Music
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‘PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR MORE FROM THEIR NIGHT OUT’ Hitlist THE BEST ROCK, POP, JAZZ & FOLK*
✽✽ Alabama 3 The makers of ‘country acid house music’ continue their MDMA tour. Carling Academy, Glasgow,, Thu 11 Dec. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ The Skatalites Two dates from the Jamaican ska outfit most famous for ‘Guns of Navarone’. See preview, page 74. Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Thu 11 Dec; Arches, Glasgow, Sat 13 Dec. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ The Vaselines These recently reunited Glasgow punk- rockers were good enough to impress fellow Sub-Popper Kurt Cobain. And he knew his stuff. See preview, page 74. ABC, Glasgow, Fri 12 Dec. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Stereolab Tim and Laeticia continue to ‘wow and flutter’, as their kosmische adventure continues. Oran Mor, Glasgow, Tue 16 Dec. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Malcolm Middleton See preview, left. Fairfield Working Men’s Club, Glasgow, Fri 19 Dec. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Idlewild Folky, melodic musings as the band perform a different album of theirs every night. See preview, page 74. King Tut’s, Glasgow, Wed 17 Dec–Sun 21 Dec. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Biffy Clyro ‘’Mon the biffy!’ This one’s already a sell-out, from Ayrshire’s beardy, anthemic rockers. SECC, Glasgow, Sat 20 Dec. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Glasgow’s Hogmanay Part two of Paolo’s double city, one night-tour, plus performances in George Square from Idlewild and Bleachie. See feature, page 13–16. Various venues, Glasgow, Wed 31 Dec. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Edinburgh’s Hogmanay How will you bring in the Bells? Groove Armada are playing the Gardens, Glasvegas are warming up the party then Hot Chip DJs are hitting the Cab. See feature, page 13–16. Various venues, Edinburgh, Wed 31 Dec. (Rock & Pop) 11 Dec 2008–8 Jan 2009 THE LIST 73
Seasons greetings He may not be bumping the Queen’s speech from the schedules any time soon but Malcolm Middleton’s festive hoedown is a stormer, reckons Malcolm Jack
L ike microwaveable turkey dinners, borderline alcoholism and falling out with your siblings, Malcolm Middleton is in danger of becoming
something of an unhappy seasonal institution.
The ex-Arab Strap guitarist’s bid for a Christmas number one last December with ‘We’re All Going To Die’ ended only in a Christmas number 31, despite heavy championing from Radio 1’s Colin Murray. But his campaign still captured many imaginations along the way, as a valiant attempt by a rank outsider (Middleton’s odds started out at 1000/1) to offer an honest alternative to the usual mix of novelty trash and X Factor cash-ins that clog the charts in December. A year on, Middleton’s hosting a Christmas party, Burst Noel, at Fairfield Working Men’s Club in Govan, headlined by himself plus full band, with support from De Rosa, Strike the Colours, The Phantom Band and a DJ set by Aidan Moffat (there willll also be an ominously and vaguely titled ‘Evil Santa’s Grotto’). Middleton’s getting all seasonal on us again seems surprising, considering his less than cheery attitudes to the festive period after last year’s experience. ‘I wouldn’t like to think of myself as a Christmas institution.’ he grumbles, deadpan, ‘Last year was just a laugh that got out of hand. After that fiasco, I came to . . . detest it a little bit. It’s fun to look back on, but I came out of it relatively scathed.’
Burst Noel was actually scheduled simply because Middleton hasn’t played many Glasgow dates this year. ‘So I thought I’d do something different and get a load of bands I want to see myself on the same night,’ he explains. ‘I wanted to make it an office party type vibe,
rather than just getting a normal venue. It’s like Phoenix Nights in there. It’s quite 60s in décor and stuff, and it’s cheap drink and it’ll be different to going to some dark, soulless club where you get kicked out straight after. The idea is to make it a fun evening not just about one band but the whole affair.’ For a while around the turn of last year, Middleton seemed on the verge of an unlikely mainstream breakthrough with all the exposure the Christmas number one hoodoo gifted him. ‘It wasn’t really exposure though,’ he says, ‘it was more like shining the headlights on a stunned rabbit or something.’
He remains prolific however: Middleton has knocked out four solo albums in six years (most recently March’s acoustic record Sleight of Heart), and work is already under way on album five, even though, he admits, ‘musical fatigue’, ‘despondency’ and ‘cynicism’ are all setting in. ‘It’ll probably come out in the spring. Then it’ll be back into the usual cycle of touring. I’d like to try something different from the same routine I’ve had for the past 15 years, but I’m not sure what that should be.’ Ah, cheer up now, ‘tis the season to be jolly. What was
his all time favourite Christmas present?
‘It was an inflatable Spiderman punch bag I got when I was wee. I ran into the room and punched it once and it hit off the edge of a unit and burst.’
Jings, that explains a lot. Need we ask what
Middleton’s hoping Santa will bring him this year?
‘Yeah, an inflatable Spiderman punch bag.’
The Burst Noel Christmas Party, Fairfield Working Men’s’ Club, Govan, Fri 19 Dec.