Venue: WEE RED BAR
Promoter: -
Line-up:
PANDACETAMOL - Ambient soundscapery from a man with some boxes with knobs, on a table.
IDIOGRAM https://youtu.be/Rev3LXBuxvA https://www.facebook.com/idiogram.band
PANDACETAMOL https://youtu.be/YKbo2J3-fSY https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063110205032
Venue: OPIUM, EDINBURGH
Promoter: RED CRUST PROMOTIONS
Line up:
WOLF SERMON. Local death/doom 4-piece. Are they still active? I have no idea.
HAAR. More locals. Progressive black metal, usually shrouded in dense fog. But not this time,
NAISIAN. Yorkshire post-metally sludge. Sadly inactive at this time, I believe. Maybe permanently. Who knows?
OK, there's a few weeks until the next gig, so I'll probably have a root around in the bins and knock the dust off some old stuff. And there's plenty of it. There may also be some more ill-informed and opinionated ramblings about festivals and smoke machines and why bands only ever play in Glasgow.Stuff like that.
Venue: LEGENDS, Edinburgh
Promoter: RED CRUST PROMOTIONS
Line-up:
1. SOL NOCTIS. Don't like to be negative, but the less said about them the better. Horrible.
2. OPHANIM. Local blackened doom duo, very young, formerly instrumental, now with vocals. Vocals are a noticeable step forward. Going in the right direction.
3. MORAG TONG. London based, 'sledgehammer psychedelia', slow burning stoner/doom, singing drummer. Excellent stuff. Would see again.
OPHANIM https://youtu.be/ANYtx6aKLjw https://www.facebook.com/OphanimBand
MORAG TONG https://youtu.be/urhLwXYQgsk https://www.facebook.com/moragtongband
All that new stuff is pish. It all sounds the same. Music peaked in (select decade of choice) and it's all gone downhill since then.
Fuck.
Off.
I'm nearly 64 years old. Should I live out the rest of my life listening to Iron Maiden and dribbling onto my battle jacket? Should I be 'that old guy' yelling at clouds and telling folks that those new bands ain't fit to wipe Ozzy's arse?
Well, no. Obviously. Some people - LOTS of people,actually - seem perfectly happy listening to the same thing forever, and that's fine for them, but it's my idea of Hell. We (I) need new bands. New bands doing new stuff, or old stuff in a new way. Sometimes it'll work, sometimes it won't, but nothing's ever going to happen if nobody tries.
So. One of our little venues here in Edinburgh - The Banshee Labyrinth- is trying out new things.Once a month they are putting on 'new talent' nights which, as you might expect, give new bands a chance to show off what they've got, and give us a chance to find our 'new favourite band'.
This month they gave us MEDUNOM, AS ABOVE and CULT OF SOBEK, as wildly disparate a trio as you'd be likely to find anywhere.
MEDUNOM may sound like a black metal band and, indeed, they have a very black metal band logo, but they are very, very much NOT black metal. A duo - one dread-locked fellow with an acoustic guitar and a lady singer in a bright red basque - they play an unexpected choice of covers and a handful of originals all done in a folk/blues style. Imagine LINKIN PARK done by ALISON KRAUSS, if you can. They're a bit nervous and need to work on their banter, but that girl's voice could punch the tracks off a T-72 tank. Clearly, their roots are in metal - covers include IRON MAIDEN, THUNDER and MOTORHEAD - but credit to them for daring to do it different.
AS ABOVE don't do anything new, but they do their grunge/alt-rock/post-punk thing with some verve. They're a lot of fun, and sometimes that's all you need.
There you go. Three new bands, trying to keep 'the scene' fresh. Maybe they'll succeed, maybe they won't, but they never will if they're not given a chance. After all, it's not as if music is a finite space. We don't have to wait for somebody to drop out before there's a space for a new band.
Go see a band you've never heard of. What's the worst that can happen? You might be surprised.You might be bored. You might be excited. You might be lucky enough to be the first to see the next Big Thing. Or the next Ed Sheerin but, y'know, you can't win 'em all.
MEDUNOM https://youtu.be/hOE9wfX5S24
AS ABOVE https://youtu.be/qvljcr9xhBg
CULT OF SOBEK https://youtu.be/tqxU-oL0vJQ
OK, straight to the point. I generally dislike outdoor festivals.
I have been to a number of them in the past and, with one significant exception, found them to be uncomfortable, dull, and better avoided.
There are several reasons for my antipathy to the concept, not least the fact that I live in the UK, a country not noted for reliable Summer weather. It ALWAYS rains at UK festivals*. I find that slogging about a field ankle deep in mud and piss and shit detracts from the enjoyment of the music. And it's cold and it's windy. It's horrible.
(*At least, all the ones I have attended.)
