Edinburgh bands

An unexpected treat

bruceonthefringe 2023, Bands, Edinburgh bands, Live bands in Edinburgh, Logan's Close, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

I do like an unexpected treat, especially of the musical variety, so I was delighted yesterday morning to see that The Buccaneers would be playing Stramash at ten in the evening. The band listed to play must have had to cancel late on, three out of the four Buccaneers were available – no complaints here!

They were great, obviously having fun, I even saw the bass player smiling (bass players don’t tend to smile much, really they don’t). The phrase “while the cat’s away, the mice will play” sprung to mind, hahaha, not sure what that would imply about the keyboard player?! It did seem the three were really letting loose but I’m sure a lack of keyboardist had nothing to do with it. More likely because this was the first time in a while that they’ve played together at Stramash, certainly the first time I’ve seen them this year.

I took the opportunity afterwards for a quick catch-up with Carl Marah on Elsie’s antics. Well, there’s been some filming going on in the Voodoo Rooms which apparently did not go as originally planned but possibly worked out better for it. More filming coming up, set accessories are being sort out today – my mind is boggling overtime as it knows which song’s being filmed!! The next single from Heart-shaped Jacuzzi will be available from early March, I’m really really excited about this one!

On the album front, the lads are now in possession of the test pressings of Heart-shaped Jacuzzi, teensy tiny snippets can be heard on their Instagram. There’s still a lot to be done, er, any record companies keen to get in with the awesomeness that is Logan’s Close?! Have I mentioned LC have a show lined up in May? That’s Thursday 18th May at The Caves in Edinburgh, tickets are available now, so if you were thinking of visiting Edinburgh sometime soon …. why not?! (be warned, it’s very likely to be a sell out)

That’s all for now, coming up soon, Fringey bits and a rant. I could have ranted any time in the last week but I thought best to breathe first and see if I still felt annoyed – I do! I’ll leave you with the pic of the pressing and it’s proud parents….

Wetting the baby’s head in The Waverley

Some salad with my blues, please!

bruceonthefringe 2023, Edinburgh bands, Live bands in Edinburgh, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Last week was Independent Venue Week here in the UK, I don’t know much about it except that it champions small independently-owned venues and helps organise events across the country to increase awareness of how important these small venues are to live music. Living where I do, I’m spoilt with the number of music venues around me, you may have noticed from my scribblings!

As part of Independent Venue Week Whistlebinkies focused on bands playing their own original music; in a whole week something was bound to take my fancy! Thursday night saw me going along to witness the spicy, saucy, sultry, stringy, succulent uniqueness of Dr Salad; genre? they call it bad romance (which actually makes some kind of sense when you see them). Dr Salad are a lot of fun, with deep, heavy, infectious rhythms, guitars wandering their own mysterious ways and the words, they’re the saucy, sultry bit! Oh, and there’s some Velvet Rough in the mix helping the medicine go down.

Scotty boy was back out again on Friday evening with his fellow Scat Rat in Stramash, but huh? they were billed as Logan’s Close, well, yes, they are LC as well, but as a duo they’re usually the Scat Rats certainly on early Friday evenings. Last Friday evening was a ticketed event at Stramash, I had my ticket booked for The Black Diamond Express, a local band who play blues with celtic strains and an Americana twang. It was an unexpected bonus to later read that the lads would be on as support, just a short sweet set of delights.

Definitely in Logan’s Close mode – both were looking very smart (Carl always likes to look smart, but, well, Scotty goes for a much more relaxed look as a Rat), and Carl had his electric guitar for that LC sound. All their own songs apart from the usual finale You Can’t Judge a Book… ; including the latest two singles Dans Le Jardin and Heart-shaped Jacuzzi, sweet. The lads went down well with the crowd, as only to be expected, and had Stramash nicely warmed up for the main attraction.

The Black Diamond Express, are a band of many, the stage looked packed out after the sparseness of LC. With that many musicians about, there had to be one I’d seen elsewhere – yes, the bassist, Ewan Gibson. He’s a Buccaneer, one of Nicole’s Back-up Crew, a Blueswaterman, and that’s just the ones I’m aware of, probably a few more, I’m sure.

When The Black Diamond Express came on the place was buzzing and there was soon some jigging about going on in the crowd. For me the fiddle-playing really enhanced the mood of the music and sounded great against the singer (great voice there). Oh, it was all great, I just like a touch of fiddle to add a little pathos and melancholy.

