
Thursday 26th – DARC, The Mouse That Ate The Cat, Johnny And The Giros and TeKlo
Tickets for all of the gigs are on sale now (just click on the link above), there will be a limited number of Golden Tickets going on sale shortly which will allow you to get entry to ever single night of the festival at a much reduced rate. For further details just check out the King Tut's homepage.
We Were Promised Jetpacks will be out on the road shortly promoting their last album, 'In The Pit Of The Stomach'. Calling all over Scotland the band have a number of dates booked up, including an appearance at the Tweedlove Festival in Peebles on Saturday the 2nd of June. The event which is being held at Peebles Burgh Hall, also features some special guests (I have no idea who this) and a DJ Set from the Frightened Rabbit boys. Tickets for the gig are £15 in advance and they're available here. The rest of the tour looks something like this:
May 23rd - Doghouse, Dundee
May 24th - Lemontree, Aberdeen
May 25th - Ironworks, Inverness
May 26th - PJ Molloy's, Dunfermline
May 31st - Tolbooth, Stirling
2nd June - Tweedlove Festival, Peebles
3rd June - The Dirty Weekender, Kilmarnock
24th June - Oran Mor, Glasgow (alongside Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells, R M Hubbert, Remember Remember,Withered Hand, Monoganon and loads more)
Edinburgh outfit, Matt Norris And The Moon, release their new EP, 'This Kingdom' EP on the 23rd of May through 17 Seconds Records. To celebrate they're having a wee release shindig at the Voodoo Rooms the same day. Support on the evening comes from Donna Maciocia, Randolph's Leap, Nicky Carder and there will also be a DJ Set from Ed '17 Seconds). To get you in the mood you can watch the video for the single, Roots Below errrr below....
Those fabulous Born To Be Wide boys are back with another excellent seminar evenings, this month event is entitled 'Beyond The Regular Gig', and it will be focusing on playing live in unusual locations, private homes, club nights and corporate events. Panelists will include Douglas Robertson, who has hosted dozens of concerts in his Edinburgh home, Andy Richardson whose Trouble club nights include live acts, Ally McCrae, who combines his BBC activity with co-running Detour events and Nick Herd who has hosted concerts in churches, recording studios and galleries apparently. Tickets for the event are on sale now.
Right, I think that's enough ramblings for one evening, to finish up with I have Adam Stafford's new video of him performing Shot-down You Summer Wannabes live. The song which is taken from last years Build a Harbour Immediately album, is a personal favourite of mine, so I am pretty chuffed that it's going to be coming out on blue 7" via Kingfisher Bluez in August. If you're heading out to Stag & Dagger this Saturday, then you catch him playing live at Sleazy's at 4.30pm.
Edinburgh outfit, Matt Norris And The Moon, release their new EP, 'This Kingdom' EP on the 23rd of May through 17 Seconds Records. To celebrate they're having a wee release shindig at the Voodoo Rooms the same day. Support on the evening comes from Donna Maciocia, Randolph's Leap, Nicky Carder and there will also be a DJ Set from Ed '17 Seconds). To get you in the mood you can watch the video for the single, Roots Below errrr below....
Those fabulous Born To Be Wide boys are back with another excellent seminar evenings, this month event is entitled 'Beyond The Regular Gig', and it will be focusing on playing live in unusual locations, private homes, club nights and corporate events. Panelists will include Douglas Robertson, who has hosted dozens of concerts in his Edinburgh home, Andy Richardson whose Trouble club nights include live acts, Ally McCrae, who combines his BBC activity with co-running Detour events and Nick Herd who has hosted concerts in churches, recording studios and galleries apparently. Tickets for the event are on sale now.
Right, I think that's enough ramblings for one evening, to finish up with I have Adam Stafford's new video of him performing Shot-down You Summer Wannabes live. The song which is taken from last years Build a Harbour Immediately album, is a personal favourite of mine, so I am pretty chuffed that it's going to be coming out on blue 7" via Kingfisher Bluez in August. If you're heading out to Stag & Dagger this Saturday, then you catch him playing live at Sleazy's at 4.30pm.
