Festival Music
much ground zero for Glasgow’s entire indie scene, although MacFarlane will soon be moving out to live with his no doubt Yokoesque girlfriend. Still, at least the band, who met at
school in Kilmarnock, have a fine debut album to show for the era in The Peters Port Memorial Service, which was composed in the bedroom of MacFarlane’s brother – the band’s drummer, who goes by the nickname Raindeer. It’s a lovely record with a weird indie-folk aesthetic, kind of like a more eccentric Broken Social Scene, and confirms the quartet as one of Scotland’s current finest. ‘Kate Nash reviewed the last single from it in the NME,’ reports MacFarlane gleefully, ‘and she said something like it would be a great song to listen to at a festival as the sun’s going down. I think that meant she liked it. I’m taking that as a “yes”, anyway.’ (David Pollock) ■ Electric Circus, 226 4224, Wed 11 Aug, 7pm, £6.50. Part of The Edge Festival.
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McGregor, Meow Meow and plenty more. Burlesque artiste Gypsy Charms will be performing ballet burlesque, Mr B “The Gentleman Rhymer” will do his “chap-hop”, plus there’s circus tricks, comedy, dance. A little bit of everything really.’
The night is hosted at Ghillie Dhu, open for its first Fringe as a dedicated cabaret venue. ‘It’s a really glam, glitzy setting for a night out. They do table service too – so you can sit back and enjoy the show as a bottle of wine makes it’s way over to you from the bar.’ (Claire Sawers) ■ Vive Le Cabaret, Ghillie Dhu, 556 6550, 7–30 Aug, 9.30pm, £12.50 (£10.50). Previews until 6 Aug, £7.50.
LACH’S ANTIHOOT Scene-shaping NYC anti-folk night
‘The Antihoot is the heartbeat of the anti-folk revolution,’ explains its infamous founder, Lach. ‘It produced US acts like Regina Spektor, Beck and Jeffrey Lewis, and inspired UK practitioners like Kate Nash and Laura Marling.’ It also prompted many to christen our
singer-songwriter and raconteur a ‘living legend’ on account of his unplugged, punk-spirited Antihoot – New York’s longest-running open-mic
KITTY, DAISY & LEWIS Sibling rock ‘n’ rollers with retro leanings
‘I’m really looking forward to it, because we haven’t done Scotland yet,’ 17-year-old Kitty Durham says about playing Edinburgh. Durham fronts the youthful retro three-piece, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, with her brother and sister. The north London trio have played everywhere else, from Blue Peter to Glastonbury, since getting together ten years ago during an impromptu jam session in a Camden pub.
‘When we were growing up,’ Kitty says, ‘we listened to all kinds of
random stuff – swing, jump blues, country and western, Hawaiian, R&B, rock‘n’roll – and our mum and dad [now backing musicians for their kids] encouraged us to pick up instruments and play along. We’d just get them out and bash them around. ‘ We can expect more of the same, albeit with musical refinement, from
the multi-instrumental trio at the forthcoming gig, plus natty vintage outfits and, hopefully, a few new songs from their much-anticipated but frustratingly delayed second studio album.
‘We’ve got an eight-track tape machine that Ray Charles actually recorded on,’ Kitty says. ‘We recorded four tracks and then it broke down. We’re trying to figure out what we’re gonna do.’ (Miles Fielder) ■ Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, Electric Circus, 226 4224, 8 Aug, 7pm, £8. Part of The Edge Festival.
So if it’s not porn, or a game show,
what exactly should we expect?
‘It’s a chance to see the best of the Fringe, in one enchanting evening,’ says Laidlaw, who organises cabaret events year round, with her company Blonde Ambition. ‘No two shows are the same – we have guest spots from comedian Phil Nichol, chanteuses Ali
VIVE LE CABARET Nightly Vaudevillian glamour
Willkommen, bienvenue, and welcome to a new nightly cabaret show, hosted by Des O’Connor. But calm yourselves, game show fans, Mister Take Your Pick Des O’Connor is not coming to the Fringe. ‘No, it’s not the orange faced one of the telly,’ points out Vive Le Cabaret’s producer, Julie Ann Laidlaw. ‘Our Des O’Connor comes with white panda face paint, and a white suit. He’s king of the burlesque scene. He hosts the night, singing songs with his ukelele.’ Surely that must cause confusion,
The List suggests?
‘Yes,’ agrees Laidlaw. ‘But not as much as Sarah-Louise Young. She’s another guest performer, and does cabaret comedy. If you Google her without the hyphen, you’ll get a retired porn actress. The hyphen is quite crucial.’
FOUND This experimental pop outfit have been putting out records since 2006, after Ziggy, Tommy and Kev (pictured l–r) met at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen. They won a BAFTA round about this time last year for their slightly fame-obsessed emotional-musical- wardrobe project, Cybraphon, and have album number three scheduled for release next spring. They’ll be playing new songs here, and showing what happens when you blend ‘the wiry, electronic strains of Kraftwerk, the strident pop of Nirvana and the glitchy, schizoid sounds of Warp Records.’ ■ FOUND and Milk, Electric Circus, 08444 999 990, Sat 6 Aug, 7pm, £6. Part of The Edge Festival.
54 THE LIST 5–12 Aug 2010