Olympic Swimmers - goNORTH Rockhopper Sessions

 
Track Listing

1. Run Down the Curtain

2. Father Said

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Willie Campbell & The Open Day Rotation - goNORTH Rockhopper Sessions

Track Listing

1. I've Got a Kite

2. Mary Rest Your Head

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Chris Devotion & The Expectations - goNORTH Rockhopper Sessions

Track Listing

1. A Modest Refusal

2. Not The Same

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thanks to Houdi for the pic

French Wives - goNORTH Rockhopper Sessions

Track Listing

1. Halloween

2. Me vs Me

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A Face For Radio: Video-rama (Part 3)

Some of you might have noticed a distinct lack of a We've Got It Covered post on Saturday, as I am sure that most of you will already know I was up at T in the Park with Randolph's Leap. Fuck me that was a trek and half, I ended up getting our van well and truly stuck in the mud, which in turn ended up with me joining the AA in order for them tow us out. Normally at festivals I piss my money away on over-priced beer and rank rotten burgers, signing up for breakdown cover wasn't something that I ever imagined doing in a rainy field in Balado. Rather than bore you with how muddy it was, here's a video of Randolph's Leap who kicked things off on the T Break stage.

The good folk from Detour launched the second episode of their new TV show last week. This months episode features live footage from Midnight Lion, Vukovi and Honeyblood. A live session from Hector Bizerk's Louie and Stanley Odd's MC Solareye, an interview with Twin Atlantic's Sam Mctrus. Plus a 'blink and you'll miss it' cameo from my good self, which I pray to go my mother never has to witness!

Mind how I mentioned that Zed Penguin had a cracking new single out, well here's a cracking wee video to go with it!

I haven't mentioned me for all of two seconds, so I might as well do so again. If you check out this15 minute "Propaganda edition" of the Glasgow Flower Show mini documentary, you can catch me rambling pish for a few minutes. There are some good bits in there that make it worthwhile. You might want skip my bits though, or at least look away from the screen until I am gone. And cover your ears for that matter.

Last but not least here's a wee video of Campfires in Winter playing on the roof of a pub in Inverness. As you do. If you are out and about tomorrow night then you can catch the boys playing live at the Art School in Glasgow with Vasa and Hot Jupiter.

Ramble Ramble Ramble: News

So you wait for one rambling news post, then along come two in one week. If you're not a fan of my tired inane ramblings then you may want to look away now...

First up, the list of acts invited to showcase at this years goNORTH were announced earlier this week. The event which sees some of the most exciting up and coming bands playing across Inverness city centre takes place on the 6th and 7th of June, in case you haven't seen the line up already it looks something like this:

Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward and Fisher, Aaron Wright, Blindfolds, Blue Sky Archives, Brown Bear and the Bandits, Cafe Disco, Campfires in Winter, Cancel The Astronauts, Cherri Fosphate, Chris Devotion and The Expectations, CLEAVERS, DARC, Dead Boy Robotics, Esperi, Fat Goth, French Wives, Galleries, Grace Weber, Graham Brown, Honningbarna, Iain Mclaughlin & The Outsiders, Ilona, John Wean, Jonathan Sebastian Knight, Lady North, Letters, Make Sparks, Mass Consensus, Matt Norris & The Moon, Maydays, Michael Cassidy, Miniature Dinosaurs, Miss Irenie Rose, Nelson Can, Olympic Swimmers, Open Swimmer, Oskar Empire, Pioneers of Love, Plum, Polaroid Fiction,  Pronto Mama, Quickbeam, Red Kites, Sebastian Dangerfield, Selective Service, Smoothiesforme, Stanley Odd, Star Wheel Press, Team Kapowski, The Little Kicks, The Machine Room, The Mirror Trap, The Mixups, The Stagger Rats, The Whisky River Band, The Winter Tradition,  Them & Us, This Silent Forest, Vigo Thieves, Washington Irving, We Came From Wolves, Where We Lay Our Heads, Xavia and Yusaf Azak.

 Having been asked to sit on the panel of judges again, I am pretty pleased to see that quite a few of my choices made it on there. Sadly there were a few that didn't make it on there, but hey you can't win them all. The next big debate will be about the four bands that we myself, Song, by Toad and The Pop Cop will want to play at our showcase night. I know who I want, but I can't quite see the other two agreeing with me. The one thing I do know for certain is that is that it's going to take a hell of a lot to top last years showcase line up of Kid Canaveral, PAWS, LightGuides and IndianRedLopez.
If you've never been to goNorth before I'd highly recommended it, although if my experiences are anything to go by, then your liver might not thank you for it.

I couldn't be arsed staying up until midnight for the announcement of the bands playing at this years Wickerman, because quite frankly all you really to know is who is going to be playing The Solus Tent this year. Having a bit of a history of unearthing some of the most exciting new bands this wee country of ours has to offer. Headlining the tent this year will be none other than other than United Fruit and Malcolm Middleton's new project, Human Don’t Be Angry, ooft! The rest of the line up looks something like this Anderson McGinty Webster Ward and Fisher, Beerjacket, Bigg Taj & Spee SixNine, Chris Devotion and The Expectations, The Cosmic Dead, Fridge Magnets, Grant Me Revenge, Hector Bizerk, Hey Enemy, Holy Mountain, Julia & The Doogans (with guests The Hidden Lane Choir), The Lafontaines, The Machine Room, Martin John Henry, The Birthday Suit, Salo, There Will Be Fireworks and Vasquez.
Sadly there will be no Wickerman adventures for me this year as I am off to AwayGame that weekend. Still though if you're thinking about heading down again it comes highly recommended. And once again your liver won't thank you for it - fuck, I am starting to see a bit of a theme to my time away from Mrs Peenko now!