Now, that's a personal thing. I'm at this notional festival to see the bands and hear the music. I'm probably there on my own. I KNOW that very many people immensely enjoy flopping around in mudslides, but I don't. I want to see the bands. I KNOW that very many people will be treating this festival as a social event, to go with or to meet friends and have parties around the camp fire, but I won't. I want to be left in peace to enjoy, if such a thing is possible, the music. I DON'T want to get so drunk I can't remember my own name. I DON'T want to try that pill, thanks very much. I DON'T want to go home with trench foot and food poisoning. I DON'T want to shit on a communal bog and feel other peoples' turds bobbing against my arse. Yes, I've been there.
'You're just a boring old fart', you say, and you're probably right. I'm NOT a party person. I don't want to have 'fun' at a festival. I want to lose myself in the music and forget how shit the world is for a while and I can't do that if I'm wet and filthy and need a piss so bad it hurts but it's too hard to get to the portaloo two miles away across the site and there's a huge queue anyway.
And camping. How awful is camping? It's uncomfortable, you have no privacy, and there's a good chance that your tent will be robbed, or set on fire, or thrown into the nearby river. If it doesn't get washed away in the floods.
Now, as with all rules, there was one notable exception. Which is, ultimately, the main reason I'm writing this piece.
I was, back in 2019, supremely fortunate to be invited to accompany the very wonderful HER NAME IS CALLA to the DUNK! Festival in Belgium. I'm not going to write at length about the festival itself - you can, if you want, read all about it on the ECHOES AND DUST website - but I have to explain the differences between that and every other outdoor fest I've been to*
(* Yes, I know only half of it was outdoors, but that's where I spent most of my time, so I say it counts.)
DUNK! 2019 was glorious. The weather was sublime throughout my stay there, calm and warm. The audience was respectful and appreciative. The natural forest setting was magnificent, the ground sloping gently up away from the stage, Everybody had a view. The sound was excellent, and wasn't being blown to oblivion by random blasts of icy wind.
I was allowed to be as isolated and asocial as I wanted. I could have an 'emotional moment' and nobody would care.
I saw some bands that I thought I'd never get to see, SHY, LOW from the States; ZHAO ZE from China playing their BIRDS CONTENDING album in full; GIFTS FROM ENOLA in the big tent. BOSSK played. And, obviously, Her Name is Calla. AND I GOT TO SLEEP IN A PROPER BED!
DUNK 19 was, and will probably forever be, my favourite ever festival experience. Taking absolutely nothing away from the likes of STRANGEFORMS, DAMNATION and the RED CRUST fests, I don't expect to be that lucky ever again.
HER NAME IS CALLA https://youtu.be/HuMPnByT4qg
ZHAO ZE https://youtu.be/MsjNzlAc6wc
SHY, LOW https://youtu.be/nw-OcC_aMBc
Gigs in the past. I was there, or I wasn't. Simple.
But sometimes, it seems, my memories can't be trusted. Maybe I WASN'T there, after all? Maybe I only THOUGHT I'd been there. Or perhaps I WAS there, but don't quite believe it.
Ah, you say, that's just because you're really old and you're losing your grip on history.
Well, no.
I have, for example, been NEARLY convinced for years - decades, in fact - that I saw PARADISE LOST playing the QUEEN'S HALL in Edinburgh,sometime back in the 80s.This despite having NO EVIDENCE of the fact. No ticket stub. No photographs. No record, even, that they actually played that venue around that time. I have no idea why I remember a gig which may never have happened
Again, I was convinced for years that I'd seen SIMPLE MINDS playing at the first LOCH LOMOND ROCK FESTIVAL. 1979 I think it was. I had, I was certain, been queueing to get in when they played, first band on the first day. There is NO evidence that they were ever there. They weren't on the bill. Nobody else has ever mentioned them. I HAVE to believe that this is an entirely false memory. Once again, I have no idea where that memory came from.
But it's NOT an age thing. Yes, I am very old, but I have been telling people about that gig for the best part of 40 years. I haven't been old for that long.
Conversely now, THE CURE. I like The Cure, always have. I would have paid attention if they played. However, they DID play at the READING FESTIVAL,back in 79 or 80, in the middle of the bill, but I have ABSOLUTELY NO MEMORY of seeing them. They definitely were there, because there are mentions of their set out there in Internetland, but they simply do not exist in my head. File deleted. And before you jump in with the obvious reasons, I DID NOT drink or take ANY mind altering drugs during the entirety of the festival. I just didn't. A cup of oxtail soup at the Salvation Army booth, maybe, but I doubt they slipped anything untoward into my food.
Other bands from the 2 old Reading Fests I went to I remember very well. An Australian folk band called THE COBBERS, who were excellent. ROOT BOY SLIM AND THE SEX CHANGE BAND, who were dreadful. SLADE (who were brilliant), THE POLICE, PETER GABRIEL, MOTORHEAD, BUDGIE, all that. Even the atrocious SCORPIONS,whom I wish I COULD forget. They're all there.
