Attic Lights, Wickerman Festival 2008 - by edinburgh photographer on flickr

A lot of up and coming bands come through our door.  A lot of those bands show a massive amount of talent. Naturally I prefer some bands sessions to others, but I have begun to start noticing a theme running through all my favourite sessions… they have all been well mannered bands who aren’t big headed and are genuinely appreciative of the support we’ve just given them.

Favourite sessions include The Little Kicks, Frank Turner, The Red Light Company, Mia Riddle and our most recent session… the Attic Lights.

Attic Lights are an up and coming indie band from Glasgow who have had a fantastic 2008 and by the looks of things are going to have an even better 2009. Their debut album “Friday Night Lights” is one of those albums that you can listen to from start to finish and not skip any track, something I find very rare these days.

When they came in on Sunday, Andrew spoke to them about the recent news that they had been asked by Channel Five to perform the theme tune for the newly recommissioned 80’s comedy drama Minder… they then performed the theme for us.

A bizarre but rather enjoyable session.

You can download the session (including an acoustic version of Wendy) and the interview on Episode 52 of the Sunday Showcase podcast.

The Red Light Company were in for a session yesterday.  They’re a new band with hints of the Arcade Fire in them.  They’ve recently been added to the playlist at Radio 1 (which tends to be a sign that you’re getting recognised even if you don’t agree 100% with everything Radio 1 plays).

Really nice bunch of guys too.  Hear their session on the show this Sunday from 6pm, www.originalfm.com

They played Drummonds in Aberdeen last night. Would have gone had I not been up for work at 5am this morning.

They also performed at the Electric Proms recently, click here for more.

David

First off, apologies for a lack of posts recently.  I’ve been busy, very busy, I’ve also not got a lot to say.

Secondly, Oasis at the Electric Proms on BBC Two and Radio 1 last night, easily the best piece of broadcasting to come out of the BBC all year.  I’m going to see Oasis on Sunday night. I really wish they’d bring the Crouch End Festival choir with them.

You’ve got till next Sunday to watch the gig on the IPlayer here, or listen to it on Radio 1 here. If you listen to the Radio 1 version you’ll get the whole gig rather than just the highlights but being radio, naturally, you won’t see it!

David

One of the most anticipated albums of the year for many, including me, is out on September 8th.

This still being the early days of my radio career and being my first year at a ‘proper’ radio station, it was quite an exciting moment for me recieving the promo ‘watermarked’ ‘embargoed’ copy of Glasvegas’s debut album. Watermarked in that if I were to leak it to the internet, they’d know who did it. Embargoed in that I can listen to it as many times as I want but I can’t play it on the radio till the 1st of September.

What was also quite exciting was getting to interview James and Rab from the band. All be it I was sitting in Aberdeen and they were sitting down a very long line in London (so I can’t claim I met them). Interesting Glasvegas fact, James used to play for Falkirk. He at least pretended to be slightly interested when I informed him that he helped my brother win the cup final in Championship Manager some years back.

I’m not too good at music reviewing. But I can say one thing, the album is completely worth the hype.

Look out for “Flowers and Football Tops”. The album version is more polished than all the demo versions on the internet, it also includes a hair raising chorus of “You Are My Sunshine” at the end of the track.

David

Biffy Clyro played a gig in Shetland 5 years ago.  I didn’t know much about them, but when you’re 16, living in Shetland, when a band play you go see them just because it’s unusual for a mainland band to play Shetland.

Now that they are quite big, it would have been a great story to say I saw them when they were small and thought they were brilliant.  But that would be a lie. I thought they were awful.

Then about a year later they released a song called Only One Word Comes to Mind.  It was spectacular. And I started to like Biffy.

Fast forward a few years and the first single of their next album is just… stunning.

Mountains is the name of the song.  The BBC used it as the title music for their T In The Park coverage (awful presenting, but don’t let that put you off the song).

I have had it on repeat for a week and yet to grow sick of it.

Biffy Clyro - Mountains:

While we’re on the subject of Scottish artists. I listened to Amy Macdonald’s album This Is The Life for the first time in a few months the other day.  It was one of those albums that I slowly got sick of, having heard it so many times. But after a few months break, it was sounding lovely again. Pity on the tv coverage of T In The Park you could quite clearly see her expensive wedding ring.  Rubbish.

Amy Macdonald - Let’s Start a Band:

Memo to Simon Neil and the Biffy Boys:
As much as I enjoy your music, you don’t need to get naked on stage for me to enjoy it.  Thank you.

Memo to Amy Macdonald:
You don’t want to marry him. If you like your older man then I’m one, by 6 months.