The Solus Crew - They're Even Sexier In Real Life

Looking a bit closer to home, there are a fair few decent gigs coming your way in the next few months. One of which will take place next Thursday at the Captain's Rest, where Randolph's Leap will be headlining the next Communion Glasgow show. Support for the night comes from Saul Ashby, This Silent Forest, Sam Airey and Bronagh Monahan. Tickets for the gig are available to pre-order now (£6 + £1 BF).
Randolph's Leap will also be playing alongside King Creosote and The Pictish Trail at  Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket on Monday the 18th of June. The concert is being put on by the Scottish Refugee Council and British Red Cross to launch Refugee Week Scotland 2012. Tickets are available here.

It seems like every man and his dog are playing this Saturday, on top of this years Record Store Day celebrations, you have FOUND, Aidan Moffat and Miaoux Miaoux at SWG3 and Holy Mountain,What The Blood Revealed and Adam Stafford at Sleazy's. Personally I can't make it to any gigs that night as Mrs Peenko is away on a girly weekend, which means that I am on daddy duties. If I was able to make it out though, I know where I'd be headed and that'd be to the Arches to catch RM Hubbert and Martin John Henry. Sadly though I will have to console myself with my purchases from the mornings Record Store Day shopping spree.

If you already follow me on Twitter you will have seen me getting a little over excited about a gig that some of my friends at from a stolen sea have organised as part of the closing party for this years West End Festival. Check this for a line up:  We Were Promised Jetpacks, Aidan Moffat & Bill Wells, R.M. Hubbert, Remember Remember, Withered Hand, Monoganon, Wounded Knee and theapplesofenergy. Now that's what I call a beast of a line up and it's not finished there as there are still some more acts to be announced in the coming days, there should be around 20 in total. The event which takes place in Oran Mor in Glasgow takes place on Sunday the 24th of June, with gigs being held in the auditorium, the venue and the bar. Early bird tickets are available now for the bargain sum of £12 then £15 thereafter. As if that wasn't enough for you, the organisers will be installing their bespoke 5.1 Surround Sound system. Further information on the event and tickets can be found here.




Right I think I have rambled enough for one post, so I'll round this post up with the new video from Admiral Fallow for their song 'The Paper Trench' taken from their sophomore album, 'Tree Bursts In Snow' which is due out on the 21st of May. The band will also be releasing their debut album, Boots Met My Face on vinyl, which comes out on Record Store Day. You can catch the band playing live this Saturday at LoveMusic in Glasgow at 5pm.

Headlines and Deadlines

More details on the seminars being run at this years Wide Days have just been announced. The event which takes places at Edinburgh Universities Teviot House on Wednesday the 11th and Thursday the 12th of April, sees an array of music industry folk descending on the capital, including Alex Knight (FatCat Records), Stewart Henderson (Chemikal Underground Records) and Scott Cohen (The Orchard). Tickets for the Wide Days conference begin at £20 for under 18s, with discounts for students and members of the Musicians Union.  Tickets can be purchased here.

In addition to this they've also announced the line up for their evening showcases, which looks something like this;
Sneaky Pete's - Honeyblood and Homework.
Third Door - Michael Cassidy and Quickbeam.
Electric Circus - Donna Macioca, Honningbarna and Lady North.

For free tickets for all of the showcase gigs, just head here.

If you're in a band and you're planning on submitting to this years T Break and you haven't already done so, then you have only until midnight on Monday 2nd April to get your entry in. As well as getting the chance to play at T in the Park, all of the bands selected will also have their set recorded by Radio Magnetic, plus the chosen few will be offered discounted recording time at Chem 19 Studios in Glasgow and advice on getting the best out of their studio time. If you fancy getting your hopes up, then having them shattered a few months later before mumbling about it all being a fix, then get your submission in asap....

While we're on the theme of deadlines, submissions for this goNorth will close on Sunday 1 April. Seeing as T Break only has 16 slots to offer, you might be in with a better chance with goNorth as there are 70 slots up for grabs (although a fair few of few them go to international acts), or hey you could go crazy and apply for both. The event will be held in Inverness city centre over Wednesday the 6th and Thursday the 7th of June, personally I love this festival. It's opened up several different avenues for me, such as helping me meet an array of 'industry' types, meeting a real nice American fella who did some of our US radio press for Olive Grove and most importantly for me it was the first time I got to see Randolph's Leap play live - which has lead to many an adventure! How useful it is for bands I am not sure, but our bloggers showcase was absolutely rammed last year and I kind of hope it in some small way helped to get PAWS signed to FatCat (but that might be me blowing my trumpet a wee bit too much).

Anyway, I realise I am starting to ramble a wee bit so I  reckon that's enough news for one post, so to finish on a lighter note here's the new video of Belle And Sebastian‘s cover of The Primitives’ song “Crash” which taken from their second  “Late Night Tales” compilation which came out yesterday. The band will also be releasing the cover will on 7" vinyl as part of this year's Record Store Day (21st April).

Massive News Thread (warning contains lots of rambling)

It's been a wee while since I did a news round up, so I guess just now is as good a time as any to give you a heads up on a few wee bits and bobs in the Scottish music scene...