Back in Whistlebinkies on Saturday evening Jed Potts and the Hillman Hunters were playing some of their originals, always a pleasure! Binkies was buzzing, well, Scotland had just beaten England in this year’s Six Nations Rugby Championship, I’m guessing quite a few folk were a few pints in already!

No, I didn’t go to the Handsome House Jam on Sunday evening, I stayed in with the telly. Mind, the video is out and the setlist looks very interesting, I shall have a watch at some point. It was a good night for telly, last episodes of His Dark Materials (god, I’d forgotten how sad the end is) and the utterly brilliant Happy Valley which, happily, finished perfectly! All the coffee shops and cafés in Hebden Bridge will be looking forward to another influx of tourists on the back of it.

The sun’s beckoning me, must head out. There’ll be clips of the bands up on my Instagram later, please do check them out. Cheerio!

The Black Diamond Express

Cheesecake with blues

bruceonthefringe 2023, Beer, Edinburgh bands, Live bands in Edinburgh, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

As weekends go, that was quite a good one. More frozen turkey bits from the Farmers Market (two wings this time, bloody big they are!); also treated myself to some baba ganoush from a relatively new stall which turned out to be seriously yummy. On my way home from the Market, the shop I popped in for a newspaper had Hagan Das Strawberry Cheesecake ice-cream on offer at £3.50!! Oh yes, another treat for my tum.

Plenty of musical delights as well (as previously anticipated) Bones, Rats and a Jam, a veritable cornucopia of rhythm and blues. The double helping of The Scat Rats was great, both in the early evening too, nice. It has occurred to me that the Rats were quite a highlight of last year for me; since their continental jaunts in the first half of the year Messrs Marah and Rough have played Stramash and Whistlebinkies plenty times in their Scat Rats guise – two voices, two guitars, great rhythm’n’blues, love’em!

Sunday evening saw the 100th Handsome House Jam at Stramash with host Tim Elliott, invited along as it was he who hosted the very first Handsome House Jam, nice touch. There were a few guest musicians joining the band on stage, including one of my favourites, Jed Potts. It was a cool, laidback evening, helped along by a couple of pints of Pentland IPA from Stewart’s, the current guest ale; it’s rather nice. I’ll put a couple of clips on my Instagram, for pics check out Waysted Photography on Facebook, he gets amazing shots at gigs around town; last night’s are up on Facebook now.

I’ll leave you with a still of Scott Rough clocking me filming The Scat Rats on Friday evening ….

It’s bin a rubbish week

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Can we rewind back to the 2nd, please? The last morning when I woke up feeling good – what a waste this last week has been! If I could just go back to waking up on the 3rd and find myself gotten over the lurgy while I slept (this can happen, I’ve really felt bad in an evening, all the signs flashing red, then managed a sound sleep and woken feeling fine). I could have gone to see Potts & Smit that evening and been fine for a midnight rendezvous with a couple of Rats the following night. Oh, and The Buccaneers late night at The Jazz Bar, missed that too!

So much for a happy new year! The Scat Rats are playing the midnight set at Whistlebinkies again tonight, not a chance of me going, so not happy. It’s one thing to be ill, everyone gets ill, but I prefer to be ill when I won’t be missing good music. Oh yeah, I did catch some of the Handsome House Jam on Sunday 1st at Stramash – that was good. It was one Gus Munro with the band, I haven’t seen him before, but on checking a previous jam I decided to pop along.

It’s coming back why I missed the first set, His Dark Materials was on the telly and I kinda got caught up in it. If I’d known I was about to be laid low for a week! I have watched both sets since, but it’s not really the same watching on a small screen rather than in Stramash with the atmos and a drink in hand. The Handsome House Jams are filmed and can be seen on Facebook, there’s quite a collection on there (including Carl Marah twice). If you’re ever going to be in Edinburgh on the first or last Sunday of any month the HHJ vids will give you a good indication of what you’ll get in Stramash.

Well, I guess I should to my bed seeing as I’m not trotting up to Binkies. G’night!

I’m just a tad excited

bruceonthefringe 2022, Bands, Edinburgh bands, Logan's Close, Pubs, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

It’s finally here!! Logan’s Close are back in Sneaky Pete’s tonight! Yay! And what a build-up to it over the weekend, couldn’t move without bumping into good music! Friday was the Scat Rats in Binkies, plenty folk were in after office parties, so plenty dancing, myself included.

