Australian bands

Snappy titles aren’t always obvious

bruceonthefringe 2024, Australian bands, Live bands in Edinburgh, Uncategorized, Yorkshire Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Wednesday night in The Jazz Bar was a blast, the Blueswater were out to have fun and spread some joy; after a long, very wet journey it was exactly what this moose needed. Great music and fiery ginger beer, much to warm the soul!

Yes, I’d been back down in Yorkshireland for a week, dogsitting and sorting through more of mother’s things. It’s not the clearing out that’s hard, a tad sad at times, yeah; it’s the siblings later airing their views on everything I’ve done, why, where, who did I ask?! And then there’s particular items that none of us personally want to keep, but neither do we want them gone, so everyone wants another to say they’ll have it (disgruntled airs all round). Mind you, sometimes a couple of days of mulling can help, feelings assessed and resolved; all part of the process.

Whilst down, I was also under instruction to not let the garden birds go hungry! (this will also be pointed out to whoever buys the house) Mother had two bird feeders in a little tree postioned in sight of the kitchen window. The view takes away the drudgery of washing up, it can also slow the job right down as one stands enchanted by the birds. There’s house sparrows, tree sparrows, dunnocks, a robin, the occasional blackbird, blue tits, coal tits, great tits, a whole gang of goldfinches (six or seven always turn up together) and a pair of nuthatches. I was leaving all the evenings washing up to do in the mornings (okay, so I often do, but this time it really made sense!).

a nuthatch, a regular guest

I had thought I’d be playing Christmas tunes on my journey back up, with it being December now – where Christmas music belongs. The inclement weather demanded something more exhilarating and brash to keep me going, so I stuck with my downward choice of Live Forever by The Screaming Jets. I’d grabbed it as something a little different as I was leaving the moose cave. It’s a 2 cd set but I mainly stuck to Part 1, let’s just say, I had all the words down by the time I arrived in the Old Town. I would recommend it as great Aussie rock, but it may be difficult to find as the band released it themselves back in 2001, then again, as it’s from a concert all the songs can be found elsewhere.

A couple of years ago I did my own take on an advent calendar, for the 24 days running up to the Logan’s Close gigs at Sneaky Pete’s, I put up pictures of Close signposts around the Old Town on my Instagram stories. This time I thought I’d have a look back at live music I’ve enjoyed through 2024 (I may make an exception of clips from previous years’ Blue Christmas shows, I reckon that’s allowed). Oh, if you want to check them out it’s @bruceonthefringe and they’ll all be in the Advent 24 highlights for later viewings.

Today’s door is yet to be opened, it is rather late but hey, that’s musicians for you! Today’s clip will be Carl Marah playing one of his own at the Auld Hundred a few weeks back; he’s just announced that there’s solo stuff on the way, so it kinda fitting. This is such a great picture of him from his post (taken by John Mackie), you really have to see it…

Carl Marah, solo

Toodle pip!

So long, farewell, ta-ra, toodle pip!

bruceonthefringe Australian bands, Edinburgh Fringe, Music, Music shows, Theatre, Uncategorized, Weather Tags: , , , , , , 1 Comment

No! Not me! I’m still here! Many shows only come for one week, so now just as the party is really getting going, some are packing up and leaving us. Nevertheless, their flyerers were out yesterday, desperately drumming up one last audience. I bumped into the delightful pair from Uke Belong To Me on the Royal Mile still flyering only an hour before their final show and Stiffs were about; saw them on Friday evening, a great two-hander, I except to see more of those young chaps in the future.

The Aspirations of Daise Morrow finishes today; a beautiful production with live music, served up with brash aussie humour and pathos. It’s a shame that the heavens have opened and today all day is forecast wet, wet, and more wet! Yup, at the realisation that the boys of the Ukulele Death Squad are soon to depart us, the Edinburgh skies are already sobbing. One last soldout show at Leith Depot tonight and before that something at the Book Festival, that’s gonna be soggy, guys! I saw them last night for their soldout Assembly show, awesome, just one thing could have made it better, if we’d been able to get up and dance (more on that later). I’d set myself up nicely by nipping into the Cowshed on the Cowgate to catch Logan’s Close set earlier on, the place was jumpin’!

Let’s hope the skies cheer up soon, after all, tomorrow is another week! New shows will take the slots vacated. So it’s goodbye from them and hello to them others 😆

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Antipodeans at Large

bruceonthefringe Antipodean acts, Australian bands, Badges, Edinburgh Fringe, Music, Music shows, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Just looked up antipodes in my dictionary, it said “places diametrically opposite (to each other), esp. Australasia as region on opposite side of earth to Europe.” Hmmm, so technically we’re antipodean to someone living in Auckland or Melbourne. It’s just that we stuck in on Australasia first, or they bagsied the word. Personally I think it’s a great word, an-tipo-des, it trips off the tongue.