Just received a call from Emma with a query about who is to headline the Pet Sounds stage on Sunday at T in the Park.  Rumours were speculating around the site that it could be someone big disguised under a fake alias. Not having the internet to hand, Emma needed me to have a look.

The band in question are “Eddie & the Robbers”.  But exactly who are they? Eddie Grant? Eddie Stobart? Eddie Jordan?  Don’t be ridiculous… no wait, it is Eddie Jordan, the famous and rather rich Formula 1 boss.

He has is own band. He plays the drums in them, and they are called V10. Eddie & the Robbers are a cut down band who are touring some festivals this summer.

So why are they headlining? Are they any good?  Probably not.  Is it part of a massive cover up for some sort of massive band? Doubtful. Is there some sort of sponsorship deal involving lots of money?  Who could possibly say.

But in other T in the Park news, the weather is looking quite good at the moment, despite what my post yesterday said.  Wish I was there now (if only to find out more about Eddie & the Robbers).

David

Further reading:
NME.com - Formula One’s Eddie Jordan to headline T In The Park
V10 The Band
Eddie & the Robbers - Festival Forums

I’ve always been a semi fan of Coldplay. A lot of their material I like, a lot I hate. One of the funniest lines from Peep Show ever was “People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can’t trust people!” However I couldn’t wait to hear Coldplay’s much anticipated and incredibly catchy titled new album “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends“.

A copy arrived the other day, and on first listen I wasn’t that impressed. I’d already heard the title track and Violet Hill which on first listens I thought were both good songs, but as for the album, I felt it lacked something. I got to the last track and just thought “is that it?”

But I was aware that a lot of songs and albums take time to grow on me, so I put the album on my IPod and had it on rotation all weekend and I think it has finally clicked. Some observations… You need to listen to it from start to finish in the right order before it finally makes sense. For this reason I don’t think it’s very radio friendly, I can’t see how there can be many singles coming off of it. It’s very different to their previous work and I don’t think there are many anthemic tracks on it (no Scientists or Fix You’s).

The album is released on Thursday (randomly, most albums are released on Monday’s). But if you can’t wait till then, you can hear it all on their Myspace page. I would however warn, from past experience, it’s always nice to hear a brand new album in full proper CD quality and not being streamed off a Myspace page. So you may just want to wait till Thursday.

Best song on the album, Lost!

Conclusion. After the first listen I thought it was a bit of let down. After listen number 4 it is finally clicking into place. By listen number 8 it will probably be a stroke of genius.

David

Rockness - Who Can Beat It? by CapnOats’ on Flickr

Emma and her friends are off to Rockness tomorrow morning to partake in a weekend of live music and camping.

On being asked by one of her friends during the week “do you not wish you were going David?”, the simple answer was “no!”

As much as a like live music, drinking outside and uncooked food from burger vans, it’s the camping the puts me off. I’m a little bit scruffy, but even I couldn’t cope with 3 days of no showers, shared toilets and a lack of electricity.

So Emma and co, I’ll be thinking of you on Sunday morning when I contemplate getting out of bed to go and have a shower in my nice, warm, dry, clean (ish) flat.

Andrew with Mia Riddle and Dan Berry

We had one of my favourite sessions on the show this week, Mia Riddle, a folk singer song writer all the way from Brooklyn. She’s fantastic. And she’s only signed in Japan, she really should be signed here… if only I owned a record company.

I got a copy of her new album which is going to be out in about July, very nice. Look out for it.

Here’s my favourite song from the session, City Song:

royworld, taken by og2t on Flickr

I got myself a copy of Man In The Machine, the debut album from Royworld at the weekend and since then it’s been on heavy rotation on my IPod. It’s brilliant.

Emma and I were at their gig in Glasgow last month, going to see them on the strength of a couple of songs, and it was a really good (all be it quiet) gig.

I even got a little excited one day when I heard Radio 1 play them during the day. It’s quite unusual to hear Radio 1 play a song I like on daytimes these days. Original 106 have been playing them quite a bit recently too.

My main problem with Royworld isn’t their music or their act, but their name. It’s not the coolest of names out there is it? Think of someone you know called Roy and I reckon that person you think of isn’t very cool. I don’t know any Roy’s personally, so I immediately think of Roy Cropper from Coronation Street. Not exactly the image you want for your band.

That said it is a good album and well worth a listen, even if it sounds a little 80’s-ish. Sadly I don’t they will ever be huge. I think they will be one of those bands who in a few years time you’ll hear a song on the radio from them and say “Remember Royworld? They were great, what ever happened to them?” I’d like to be proved wrong.

Man In The Machine was out yesterday. Same Sun is my favourite track on the record:

David