Saturday evening was back to Binkies for The Moanin Bones on excellent form. After their first set I headed down to Stramash for Black Cat Bone, they were fine but I just wasn’t feeling it so back to Whistlebinkies I headed to catch more of the Bones. As if that wasn’t enough of the talented Mr Buckley, I caught his second set in Stramash the following evening, solo this time. There’s a clip of a rather fine bit of California Dreamin’ on Instagram.

After he was done I nipped over the road to Bannermans for Jed Potts and Nicole Smit playing in the front bar. Yay, another pub with Stewart’s ales and they had Kilted Kiwi on, sweet! (much preferable to Stewart’s festive offering this year). Bannermans is not a place I go in much, I’ve seen the odd band there and if you like your’s metal it’s definitely worth a visit. It was quite a cosy setting on Sunday evening, not metal instead blues and honky tonk, marvellous.

Sometime after ten I trotted back over to Stramash for The Buccaneers, see it pays to keep a watchful eye on social media for who’s playing where. I noted Mr Marah had a new shirt on, apparently he found it in Armstrong’s an emporium of vintage clothing, well-known in Edinburgh for the place to look for something with style.

Well, it’s time to have a nibble or two before I head along to Sneaky’s. Do check out my Instagram @bruceonthefringe for clips of my favourite Edinburgh bands. I’ll leave you with the lovely Nicole and Jed….

No, it wasn’t chianti

bruceonthefringe 2022, Edinburgh, Edinburgh bands, Live bands in Edinburgh, Music, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

If someone told my young self what I cooked for my tea tonight, my response would definitely have been “Yeuck, no way!” Even my teenage self and probably mid-twenties self would have reacted the same; and what is this terrible dish I served up tonight? Liver, a bain of children’s lives, we’re told it’s good for us, certainly the version dished up at school dinners wasn’t!

Mind, I still wouldn’t particularly want liver and onions old-fashioned British style, mine has tomatoes, oregano, garlic, paprika, a generous slosh of red wine and a dod of double cream in there. Sometimes I have it with rice, tonight it was accompanied by sweet potato mash and broccoli. Scrumptious! Oh, and some more of the red wine to wash it down. My young self would not have known what to make of my plate, how times change.

And tonight when I pop along to Stramash, I wouldn’t dream of having a cider, whereas twenty years ago ale would have been my last resort. Umm, it’s over three weeks since I was in Stramash (wow, yeah, that long), there was a very nice new ale from Stewart’s, I do hope it’s there again. Tonight it should be Chris Buckley with the Handsome House Band, then at ten it’s that dynamic, edgy duo The Scat Rats, yay! It’s a fine weekend when I get to see them twice!

They were on the four o’clock slot at Whistlebinkies again yesterday. Now that afternoons are shorter before the darkness descends and temperatures have finally dropped, more folk seem inclined to seek a warm pub much earlier on. Binkies is well placed for people coming or going from the town, music from four is a good enticement to have another drink, especially when it’s this good! Last week Jed Potts & Nicole Smit were dishing up the goodies, and I do believe they’ll be back next Saturday at four, sweet!

I suppose I should do the washing up before I head along. It won’t get done when I get back in, that’s for sure, so I’ll bid you adieu.

Adieu!

Long-forgotten but well-remembered

bruceonthefringe 2022, Edinburgh bands, Hallowe'en, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Dusk yesterday found me at Powderhouse Corner in Holyrood Park with Lady Evil blasting in my ears. What’s that? Lady Evil from Black Sabbath’s first album with Ronnie James Dio singing. Why? I’d been in Fopp on Rose Street earlier and as I moseyed around I started wondering what I was singing along to, I seemed to know all the words, Rainbow, perhaps? No, then it dawned, omg, it was Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell, god knows when I last heard it! There was a time when I loved that album, it was one that I used to “borrow” from my older brother (he had no idea and to keep it that way I handled his records very carefully). He like many others had bought it but then hardly played it because “it wasn’t real Sabbath without Ozzy” it just wasn’t right.