To kick this all off we have some good news, Mitchell Museum have ended their hiatus and have now been busy working away on new tunes.There's also been a wee bit of a line up change, with Dougie leaving the band, being replace Gavin Thomson, he of Findo Gask, grnr, Zoey Van Goey fame. The band have already started to recording demos for their 2nd album, as a wee teaser you can stream a new song called ‘Glasshouse’ over on their SoundCloud page. Nice to have you back boys, the world feels like a better place now that Mitchell Museum exist once more.

Secondly we have a wee bit more news regarding the Brew at the Bog Festival which takes place for the first time on Saturday 5 May 2012 at Bogbain Farm on the outskirts of Inverness.  The big announcement is that goNORTH are going to be host the second stage at the the event which sees some of the most exciting emerging talent in Scotland relocating to the Highland capital for the weekend.

The second stage which is going to be compered by our friends at Net Sounds Unsigned, will feature an array of talent from the Highlands and Islands including KOBI, Megan Blyth, He Slept on 57, Mike Nisbet and Open Day Rotation. This is of course on top of the line up which had previously been announced which includes Three Blind Wolves, Washington Irving, Endor, The Seventeenth Century, Stanley Odd, Over The Wall, Beerjacket, Kitty The Lion and Fatherson among others.

Tickets for the day long extravaganza of new music and new beer are priced at just £45 and are available here. Limited camping is also available.

Scotland’s annual music conference and showcase event, Wide Days have just announced that the first seminars for this year’s daytime programme. Taking place on Wednesday the 11th and Thursday the12th of April, the seminars will once again be held in Edinburgh’s Teviot House, with the showcase gigs being held in various venues across the city (provided that there's any venues left by April). Having attended this last year, I only have good things to say about it, much like goNorth it's a great way for you to learn and more importantly to give you the opportunity to go and speak to people within the industry that you might not normally have the chance to speak to. That and in the evenings they put on some pretty amazing bands, last year they had Rachel Sermanni, Withered Hand and PAWS to name just a few. If you're quick off the mark then you can pick up tickets at the special early bird rate of £29 until March 12, after which they'll go up to the full price of £45. If you want further information on the event or you fancy picking up some tickets then just head here.

Talking of festivals, Doune The Rabbit Hole have announced the line up for this years event, which will take place at Duncarron Fort, near Kilsyth, on the weekend of August 24-26th. So far they've announced a whole host of local talent including The Phantom Band and Withered Hand. Weekend camping tickets are available now priced £78 if purchased before April 1st, £88 there after, day tickets are also available. For further information on the event check out their website.

I guess that most of you are already fully aware that submissions for this years T Break opened on Monday there. If you fancy applying to be one of 16 bands that are hand-picked from over a thousand entries by a panel made up of industry experts to play T in the Park, then you can do so here.

Local promoters, Pelmet Nites have just announced that they plan to thrown Glasgow's Biggest St Paddy's Day Party. On Saturday the 17th March they'll be taking over the QMU for a night of debauchery featuring am array of Scottish talent, including live performances from Aerials Up, Discopolis, Kobi Onyame, PartWindPartWolf and A Plastic Rose, plus DJ sets from Detour and MILK. Early tickets are on sale now for only £5 for non students via TicketScotland. Check out their Facebook for further details.

Wur pals, Kid Canaveral have just announced a series of dates, which includes a couple of Scottish shows. on Sunday the 15th of April they'll be playing Fence's Eye O' The Dug of the festival in St Andrews. Then on the 3rd of May they'll be through in sunny Glasgow at the CCA supporting the Pictish Trail, after which they'll be heading down south for a series of dates. I've heard a couple of new tunes which see the band retaining that distinctive Kid C vibe, whilst sounding that bit more mature. Excited?! You should be!




If  you don't follow Aidan Moffat on twitter, then you're really missing a trick. If you don't believe me then check out this compilation of some of his most amusing tweets that the Pop Cop turned into a whole post. His tweets are now the thing of legend, I often find myself trawling through a whole host of his semi-inebriated reviews of what he's been watching on MTV in the middle of the night. Funny as fuck they are too. After a few too many shandies one night, Aidan mentioned how much he loved all three 80’s megahits entitled 'The Power of Love'. Upon hearing this confession, none other than the deputy editor of MOJO, a Mr Andrew Male, then posed the following innocuous question: "Has anyone ever managed a medley of all three?" Not being one to turn down a challenge, Aidan roped in his current co-hort, Bill Wells to take this challenge on. Not only did they manage to craft all three songs into one, but they were also able to squeeze in Peter Cetera's 'Glory of Love' for the sheer thrill of it, soliciting some backing vocals from, amongst others, Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake. You can have a listen to the results below, which will also be available on limited 7" vinyl just in time for Bill and Aidan's UK tour which kicks off at the end of this month.

  The Powers And The Glory Of Love by Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat by Aidan John Moffat

 Mini music festival promoters, A Quiet Night In have announced a couple of shows in Stereo this March. On the 20th they have Finding Albert appearing alongside It Girl, Kill The Waves, One Last Secret and Colour-Coded. Then on the 28th they're putting on the recent winners of  the Best Acoustic act at this years Scottish Alternative Music Awards, Brown Bear & The Bandits, which is also their debut headline show. Alongside them there will be our very own Randolph's Leap, one of my favourite singer songwriters, Michael Cassidy, plus Fole Music and Every Genius Delivers. Tickets for both nights are only £5, you can find out more information here.  