But The Cure? Nothing. And that annoys me.
So. That's why I decided,a while ago,to make a record of all of the gigs I go to, including all of the old ones I've got evidence for. Inevitably, since the total number is somewhere up near 1000, there will be a lot that I've forgotten, but that's just REGULAR forgettery. I'm not infallible.
Sadly, back in the old days, camera/recording bans were much stricter, and enforced, so photos are few and far between, and obviously video cameras didn't exist, so I can't smugly show you that time that PHILCOLLINS joined Peter Gabriel on stage at Reading, or when BUZZCOCKS played in the rain at Loch Lomond, or when my future wife sat on the stage as IRON MAIDEN played at TIFFANY'S night club in Edinburgh(1980 that was. £2.00 a ticket). But I'm trying to make up for it now.
There was, you may remember, a disease that swept the world.not so long ago. Lots of bad things happened. People died. One of the more minor inconveniences resulting from this plague was a lengthy hiatus in the gig scene. Nobody was allowed out for many months.
The last show before the plague struck very nearly didn't happen. They thought about cancelling, but such gatherings hadn't been banned yet and things went ahead.Whether or not that was wise will forever remain uncertain. Did we spread the virus? Did we cause unnecessary harm? We will never know.
Anyway, it seems somewhat appropriate that the gig scene ground to a halt on this particularly bleak note. This is Newcastle's drone kings, BONG, in the WEE RED BAR, March 13 2020.
And here's an audio recording of their full set, accompanied by some gloomy photographs.
It was to be a year and a half before things opened up again. Slowly. And very cautiously. Strict rules still applied at gigs. Audiences had to remain seated, unless visiting the bogs. Drinks were only available via table service. Volume was restricted, as were audience numbers. It was all very strange. Eventually, and inevitably, all rules were relaxed and things could get back to normal, but OHHMS played at IVORY BLACKS in Glasgow in August 2021, during the last days of the restrictions. It was very odd, but also such a relief to have gigs back.
Keep watching,dear reader, for more digging about in the archives, and more exciting new things!
Coming up later this week, NEW stuff from crocodilian doom trio CULT OF SOBEK and doom/psych Londoners MORAG TONG. Also, in a couple o' months, this year's very exciting STRANGEFORMS fest from that there Leeds, featuring a veritable feast of noisy goodness.
So. TheFudlip - nay, The LEGENDARY Fudlip - plans to write a blog. Whatever that is.
Actually, he has no idea what he is doing. Which is standard.
THE BACKGROUND.
Who is TheFudlip?
TheFudlip goes to gigs, takes terrible pics and makes videos. Some people like them, some don't.
TheFudlip prefers to remain anonymous, but a lot of people know who he is. He doesn't like being photographed because, to be honest, he's pretty damned ugly. This is all you need.
TheFudlip NEVER explains his name.
TheFudlip has a cat. This cat.
THE PLAN.
It seemed to TheFudlip that it might be interesting - to himself, if not to anybody else - to make a record of these gigs, pics and videos, and to make that record available for posterity. An archive, if you will. To post stuff about new gigs and old gigs. Evidence exists of shows dating back to 2010(ish) in places from Perth* in the north to Plymouth in the south, and one memorable trip to Belgium.
(* That's Perth in Scotland, by the way, not Australia.)
Most of the gigs are/were/will be in Edinburgh, but TheFudlip has a fondness for Leeds and will be back there soon.
The gigs recorded span very many genres - post-rock, post-metal, doom, black metal, psych, folk, noise, indie, math, death metal, drone, prog, pop, etc. Even some country. Not country & western though, or jazz, because there are limits to everything.
THE SORT OF THING YOU MIGHT EXPECT.
Last night, TheFudlip went to see veteran Greek stoners NIGHTSTALKER in Legends, brought to us by the very excellent Duncan Mountain at Red Crust Promotions. Support was provided by 'Scotland's hardest band' ROBOT DEATH MONKEY and holders of the 'Worst Band Name Pun' award, THE KRYSS TALMETH EXPERIENCE.
Nightstalker's singer clearly has too many arms and is quite, um... old.
NIGHTSTALKER https://youtu.be/2cE8VTCr8cM
ROBOT DEATH MONKEY https://youtu.be/rIAoIp3tFMg
THE KRYSS TALMETH EXPERIENCE https://youtu.be/Uuq494NDGZg
And one day, TheFudlip might learn how to add a video properly, and not just a YouTube link.
So endeth THE FIRST POST. TheFudlip will be back soon, if he can remember how to log in to this thing.
Another RED CRUST death metal evening in Edinburgh LINE-UP: TRILL : New local trio, doing some kind of blackened stoner-death thing. Random...
