This enchanting and atmospheric film by Matty Ross aka Sleepysoul is the perfect introduction to Debutant, the solo project of Edinburgh musician Philip Quirie, also a member of Meursault.

p.s. apologies to Kate Bush who I didn’t get any decent footage of but she was fantastic.

p.p.s. The night before was the Song, By Toad Christmas Party which was also a superb night, with excellent performances by The Savings & Loan, Jesus H. Foxx, Yusuf Azak, Inspector Tapehead, Rob St. John & an incredible headline set by Meursault topping off an amazing year for them and the label. Unfortunately the Burgh Bootlegs cameraman was a little worse for wear so didn’t have much usable footage! Read The Scotsman’s 5 star review

The sound on this is surprisingly good for a cameraphone but the visuals aren’t because I didn’t have a great view of the stage and my filming was a pretty half-arsed attempt. Think of it as ambient video..

Still, hopefully it gives you an idea of what a cracking night Gerry Loves Records put on at the Banshee Labyrinth in Edinburgh on Friday, despite some last minute line-up changes due to the weather.

Apologies also the audience members who are in shot. Due to the fact this was filmed entirely without permission and without any attempt at professionalism I’m calling it the Burgh Bootlegs #1. Like most of the new series I start on this blog, who knows if there actually will be a #2..

I thoroughly recommend you pop over to the Gerry Loves Records website to get hold of their latest release which is superb – it features the excellent song Tomlinson’s Rant by Wounded Knee that features in the video (which is about the death of Ian Tomlinson), and great tracks by the Japanese War Effort, Miaoux Miaoux and Fox Gut Daata.

Those who played on Friday were:

Neil Pennycook of Meursault | Yahweh | Debutant | Fox Gut Daata | Wounded Knee

Ok this takes shambolic to new disastrous proportions in terms of the excuse for links I recorded, but it has to be said the music is damn good. I didn’t have time to either edit or re-record it so my only hope is that the fuck-ups will amuse you. After all shambolic is pretty much internationally recognised as my middle name by now.

Playlist: (buy links included for Scottish bands, no time to do them all!)

1. Chilly Gonzales & Boys Noize – Never Stop

2. Gil Scott Heron – NY is killing me

3. New Ruin – Meursault (buy from www.songbytoadrecords.com)

4. The Wave Pictures – I Thought of You Again

5. Jacob Yates & The Pearly Gate Lock Pickers – You Left Me (buy from  www.luckynumbernine.co.uk)

6. The Bundles – Pirates Declare War

7. Swimmer One – You Have Fallen Way Short of Our Expectations (buy from swimmerone.co.uk from 31st May)

8. Meursault – One Day All of This’ll Be Fields

The stunning picture above of a tiny Neil Pennycook of Meursault onstage at the Roxy Art House is by Dylan Matthews, who has a bunch of other excellent photos from the gig (and numerous other gigs) over at Blueback Hotrod. I’m pretty sure he gave me permission to use his photos on the night, however this was what I have already referred to as the legendary ‘Day 4′ and so I don’t have very concrete memories of that point in the evening (but I’m sure he won’t mind). Also, Neil is not tiny in real life, merely in relation to the surroundings in this picture (see obvious choice of Father Ted clip if this distinction is still not clear).

The Roxy Art House is the upstairs part of the building used up until this month for the Edinburgh Bowery. It’s a great place, though at times the vastness of the venue meant there was a distance between the performers and audience that you don’t usually get at Edinburgh gigs as most of them are in tiny venues.

The gig, which was put together by Ten Tracks, was still excellent though due to the fine line-up, with Panda Su impressing us with her melodic lullabies (though asking the audience if they knew the alphabet didn’t seem to go down terribly well even though I’m sure she was joking!), Neil filling the venue with his formidable voice despite this being a rare solo Meursault appearance, and Found‘s last gig of the year was as danceably daft and entertaining as usual, even closing with a uncharacteristically punky cover of Devo’s Mongoloid (see the original below). The only question I have is, why wasn’t everyone up dancing to Let Fidelity Break? 

Read the first part, by Lauren Mayberry at The Skinny’s website

With the early shift at an end, Milo McLaughlin picked up the baton of alt-folk and home-brewed ales.

Rob St John brings the first phase of the day to a sublime close with his rich, stately vocals and impressive guitar work, for what was, alas, his last gig in Edinburgh for a while. He’s ably assisted by his usual band including Emily Scott on double bass. In fact there’s no doubt that the Do It Together ethos laid out by Withered Hand in the suitably lo-fi Retreat programme is in full evidence today as everyone here is doing it for the love, with musicians helping each other out at every opportunity and friends providing assistance with sound desk duties and the merch stall.

After a break for grub, the families with young children dissipate and the boozier late-starters arrive to sample the Forest Cafe’s unusual own brand brew. Rob St John is there again, playing harmonium on the sidelines, as My Tiny Robots demonstrate their ukelele-driven pop jangle. The sight of a few twitching thighs and hovering ankles suggests that if there had been room to dance, a few would have broke out some Ian Curtis style dance moves.