Mind I mentioned that I saw Fatherson a few weeks back  supporting Frightened Rabbit, if I didn't say it on here then I must have said on Twitter. My shitty memory fails me once again, anyway, they've just released a new video featuring a boy and his adventures with a goldfish. It's pretty fucking ace and well worthy of three and a bit minutes of your time...

Last but not least, our friends over at Audio Antihero have just released a new charity compilation which features a whopping 36 tracks. The album which is entitled “Some.Alternate.Universe” is being released in order to raise money for The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths and it features exclusive tracks from the entire Audio Antihero roster, plus appearances from rather special guests including the likes of Jeffrey Lewis, and Johnny Foreigner. Plus most excitingly for me it includes a wealth of Scottish talent, including      Jesus H. Foxx, PAWS, The Scottish Enlightenment and Debutant. You can buy it now from the Audio Antihero Bandcamp. Like their previous compilation, it only costs a tiny £3.99 with the option and encouragement to dig deeper if you can afford to. 36 tracks for less than 4 quid and you get to do your bit for charity, it's a no brainer really...

goNorth Submissions now open

I don't think it's much of a secret that I really enjoy my annual trips up to Inverness for Scotland's largest music industry event, goNorth. Not only has it given me the opportunity to meet a lot of people and make contacts that I wouldn't normally have had the chance meet, but it's also been one of the most fun things I have been involved with since I started this blog. I am pretty sure that my liver is only just starting to get over the battering that it took after last years debauchery. Having originally been invited up to write a review about the event, last year I was lucky enough to appear on two panels. One about blogging and another about starting up your own record label (I really was blagging it on that panel), plus in the evening myself and my blogger cronies, The Pop Cop and Song, By Toad also got to curate our own night featuring Kid Canaveral, PAWS, LightGuides and IndianRedLopez.
Man, that was a fun night, highlights included dancing on a table to Kid Canaveral (whilst singing the wrong words and nearly putting the band off), watching Phil from PAWS invading the crowd and causing mayhem, followed by inadvertently calling the head of FatCat a 'c*nt', proceed by spending the next hour asking questions about Frightened Rabbit (at a point where they'd just left the label), followed by me babbling on about how they should sign PAWS. Yes folks, I am that drunken arse.

Anyway, the whole point of this post was really just to let you all know that the submission window to showcase at this years goNorth opened today. Now obviously I am a wee bit biased about the importance of goNorth, but as I said before it's been great for me in allowing me to develop both the blog and the label(s). In case you don't already know, basically goNorth is an industry get together which runs seminars during the day then in the evening they have live music showcases taking place around Inverness city centre. Imagine it is being like SXSW on a much much smaller scale. Even though the venues are so close together, with over 70 bands showcasing it is pretty tough to take in everything you want to see, but if you plan your route out in advance, it is possible to check out a lot of good (and not so good) stuff.

This years event is a wee bit different in that it's taking place during the middle of the week on Wednesday the 6th and Thursday the 7th of June this year, plus they're also going to give bands that play at the event the opportunity to feature on their goNORTH Festival Tour, which means that bands will be given the chance to play at festivals such as Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, The Wickerman Festival, Summer In The City 2012, B-Fest and Loopallu.The one big announcement that they made was that four of the bands that are selected to play at goNorth, will also be given the opportunity to go out and play at the Summerfest Festival in Milwaukee. Yes, fucking Milwaukee in the US of fucking A!

If that sounds like something that you might be interested in, then you can submit your application now or you could even just find out more details by heading here. Hopefully I'll catch a few of you up in Inverness in June for a couple of days of schmoozing, boozing and plenty of great music.

IndianRedLopez - My Eyes

Kid Canaveral - Teenage Fanclub Song

Born To Be Wide: Festivals Seminar

Those nice folk at Born To Wide, Scotland’s only regular music-business seminar night, have announced that their first seminar of the year will take place next month and it is going to be devoted to music festivals and the opportunities that they can offer to emerging acts. Taking place at their regular haunt, Edinburgh’s Electric Circus, the event will be held on Thursday 2 February, it will detail the selection procedure, fees, what artists are offered in terms of promotion and how they can make the best use of the opportunity.

To date they've confirmed that they will have folk along from  DF Concerts (who put on T In The Park/The Edge Festival), Knockengorroch Festival, The Insider Festival and Go Events (who put on goNorth and also showcase at events such as Wickerman, Belladrum, Loopallu and Wizard.

“Festivals offer a great platform for emerging acts to reach new audiences,” says Born To Be Wide co-organiser, Olaf Furniss. “This event will provide a unique insight into what festivals offer, and will also give musicians the opportunity to meet the bookers. We recommend people bring their CDs!“

After the panel, the seminar guests will stay at the venue to DJ with records they have selected from Edinburgh’s Oxfam music shop. Everything played will be for sale with all proceeds going to the charity.

Buy tickets in advance and save money, click below or visit: www.borntobewide.bigcartel.com

We haven't had one in a while...so here's a news roundup

As I am sure that most of you will already know, the axe is very much hanging over Ally McCrae's BBC Introducing Scotland show on Radio 1. If you're reading this blog then I guess it's safe to say that you're already a big supporter of Scottish music and that the loss of this show would be a major kick in the teeth. As part of the campaign to save the show my friend the Pop Cop and promoter Paul from Pelemet Nites have organised a get together thus Sunday afternoon 1pm outside the Pacific Quay building. The afternoon will involve live performances from Blochestra and Aerials Up, with the theme definitely being aimed at being a fun, family event. If you're passionate about Scottish music please do come down, we need all the support we can get! Further information on the event can be found here.