But why did you need to look it up, Bruce, didn’t you know what it means? Yes, but I wanted to be sure, words can be such tricksy things. Like on that last paragraph I was going to continue the sentence on “and it evokes” but the words of what it evokes escaped me! There is evoking going on it’s just indescribable for a moose.

I have a slightly better chance of describing how good the Modern Maori Quartet: Two Worlds were this afternoon, awesome! And not just great singing, the storyline was a slow reveal as we learnt more about the characters, their current situation and their truths. Yes, the truth will set you free (very important to the show) but, as shown it can be hard to admit and own. Some thought-provoking stuff going on, all delivered with that wry, no-nonsense antipodean humour. So if you have a mid afternoon free, you could do a helluva lot worse!

And while I’m on antipodeans, I’m sooo looking forward to seeing the Ukulele Death Squad this evening. Also from Oz, The Aspirations of Daise Morrow is on at the Assembly George Square Gardens in the wonderful Spiegeltent Palais Du Variete, but be warned, it’s after lunch, in a warm tent, beautiful soothing live music and lazy aussie drawls. Yeah, do go see it but have a coffee first! And have I mentioned how delightful Felicity Ward was?

Oo yeah, badges, to misquote Blazing Saddles “we DO need stinkin’ badges”, extra points to shows with free badges at the end. For a few years plenty of shows were giving out badges,  not so many now. Yay, to Tom Neenan and the Modern Maori Quartet for having badges, my only two so far.

Well it’s nearly time for me to trot down Leith Walk to see the Squad. This fringing and blogging thing is tricky, I want to tell you about all the brilliant stuff going on here – but I’m too busy out enjoying it!!

Toodle pip!

 

 

It’s only rock’n’roll but I like it!

bruceonthefringe a rant, Australian bands, Edinburgh Fringe, Friend of the Fringe, Fringe history, Fringe Venues, Music, Music shows, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

So last night was a bit of alright! I was in the Voodoo Rooms (Venue 68 come August, very nice but rather warm, real ale in the bar) for the launch of Logan’s Close new EP “Fried Bangers.” Sold out so it was very packed and very warm. I got there shortly after the second band came on (sorry to Shredd, I’m sure you were awesome too), Ayakara who were pretty fine. There was a good contingent of their fans in the crowd (they knew the words!)  After procuring myself a pint of Joker IPA I found a good spot to see the band and be faintly wafted by what air-con there was from time to time, unfortunately as usual some beanpoles took up their strategic positions to block at least half the band from sight at any given moment.

Pardon me a little rant here. So okay, I am quite a shortarse but even average-sized humans can’t compete with those guys and they do like to go centre towards the front. Beanpole may not have been the correct word, that suggests tall and thin, these guys are pretty often quite broad, not easy to see around! There should be a line three-quarters of the way back that anyone over six foot has to stand behind – it’s not like they wouldn’t be able to see over our heads!!    And breathe.

Where was I? Being gently wafted before getting another pint of Jokers and wading back in to find a spot to watch the Close. This time I was at the side, a better view than I would have had in the now packed out centre, but no wafts to cool me down. Oh, the lads were on top form! Just, just, bloody marvellous, shit hot, astoundingly awesome! These are the guys I’ve been waiting for, finally a band worthy of the rock’n’roll crown hung up since the demise of Nick Johnson and Bluefinger!

I first saw Bluefinger in 1988 in the then Preservation Hall and followed all incarnations of the band until Nick left Edinburgh for Spain permanently  (he had been semi-regularly coming back over to play but had decided it was time to stop) and was sadly killed in an motorcycling accident about a year or so later in 2010. Bluefinger were a force of nature, even when it was only Nick on guitar and Ed on flamenco box drum, they rocked up a storm in Whiski on the Royal Mile during the Fringe in 2007. Bud and I would wander in late after a show, sit at the bar and soak up the vibes, and when Ed would do his box solo in Not Fade Away, wow, people would get up from their seats, crane their necks, a mass movement towards the band to see how one guy’s hands could create such a sound. Ed was always good but some nights he was totally “in the zone”, man, I will never forget how great those nights were.

Aaand, back to Logan’s Close again. Indeed, I get the same feeling of blissed-out happy watching them; Big Nick would approve of them inheriting his crown. But will they be playing Edinburgh during the Fringe – you may wonder, oh yes!! If you’ve read my early posts you may have spotted that I must have broken my self-imposed Fringe Code if I am aware of this fact. Okay, so I get emails from the Fringe whenever a new batch of shows are up online; I just had to check if the Ukulele Death Squad were coming back (yippee, they are), at the same time I noticed the Close were playing, and at a venue I’ve never been to before, ooo.

