It’s after midnight, so it’s just less than three weeks to the start of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, oops, I may need to get my skates on, if I could just remember where I put them! I’ve been distracted by glorious sunny days and evenings fulled with the sweetest sounds (well, nine out of the last fourteen evenings). Yes, I most certainly had to see the Scat Rats three times, and I had to see Louis Crosland playing solo, with his band and with the Moanin’ Bones. Jed Potts was on the early Saturday afternoon slot with that queen of soulful sass Nicole Smit, then he turned up the following Sunday evening, not quite as the poster advertised, playing blues with Jonny Christie on drums and the long not seen Ewan Gibson on bass! A welcome surprise (well, he needs the practice with the Blueswater Fringe gigs coming up, haha).
It’s a regular occurrence for Scott to snap strings but it’s much rarer to see an electric guitar string go!
I also saw Mr Marah twice more – with band at McChuills in Glasgow and solo as first support in Sneaky Pete’s on Friday (picking up my copy of his new EP Me, Myself and I). Unfortunately, due to tardiness and an accident on the motorway slowing traffic, I missed some of the Niche Family set. I did want to see it all as the singer/guitarist is Stuart Neil, that’s Big Stu, bassist and harmonies in Logan’s Close. Did I mention I’d caught them a few weeks earlier in Binkies and thoroughly enjoyed them? Their support slot for Carl was going to be the band’s last gig together, the Glasgow crowd gave them a good send-off, the poignancy of the moment was palpable. Second support were the Black Denims, more country sounds (there does seem to be more honkytonk, americano sounds over West!)
It was a very warm evening, thank god for the AC in the venue room, a shame there wasn’t any in the bar itself, the wall of heat hit hard and the temperature outside wasn’t much cooler. I just grabbed another drink and headed back in to stand in the sweet spot to get maximum benefit from the AC until it was time for the main act. I did move right up near the front but soon moved back as it was way too loud for me, I did try the earplugs available at the bar but they were rubbish and really dunted Carl’s vocals and guitar, a lesson to remember to have my good earplugs with me, just in case. After a couple of songs I went closer again, this time making use of all the lanky beanpoles as shields between me and the speakers, while at the same time being in a reasonable position to see through the gaps.
《It’s very late now, I’m away to my bed, will finish this in the morning》
I’m back, thinking how much more was I going to say, except for it was another brilliant gig. Cat’s Eyes just gets better and better with each live performance and Roll the Dice was an absolute treat for the soul, Me, Myself and I exquisite! The sparse chill of World Keeps Turning especially the keyboards and Carl’s guitar sound had me thinking of Tom Waits; watching the bit that I filmed, yup, I still hear it (in fact, yeah, it’s going up on Instagram, why not). On drums for the evening it was Carl’s other drummer, Ryan Bradley (previously seen on Mam Talent with Carl), a snug fit. The EP is a thing of beauty but live is when Carl’s music really shines. If anyone knows how do a decent bootleg recording …!
On recordings, Logan’s Close are currently down in London town for a couple of weeks recording their second album, yay, whoop!! (see now why I was getting my fill before the dynamic duo disappeared south!) Then at the start of August, in fact on Fringemas Eve (Tuesday 4th August) Logan’s Close are playing support in La Belle Angele for Zambian band W.I.T.C.H. (We Intend To Cause Havoc), I’ve checked them out on Spotify, African rhythms meet psychedelic rock, and boy, sounds like a great way to kick off my Fringe!
That’s all for now. Next time I’ll be musing on the Theatre offerings in the Fringe programme. Toodle pip!
Bruce on the Fringe 