Ally McCrae - a face for radio...

The Phantom Band have announced a series of festive gigs at Stereo in Glasgow on Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th of December. The nights which are being billed as 'A Phestive Phantomime' (did you see what they did there?), see the Phantom Band select a whole bunch of their favourite bands to come and play with them, in what I have been told their hope is to be like their very own ATP type gig. Anyway, joining them over the two days they have Holy Mountain, Tut Vu Vu, Take A Worm For A Walk Week, Jacob Yates And The Pearly Gate Lockpickers, plus more guests to be announced. Further details on ticket details and the like can be found here.

Those lovely folk up in the Highlands have announced the dates of next years goNorth festival, the event which returns to Inverness for it's twelfth edition, will take place on the 6th and 7th of June next year. For any of you who have been reading this blog fairly regularly, I guess you'll already know how much I love this festival/music industry shindig. As always, all panels, workshops and live showcases will be free and open to the public, with industry and media requested to register. If you are in a band and you want to learn a bit more about the industry, then I would urge you to get yourself along. It's a great place for being able to have the opportunity to talk to industry folk you might not normally get to meet. Plus it's also a good excuse to get smashed out your tits for a couple of days (you can see why I might like it then). Further information on the event can be found here.


To finish off with here's a new video from The Twilight Sad for their new single 'Sick' and, which is taken from their forthcoming album which is out in February next year....

Twilight Sad Music Video from Mallard Productions on Vimeo.

A roundup of sorts

For some of my more regular visitors you might have noticed a distinct lack of my 'Weekly Roundup' posts on a Sunday. This wasn't really a deliberate decision on my part, I honestly just don't have the time any more. I need to have at least one day off a week to chill out, by chill out I mean deal with emails and plug all things Olive Grove, and of course spend some time with Erin and Nic.
This have course meant that I haven't posted much news lately, so hopefully this wee round up of sorts should make up for that. I will also aim to try and plug some good gigs that are coming up pretty soon, you have been warned.

First up we have the announcement of this years goNorth event, in case you don't already know this is Scotland's largest music industry event that takes place annually up in Inverness. Some of you who have been regular visitors to the site might remember I went up last year for the first time. If you fancy reading about my adventures, then you will can read all about it here. If you can't be arsed, then the gist of the post is that I got drunk, saw some great bands and met some awesome people. If you're in a band and you want to learn more and make contacts, then it's invaluable. For me personally it gave me the opportunity to meet some industry folk that I wouldn't normally have the chance to meet, that and I had the pleasure of spending 3 days with Ian from Have Fun At Dinner (an experience that will live with me until the day I die).

Last Thursday I got invited along to a press event officially launching this years goNorth, the big announcement for this year was that there would no longer be a goNorth stage at this Rockness Festival. In it's place the organisers have introduced the goNorth tour, which guarantees any band that plays at this years event the opportunity to play at either Belladrum, Loopallu or Wickerman.
Now announcing this as being their 'big news' did inititally feel like a bit of a come down, I think I am pretty safe in saying that Rockness has a bit more prestige compared to the other three festivals. Much as in the same way that most Scottish bands want to play at T in the Park, I would guess that Rockness would be their second choice. So now that opportunity has gone, it makes sense for the goNorth organisers to look for new opportunities to give smaller band the chance to play in front of bigger crowds. Yes, Rockness is a loss, it looks pretty god on a bands CV, however, the more I think about it, the more I think that this might be a positive thing. In my experience I have found that it's actually been at the smaller festivals that I have 'discovered' new bands from. At the larger festivals I usually have my day all planned out, at the smaller ones like Belladrum I was much more inclined to try something new.
That's just my opinion, it might sound like spin, it's not. It's just my opinion, if you don't like it then feel free to disagree, just remember that it wasn't my choice and if you feel the need to start pissing and moaning about it then it won't make a blind bit of difference.
If you are a band and that hasn't put you and it really shouldn't, then you can find out more details on the goNorth website.

If you follow me on Twitter, then I guess you already know that myself and four of my fellow bloggers, Song By Toad, Ayetunes, Glasgow Podcart and The Pop Cop, were asked to take part in a 'blogger battle' on the awesome 'Pop Goes The Revolution' show on SubCity Radio. The show is now up to stream here, I had a lot of fun and was chuffed to be asked. If you fancy hearing me and Jim Ayetunes talking pish and playing tunes, then you can listen again here. I went with a theme for my choices, 'songs that are free to download', I went with Come On Gang!, It's All Happening, The Son(s) and Adam Stafford, winning the battle hands down.....


If you were out and about in Glasgow on Saturday night, then you might have seen some of these sexy little posters knocking about in various venues across the city. Yes, I am shamelessly using the fact that I put posters up as an opportunity to remind you all about this months Kid Canaveral SXSW fundraiser that's taking place at Stereo on the 24th. This really is going to be an awesome night, I think some of the evening is even going to be filmed by the BBC as part of a documentary. Awesome Sauce!!
Joining the Kids for the evening we have Randolph's Leap and Martin John Henry, so that's three of my favourite artists on the one bill, you've no idea how excited I am about this gig. Plus as if that wasn't exciting enough, we also have OnTheFly coming along to spin some tunes for the night. If you haven't already bought yourself a ticket then now's the time to get that sorted. They are available to buy directly from the band, or you can get them in person at Tickets Scotland, either way, if you don't have a ticket then you better have a pretty good excuse for not showing your face.


