Clubs INTRODUCING . . .
The Balladeers
THE PSYCHEDELIC BALLROOM Residents: Glasgow band The Balladeers: Jackson Scott (guitar and vocals), Gav Troon (bass), Ruaraidh Macleod (drums) and Sean Fitzharris (keyboards, violin). They’ll be playing a live set and DJing afterwards. Guests: For this debut night it’s beard-wearing Glaswegian ambassadors of the psych style The Hidden Masters. They’ll be taking the headline slot and helping out on the decks after. One of their number, Alpha Mitchell, might be familiar to anyone that used to attend Funhouse at the Barfly on Friday nights; he was one of the resident DJs alongside Radio 1’s Vic Galloway.
Music policy: ‘We’re trying to move away from the other garage and psych nights which are out there,’ says Troon. ‘We’ll still play the usual 60s stuff like 13th Floor Elevators, but there’ll be a proggy 70s feel in there too. The plan is to approach it from a different angle with heavier things like Iron Butterfly, Hawkwind, definitely a bit of Black Sabbath.’
What they say: ‘Of course there’s a strong music scene in Glasgow,’ says Troon, ‘but it’s very indie orientated, it seems like there are a lot of bands out there who want to sound like Sigur Ros. Whereas we’ve played plenty of gigs around the city with lots of bands who sound nothing like that, but nobody seems to know about them. So the plan is to try and create a bit of a scene around these groups, while also doing something different to get our own name out there. It’s hard enough to create a following that isn’t just a bunch of mates, and I think people get bored when they see bands playing too often.’ What we say: Both The Hidden Masters and The Balladeers are great young bands who do things differently and do them well (have a listen online for proof). This should be a fine gig, and an education in unfairly unfashionable but excellent musical styles afterwards. (David Pollock) ■ The Psychedelic Ballroom is at the Admiral Bar Basement, Glasgow, Fri 18 Sep.
40 THE LIST 10–24 Sep 2009
www.list.co.uk/clubs
TECHNO PHIL KIERAN Shift at the Soundhaus, Glasgow, Sat 12 Sep; Compakt at Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Fri 18 Sep.
Two techno clubs celebrate their birthday this fortnight. Glasgow’s Shift reach its third while Edinburgh’s Compakt hits its all-important first anniversary, and both nights have decided Belfast boy Phil Kieran would be the perfect guest to help them celebrate. ‘It means they want to put something special on and they decide to pick you, so it’s always nice to be asked,’ says Kieran on being invited to this double bill of birthdays. ‘I’ve played for both guys before and they’re great people so I’m looking forward to both of them.’ Kieran was first hooked on dance music after hearing the likes of Primal Scream’s Screamdelica and Andrew
Weatherall’s DJ sets, but you can still see his love of punk with his Alloy Mental outfit (think The Prodigy but with more guitars). However for these dates he’s putting in a live showcase previewing his debut solo album Shh, on Sven Vath’s label Cocoon. ‘It’s electronica lead by the dancefloor,’ says Kieran.
‘It’s musical and weird and interesting to listen to, but if you turn it up loud enough it still rocks the club.’ Be prepared for a mix of sound and vision as Kieran
links his equipment up to LCD screens with images matched to various beats. ‘There’s a lot of setting up and packing up,’ says
Kieran. ‘You have to take it seriously and keep your wits about you, but there’s the satisfaction of playing your own music and people reacting to it.’ (Henry Northmore)
TRANCE/HARD HOUSE PARKLIFE Strathclyde Country Park, Motherwell, Sat 12 Sep.
It may well be the dying embers of summer, but there’s still time for one last hoorah as Parklife lays its claim as the last dance music festival in Scotland this year. Returning for a second year of trance, hardstyle and commercial dance, the festival presents Inside Out, Goodgreef, Clubland X-Treme and Stereofunk joining forces for four stages of dance action (plus a Skiddle VIP House Tent) with a big line- up boasting Eddie Halliwell, Sander van Doorn, Judge Jules, Showtek, Tidy Boys, Kutski, Mark Breeze, Alex K, Ultrabeat, Darren Styles, Dana and many more as an up-for-it crowd of 7000 take over Strathclyde Country Park.
Some readers may be forgiven for a feeling of déjà vu, as many of
these names also played the event last year. ‘Eddie Halliwell’s our biggest DJ and he’s headlining for the second year primarily because last year he was so good,’ says director (and Inside Out resident) Simon Foy. ‘He’s doing an “Ed-It” concept set, it’s an audio-visual experience, so it is markedly different, but I think there are enough changes while keeping the firm favourites in place. Where we’ve kept some things we’ve been conscious of changing other things and we’ve got better set times for certain acts. For example, we had Showtek last year but they had to leave really early because they had a gig in Holland, whereas this year they get a much better time.’ After selling out in 2008, Parklife is wisely sticking with a philosophy
of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’. (Henry Northmore)
Eddie Halliwell Captain Corelli’s Mandolin