Enfant Bastard puts an end to any thoughts of the day settling into comfortable complacency though. Uncompromising as ever, he apparently decided on waking that day not to showcase his new gameboy/chip music direction and instead we’re treated to a rare full-band run through of some of his classic anti-folk back catalogue, with a reformed and brilliantly under-rehearsed Love Gestures. The set finishes with the surreal Michael Jackson which crashes uncertainly to a halt with a viciously unhinged and overloud guitar solo.

The scene is set for a couple of noisy appearances by both Come in Tokyo and Pineapple Chunks, and despite both creating a powerful racket, they seem to be lacking the killer tunes needed to ensure they stood out in such a strong line-up.

Meursault, however, once again prove themselves worthy of the growing hype surrounding them. Incorporating new album tracks, some laptop mangling courtesy of their Artfag side band, a shortened version of their beast of a track from the Playing with the Past project and the banjo-tastic lead song from latest EP Nothing Broke, their willingness to constantly develop their sound in public ensures there is no apathy from the audience, many of whom have seen them a good many times.

Speaking of beasts, events close with a coruscating performance from Auld Reekie’s answer to Slipknot, The Leg, with their freaky horrorshow masks. They’re a refreshingly raucous bunch even without sometime collaborator Paul Vickers, and a now notorious vomiting-in-mask incident proves to be the reward for the diehards who stay right to the end of a long and satisfying day – further proof that Edinburgh’s music scene is growing ever more potent.

For The Skinny  

I’m delighted to say that Playing with the Past is back in Edinburgh for a second night on August 22nd. This combination of film and live music was my highlight of this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (ok I only saw one other film, what of it?) bringing together three of my favourite Edinburgh bands eagleowl, Meursault and Found, to provide original soundtracks to some bloody ancient, but fascinating pieces of footage.

The picture above is from the film Granton Trawler, for which eagelowl provided a lovely instrumental sea-shanty, complete with a brilliant replication of a creaking boat, which Bart somehow created merely by twisting his guitar strap (via an effects pedal). Living in the vicinity of Granton Harbour, it was great to see this genuine slice of life from over 70 years ago, and although the fisherman’s life looked very tough indeed, it’s hard not to romanticise their seafaring ways just a little bit when you’re stuck on the number 8 bus due to endless roadworks. Notice I didn’t mention the word ‘salty’ once. The ‘owl also provided a fast and furious accompaniment to a strange little animated film from Canada called Begone Dull Care which let us see the other, less laid back side of the band.

Meursault were up next, for Stan and Ollie, a bizarre piece of newsreel about Laurel and Hardy’s visit to Edinburgh, back in the day when there were those old-fashioned trams.. (cough). Their accompaniment to this piece was quite subtle, with their main contribution to the event an epic twenty minute piece de resistance to the 1936 short Night Mail, about the postal train from England to Scotland.

This was a bit of a blast from the past as I was shown this film as part of my degree many moons ago. Like Granton Trawler it made by the GPO film unit, which was a pioneer of British documentary, if I remember rightly.

I’ve included a very brief extract from the Meursault track below, to give you a sneak preview if you weren’t there, and am hoping that the band won’t mind (if they do though, it will be removed sharpish..) Cheers to Chris Bathgate for his recording expertise.

Finally it was Found (who I’ve seen live so often recently they must think I’m stalking them). They had a particularly tricky piece called Camera Makes Whoopee, which included montages of various instruments, making it difficult for them to deviate from the footage, but the band cleverly brought in samples and beats to match what was on screen.

What I enjoyed about this was the creative, and different approach taken by each band, and the genuine enthusiasm of the crowd. I’d like to see some contemporary local film-makers teaming up with the city’s musical talent more often, but I can see that it would take a lot of work to come up with something like this completely from scratch.

Anyway, it’s great that there’s another night in the offing making this an almost unique, two-night only event that you’ll not want to miss the second time around.

  Meursault – Night Mail (extract from Playing with the Past live performance)

Playing with the Past is on at the Filmhouse, Edinburgh on August 22nd: more info here.

Yes I have finally experienced the Fence Homegame in Anstruther and it was well worth the wait. The above video diary shows a few of the bands we saw, a lot of which have already featured on the podcasts. I only had very limited space on my wee digital camera so didn’t manage to capture everything, e.g.Viking Moses leading us in a mass singalong of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Lover Lover Lover’, Pictish Trail doing a lovely cover of Hot Chip’s Boy From School, James Yorkston doing a great live version of ‘Woozy with Cider’ and numerous other perfect moments.

In fact, because so much was going on simultaneously in different venues, we totally missed loads of special events like the Three Craws (the hall was full by the time we got there), Ichi who many said was their highlight, any other secret shows that I didn’t have a ticket for like James Yorkston doing Daniel Johnston covers.. the list goes on. I have to say I would be gutted to miss those things if I didn’t have such an amazing time at the things I did go to. 

I can see now that Fence is all about the Homegame experience, and the rest of the year I will be just biding time for the next one – it has to be the friendliest, most laid back festival I’ve been to. But it looks likely that next year’s event will be a smaller one, so good luck getting tickets if you fancy going…