I guess I should also use this opportunity to announce that there will be another Peenko Session taking place in March. I've managed to rope in a pretty big name, which I am itching to tell you about. For now thought it remains under wraps as we need to sort out numbers, a limited number of spaces will be made available for you to come along. I'll let you know a bit more about it nearer to the time.

I'll round up this wee post with a few more events, the first one is the UWS Refreshers Mini Festival which takes place on Thursday 10th February at UWS Union, Storie Street in Paisely. For the day they've got Flood of Red, Fatherson, Carnivores, Marvel Heights, Skies Fell, Pacific Theatre and Dilectrics on the main stage. Plus an acoustic stage featuring Aaron Wright, Michael Cassidy, Little Fire, Debbie Kate, Calum Muir and Jamie Keenan. Doors at 6pm, it's ONLY £2 ENTRY! Open to anyone 18+

Last, but not least we have this years John Cage Musicircus event that takes place at the Tramway on the 26th of this month. The event is all an all day celebration of music and sound, which is aimed predominantly at children. The concept was the brainchild of John Cage and the events are viewed by an audience of hundreds on the day, as well as being filmed and recorded for web broadcast. They are still looking for more artists to take part in this years event, if it sounds like something you might be interested in, then you can download the press release here for further details.


And that's all for now kids, I don't know about you, but I am fucking knackered after typing all of that up. I guess it could have been worse, you poor fuckers had to read it (not that I expect that many of you got this far).

goNorth - Networking and the Death of My Liver

Some of you might have noticed last week that I somewhat disappeared of the radar. Well in case you were wondering where I was, or perhaps not, but I am going to tell you anyway. The lovely blokes who run Born To Be Wide (hopefully we'll have more on them at a later date), asked myself and a few respected* bloggers, Ian from Have Fun At Dinner and Alan from Rokbun to come up and report back from goNorth. I know I can be a bit presumptuous at times, so for those of you that don't already know, goNorth is a music industry event that has been held in Inverness for a few years now, which helps to bring some major players up to the city to take part in seminars and attend showcase gigs of up and coming artists. As to how I got myself invited I'm not quite sure, but I'm glad that I did.
For the past few days I have been trying to work out how to approach my opinions of what I experienced, so I will try to be as honest as I can, but hopefully not stepping on anyone's toes.
Having arrived up late on the Wednesday afternoon, as I had managed to blag a lift up with my folks who were already heading north, I found that I had actually missed out on all the seminars in the afternoon. Bad planning on my part I'm afraid, although from all reports from the folk I talked to they seemed to be pretty interesting and useful.
So for me the event really kicked off with the goNorth Fringe, a showcase event for local bands. Most of the evening was spent to talking to interesting new folk and seeing a couple of great local bands. The first of which I have no idea who they were as they disappeared off very quickly, the second was a young guy who went by the name of Iglue. Having impressed us blogger types with his Bright Eyes with the warbly voice of that singer from Bombay Bicycle Club, he was quickly accosted at the end of his set to discover a bit more. Turned out he was from Lewis, but now resided in Glasgow, I'm certainly going to keep an eye out for him in future.

Iglue

The rest of the night turned into a bit of a blur/drunken mess after this, which ended up with a whole host of us going back to a hotel to play pool, drink more and talk shit. My memories from this point onwards get very hazy, I remember being shouted at/rapped at by an angry Irish rapper and Ian falling over every time he played a shot at pool. Worse was to come when we got back to our hostel when 'someone' decided it would be a good idea to re-inact a certain scene from Silence of the Lambs. Thankfully for your sakes, the video of said event has been removed by Youtube, some of us will never be able to get the images out of our heads.

Come Thursday morning I awoke to find myself feeling as if someone had "sh*t in my mouth", something which became a bit of a theme for the rest of the time I was there. We did manage to haul our backsides out of bed in time to head down to the first of the seminars being put on by the Born To Be Wide folk. The first one was all about 'DIY', looking at artists who go out do everything for themselves, such as booking tours, promoting themselves, etc. For me personally this one of the most interesting seminars that I attended over the course of the event. It was pretty fascinating to listen to someone like John Robb and how passionate he still was about music. I guess the only problem was that it was all over too quickly, but then again I think I found that was true of all of the talks. I think the best thing about it was that it gave folk he opportunity to identify who certain people were and then give them the opportunity to go up and speak to them individually.
Following that I was at a seminar being put on by the Scottish Arts Council all about showcasing at SXSW. Having attended a very similar event like this in Glasgow only a few months prior, I must admit that I did start to think that I was about to sit through the same thing all over again. This time though the event was a lot more intimate, and even more thankfully we had Vic Galloway on the panel who brought a degree of realism to it all. Every time the panelists started to start talking about things that just didn't matter, he managed to bring it back round. So in the unlikely event that there are Scottish Arts Council out there reading this, make sure you get him or someone like him on board for any future events, as it really helped to have that balance.
Following that, it was back to another Born To Be Wide event, this time it was all about Management. Much of which was pretty interesting, but also quite daunting as after every seminar it became clearer and clearer just as to how massive the industry actually is. All the in's and out's of it all made me feel somewhat dwarfed by it all. Again it was great to have so many interesting folk in the room at one time, we had the managers of bands like Primal Scream and Stevie Wonder to name just a few, although I must admit that I did get a bit sick of all of the name dropping by the end it. Then again, that seemed to be all that they did in the last seminar all about the future of the industry, entitled 'Flash Forward'. That seminar had been put on by Go Events, and to be honest it was one of the pointless hours I have ever had the displeasure to experience. Thankfully though, we did manage to sneak away a bit early as the amazing Detour Scotland kids were in town and they were all set to take us on one of their adventures.
Having told to folk to gather outside a bar in the city centre we were duly led in a Pied Piper type style to an island to find Bronto Skylift set up in what looked like an old amphitheatre circle.
This was my first experience of the Bronto, having bought their first EP and not really got what this fuss was all about, I hadn't expected much. Boy was I wrong, oh so fucking wrong.
Literally a head fuck and a half, I still can't get over how noisy these two guys could be. I'll save my pant creaming till later (they played again on the Friday), but needless to say I was impressed. That and I still am massively in awe of the Ally and Weaver from Detour, and the amazing events that they continue to come up with.