Just listening to it by my young self, outside of the rock fraternity, I had no idea how it had fractured the fans. I remember later on confusing folk by liking that but nothing by Dio (it was much later again before I finally appreciated the earlier albums with Ozzy). Hearing Heaven and Hell again wandering round Fopp was amazing, I remembered why I loved it so much, I would have bought it but at £15 for the CD, no, I’ll have a ganders in some second-hand record shops for it, meanwhile there’s Spotify. And that’s why I was listening to it when I went up into the Park to take some photos. When the last track started I suddenly remembered that was the one that really caught my attention, Lonely Is The Word, bloody brilliant it is. I never did care for anything else Dio did, or much of Ozzy’s own stuff, they don’t move me.

The Moanin Bones didn’t move me on Hallowe’en – they weren’t there to! I heard that apparently someone was still on holiday, well, I hope he’s back as they’re meant to be playing Whistlebinkies this evening. Oh, it’s been posted on Facebook today so there’s a good chance! The post also said Jed Potts & The Hillman Hunters are on at 21:30, yay, twice in one week! Yes, I got me a ticket for the Leith Dockers Club show, definitely was worth going, though an odd venue for them (mind, being a club bar, the drinks were cheap). The band were on fine form, playing some from the new album, some old and some to just mess around with, mighty fineness!

Such a good evening couldn’t end yet, so I headed up to Stramash to catch the Scat Rats second set. They’re playing the midnight slot at Binkies on Sunday but I doubt I’ll be there. I did see them at Hallowe’en as they were pulled in late on to play the seven o’clock set at Stramash, so at least it wasn’t all disappointment that night, and I got to see Carl Marah two nights in a row. On the Sunday evening he was playing with the Handsome House Band being very bluesy (and rather excellent too), I haven’t yet but I’ll put a clip of something up on Instagram.

Stramash really went to town with their Hallowe’en decorations, they looked brilliant, folk with severe arachnophobia would have had a few problems! The bar staff dressed for the occasion too, one guy accessorising with a blow-up chainsaw (first time I’ve seen one of those). Tonight is Bonfire Night here in the UK, I can already hear fireworks exploding in the distance. Ah, for the long-gone years of the village bonfire, firing rockets across the valley out of milk bottles stuck in the ground, Catherine wheels that rarely spun round as well as they should, treacle toffee and parkin.

Its almost time to trot up to Whistlebinkies, best eat first. Toodle pip!

Strictly can wait – I have a date

bruceonthefringe 2022, Edinburgh bands, Good listens, Hallowe'en, Live bands in Edinburgh, Music, Pubs, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

It’s been a week since Logan’s Close released Heart-shaped Jacuzzi, today I realised I’d been whistling it as I headed home from the Farmers Market (just a couple of bits from it over and over and over again). Oh, I inadvertently hum and whistle a lot, only realising I’m doing it when someone gives me a look. People don’t whistle so much anymore, at least not around here, hardly at all I’d say, which is a shame, well, I think it is.

This week saw more new Edinburgh music splash into the streams, yesterday Jed Potts & The Hillman Hunters released a new album Swashbucklin’ (also available in solid form, CD and vinyl). Their gig next week that’s part of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival Autumn Series is now the official album launch show, coincidental timing I gather, at least it saves on organising another show for it (it does seem that the album release date is possibly a tad earlier than expected?) The show is at Leith Dockers Club on Thursday 3rd November; I have no idea where Leith Dockers Club is, presumably in Leith, but am definitely considering getting a ticket.

Mr Potts will be playing at Stramash this evening as part of Nicole & The Backup Crew, unusually they’re playing the seven o’clock slot, yes, I shall be trotting along. I’ll be back there on Sunday evening too for the Handsome House Jam; the Handsome House Band play on the first and last Sundays of the month and invite a guest musician to jam with them – on Sunday it’s Carl Marah, yay! So glad I wondered who the guest was this week, I often don’t think to check.

And as if that wasn’t enough fun for one weekend, Monday night Stramash have the Moanin’ Bones on at ten o’clock at their Hallowe’en Haunted House Party. It’s been a wee while since I last saw them, well looking forward to that! I may even get spookified for the occasion.

Meanwhile back at the Close …… their December show at Sneaky Pete’s sold out a few days ago, but our lads aren’t going to have anyone miss out on their juicy goodness – Logan’s Close will be back in Sneaky’s the following evening (so thats Tuesday 13th) to do it all again!

Must go eat. Toodle pip!