I also spotted Bon the Musical, yes, a musical about Bon Scott!! I’m not sure how I feel about it, if they don’t get it right it could be terribly wrong! Maybe I’ll check reviews before I commit to it, at £12 a ticket that could be a big mistake. Mind there’s always the chance they may put some tickets for sale at the Half Price Hut. There’s also the fact I am still a Friend of the Fringe which brings the benefit of 2for1 tickets for a long list of shows which this year includes all three shows mentioned above 😊. I could purchase pairs of tickets, then offer the pleasure of my company and a half price ticket on Facebook, I could, it might be quite fun.

Toodle pip!

 

 

Tidy flat up ✔

bruceonthefringe Australian bands, Edinburgh Fringe, Ticket prices, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

So that’s all my ironing finally up to date – who knew a moose could own so many shirts?! I do also iron my bedsheets, that first night getting in between clean, ironed sheets is bliss. What?! So I’m a moose who likes his home comforts, what’s wrong with that?

The kitchen surfaces are visible again, I have clean glasses and mugs and all the pizza boxes are gone (there is a rather good, cheap pizza takeaway just up the road where I can pop my head through the door and though there may be a crowd between me and the counter an exchanged nod has my funghi pizza on the go). All the pots and pans are back in the cupboard, neglected plants are all watered.

My Ukulele Death Squad cd has been a great accompaniment, some tunes really are worthy of a Tarantino soundtrack. Keeping with the aussie theme, after about the fourth playthrough I put on some Screaming Jets to keep the cleaning pace up. Maybe some AC/DC later on? Oh yeah, there’s an INXS album somewhere around (yes, that would be a vinyl album) haven’t played that for years.

Fringe Fund checked and approved. Another Fringe over with some left in the kitty, yay. So that was 44 shows in total: 12 previews, 5 Assembly residents offer, 1 241 Tuesday,  10 Half Price Hut,  2 Pay What You Want,  5 Free Fringe and 9 full price tickets. And despite the rants of some folk about how expensive Fringe tickets are (they seem to think all shows cost at least £15), my average price has been under £6 a ticket! Ok, so I have not included the booking fees of £7.20 in that, but that would still be under £6.

I didn’t even use any of my Friends of the Fringe 241 deals, mind if we’d arranged to see Aidan Goatley a day later that would have been one. So is it worth still being a Friend of the Fringe? Well, I did make the most of this year’s new benefit of being able to buy Half Price Hut tickets in the Friends of the Fringe Hut, really that saved a lot of queuing and no booking fees!

Still nibbling my way through a Fringe chocolate bar. This year Edfringe In Your Mouth was launched and very tasty it is too, especially the Dark Chocolate with Rose Oil – there’s rose petals in it too! As a young moose I didn’t care for dark chocolate, but in the last few years I’ve come to appreciate the luxurious, velvetiness of the dark side. One small piece savoured is enough at a time. After all, a little of what you fancy does you good!

 

 

 

 

Bang Bang, they shot me down!

bruceonthefringe Australian bands, Edinburgh Fringe, Music shows, Uncategorized Tags: , , , Leave a comment

They came, they saw, they uked! The Ukulele Death Squad are on a mission to make ukuleles cool and they’re taking no prisoners. Edinburgh is already fairly uke-friendly, they found some local ukers to be support act at their shows. After their second show they went into town to do some late night busking and ended up getting two evening slots at M2 on top of  Waverley Mall! These guys never stop!

They hail from Australia as many great Fringe acts have. Julian and Benjamin seem to be the front guys with a sax player and a bass ukulele player. First impressions can be very important, in a darkened, rather hot room, suited up with shades – cool as fuck! In the shades and suit Benjamin looked like Ben Affleck as the Matt Murdock side of Daredevil (Yeah, not a good film, but that’s what immediately sprang into my head) and Julian? If Jim Henson had made an Aussie, wild-haired, ukulele-playing larrikin muppet, his name would Julian. He is the heart and soul of the band, his rendition of Bang Bang was amazing, the whole band really go for it on this one, it’s still popping out of my head at really intervals. As an earworm it would definitely be in my top ten.

Luckily I spotted on Facebook about the M2 slots, so I caught them again, this time with room for a little dancing, yay! They loved Edinburgh right back and said they intend to return next year, until then I have their CD. Perhaps for next year there’ll be a new CD that includes the song about the sax player’s adventures in London?

In fact, let’s have an Aussie musical invasion next year! The return of the Melbourne Ska Orchestra would be most welcome (though in a better venue for dancing in – the Assembly Checkpoint?) and it’s been some time since the Suitcase Royale parked themselves at the Fringe.

Come on, cobbers! Come on back to Edinburgh 😎😎