Bronto Skylift

After strolling back along the River Ness and grabbing a bit to eat, it was time for the first of the showcases proper. Being the fanboys that we are, myself and Ian headed along to catch the Seventeenth Century at a wee venue called Hush, which looked like a wee cheesy disco-pub.
Now this was the first time that I had seen these boys live, yes I know that a lot of my fellow bloggers/podcasters have been creaming themselves about them for a while now, my bad. To say they impressed would somewhat of an insult to them, they completely blew me away. I love a band that puts a smile on my face, they did this in their sound check. If there's any justice in the world they are destined for big things, once again we another amazing Scottish band on our doorstep, we just need someone to start listening.

The Seventeenth Century

Next up was the lovely Fiona Soe Paing, who was playing in the foyer of a hotel. Not the greatest selection for a venue I might add. We arrived just after the start of her set, to find that the number of folk watching wasn't that great, which is no slight on her part as she sounded amazing. Ian reckoned she sounded like Lamb, I nodded profusely in agreement, whilst thinking to myself "I have no idea what Lamb sound like". In a live setting her voice is quite stunning, combine this with some trip-hop beats and some wonderful animation and you have a very powerful live performance. If you missed her doing some Fresh Meat a few months back I'd urge you to check her out, she wouldn't normally be my cup of tea but there's some just something quite enchanting about her.

Fiona Soe Paing


Following 'Fi' in the same venue was Rachel Sermanni, someone who I had never heard of until he Monday prior when she was in doing a session for Mr Galloway. Bearing in mind that I had never heard of her till then, I presumed that nobody else would have either. Boy was I wrong, to all extensive purposes it seemed as if the 'industry' had been talking a lot about this lassie. As we went from reasonable busy, to damn right rammed within the space of a few minutes. So did she live up the hype? I guess she kind of did, she's folky-twee, very pretty and very fucking marketable. If you were an A&R man and you missed out on her, I could well see you getting a bollocking from you boss for it. Did she do much for me, not really I'm afraid. It was poppy and endearing, but not for me. Give it a year or so and I'm sure she'll be all over Radio Two, and if I had to choose between her or Florence and her f'ing Machine, I know who I'd prefer to make it.

Rachel Sermanni

After watching Ian (HF@D) drool over wee Rachel, I think the boy was in love with her by the end of her set. It was time for some Woodenbox With A Fistful of Fivers (no pic for this one, sorry). Having seen these guys live quite a few times recently, I knew what to expect, but as they also impress me I made sure I was 'down the front' for this one. As most of my musical listening these days seems to revolve around acts who sing with a distinct Scottish accent, I must admit that I really like hearing their folk twinned American sound. By this stage in the evening I was getting, let's say 'merry' and found myself rambling shite to a lovely fellow by the name of Tam Coyle. Who turned out not to be so lovely when he wouldn't share one of the ten copies of the FOUND album that he had with him. Damn you Tam! I wanna hear the FOUND album!
As Woodenbox clashed with fifteen minutes of Meursault, I made sure that I got out of there sharpish to catch the Edinburgh outfit. I made just in time for "thanks everyone, good night..."
Perfect Peenko timing! The rest of the night ended up in a drunken blur, as everyone descended upon the Ironworks for more drinking and some very dubious dancing. Imagine old folk trying to be cool on the dance floor at a wedding, and me showing off my 'interesting' moves. The less said about it all the better. Although, I would like to point out that if you ever meet Vic Galloway in person, get him to do his John Peel impression, it's fucking priceless.


So on to Friday, this was always going to be a much quieter day for everyone. A lot of folk seemed to have relocated themselves over to Dores for Rockness. Bleary eyed, we awoke to find that we had managed to 'scare' half of the folk in our hostel dorm off. I think any normal person would have been quite ashamed of this, perhaps we were still drunk, but we found this hilarious.
I think I have just answered my own question there.
We had originally planned to go the SMIA (Scottish Music Industry Association) Panel, but as it started at half eleven and we stumbled in at half five, there was little chance of that happening. This is my poor attempt at an apology for my non-attendance, almost as good as a scrawled note that's been chewed by the dog. We did make sure that we for the Born To Be Wide 'Syc Panel', all about getting your songs featured in films, tv shows and computer games. It was really interesting, but quite daunting at the same time. I guess the general theme of my experiences of goNorth was that the music industry is so vast and pretty god damn scary. In many cases it feels like networking is the key, just putting your name out there and getting to know folk is half the battle. Something I guess I have been pretty guilty of, stepping out from behind the anonymity of my PC and actually having the balls to speak to folk takes me out of my comfort zone, but at the same time I got to meet some amazing people.
I also learned that it is important to have a 'card', I didn't have a card. Not even some Peenko badges, they all went at AvsP at the 'Rest. If you are a band then make sure that you have some CD's with you, so if you are talking to someone, you have something to give them. I came away with a massive pile of demos, singles and albums, which I promise I will work my way through this week. Overall, I would say that if you are looking to further a career within the industry, then something like this is vital, I took a lot from the workshops, but more importantly it gives you access to talk to people that you wouldn't have access to normally.

Right on with the fun parts, or I also managed to somehow end up on a Song By Toad podcast, alongside Ian from Have Fun At Dinner. The tunes were great (I chose most of them), however, I am pretty sure that I came across as clueless twat. Damn you Matthew and your tricky questions, like "Do they have an album? What's it called?" To which the answer was more often than not "errrrr, dunno". Still it's worth for a listen to for some top tunes from Woodenbox With a Fistful of Fivers, Fiona Soe Paing, The Seventeenth Century, Kid Canaveral, Miaoux Miaoux, Admiral Fallow, Mitchell Museum and Randolph’s Leap.

Later that evening, after enduring the most boring two hours of football I ever had the misfortune to witness, that would be France v Uruguay, it was gig time once again. Today was a wee bit different, in that there were only two venues, Hootananny and Mad Hatters, which are pretty much the same venue, except one is upstairs. The first band of the evening for me, where Glasgow/Nairn outfit, Randolph's Leap. Having first heard them on a few weeks ago, I had made a concerted effort to make sure I caught them. If you haven't already checked them out, head over to their Bandcamp page for a shed load of twee loveliness. There was something very enchanting about them live, they had the tunes, put they also played with massive grins on their face, I do enjoy seeing bands who are clearly enjoying themselves. That and the banter was good too, for me personally they are defo a band to keep your eye out for in the future.

Randolph's Leap


Being the lazy old buggers that we are, we remained in the same bar. The next band up was a Canadian band called Woodenhands. They were alright, quite fun, I guess with a hipster websites approval and they'll be massive for a week or two.
I on the other hand was sticking about for Bronto Skylift, as I said before, I always though that that they wouldn't be for me. I was so fucking wrong, and it annoys me how wrong I was. They were possibly the best live band I have seen all year, in fact fuck it, they are the best live band I have seen all year. They don't seem like the kind of band that do things conventionally, they had their drumkit set up in the middle of the dancefloor. They make a fucking racket, their drummer has moves that make me think that he could be in a jazz band, it's just an amazing site to behold. I walked away from it with the biggest cheesiest grin on my face. Epic.

Bronto Skylift


The rest of the evening was spent in the comfort of a hotel bar, discussing the in's and out's of the music industry. Which mainly seemed to involve me voicing my opinions very loudly, damn you Kronenborg! It was with a heavy heart/stinking hangover, that I made my way back to Glasgow the following morning. Had I learned anything, hell yes! What had I learned? God knows.
I met a lot of amazing people up there, here's hoping that I'll get invited back some day, although with our antics I very much doubt it.......



*I'm not quite sure who respects them, but I am sure someone must.
Perhaps their folks do, although in Ian's case I very much doubt it.

North Country Boy

I don't tend to talk about my personal life all that much on here, mainly cause I don't want to bore you all. Without going into too much detail last week could have been a real stinker of a week for me, due to some major changes brought in by the new government, myself and a very large number of my work colleagues all got made redundant. Boo-hiss, etc.
Fortunately for me I was 'sunning' it up in York as it all took place, so I was pretty lucky, as my friends/colleagues were going through the painful process, I was screaming like a little girl in York Dungeons. In the end though seems to have worked out for the best, or at least they have at the moment. I had worked there for eight years, so I am getting a decent enough pay off to last me a month or two until I can find something new, I can watch all of the World Cup and most excitingly I can take the very kind off of the Born To Be Wide folk to go up to GoNorth in Inverness tomorrow. From what I can gather it sounds like a mini-SXSW type event, with seminars during the day and band showcases in the evening. It runs from Wednesday to Friday, and the plan is that I will be reporting back on the events that I go to. Sounds like a decent enough plan to me, although I am slightly paranoid at the thought of trying to come up with anything in my hungover/drunken state, it's going to be interesting to say the least.

If you are free and you stay in Inverness or you fancy coming along, then all you have to do to attend any of the events is register at www.gonorth.biz under the delegates section, it's free, which is nice. It all kicks off on Wednesday with the goNorth Fringe, in the Iverness Ironworks. Some of the topics being covered by the Born To Be Wide seminars include music management and how to get your music used in film, television and adverts. There will also be panels on how to make the most money from music with little additional work and a discussion featuring artists who take care of their own booking, releases and promotion. Sounds pretty good to me, I'll be at all of these, I would say come and say hi if you are there, but as you probably don't know who I am that might not be the best idea. Having had a look at the bands showcasing in the evenings, I am already struggling to decide as to who to go and see. There are too many clashes, far too many clashes!! Either way, it's going to be fun and I look forward to telling you all about it.